Smokey Eye Tests and Face Chart

The colours that I have in mind for my UD smokey eye are quite metallic and really pretty, so I really want them to pop. To so this, I am planning to apply the shadows over a cream pigment, to bring out the colour and give everything a lot more impact. The different between doing this, and using a primer is that a coloured base can often help pigment come out a lot more than a primer, which is mainly for staying power. 

Below are the swathes of the cream pigments that I will be testing to see what gives the most impact when shadow is applied over the top. The products range from ELF Cream Shadow sticks (bottom) to supra colour (middle) to Illamasqua liquid Metal (top) I wanted to try a range of colours and finishes to see what brings out the metallic finish of the eyeshadow I will be using the best.

I applied the shadow over each cream pigment and they all looked different. The metallic creams didn't work very well (which surprised me because I assumed they would work well with the metallic of the shadow) because the shadow didn't take well to the metallic texture and you could see the pigment underneath (see last two swatches)

Red and white supra colour worked quite well and allowed the shadow to look vibrant. But I really needed to see how the colours worked together when blended. This is because I want the shadow to flare around the eye, and so I will need to so a lot of blending. I need to test how the products reacted to this to ensure there was seamless blending and no disturbance of the underlying cream product.

I took a large blending brush and blended out and smudged all of the swatches to see how they reacted. I was only really looking at the red and white supra colour because they worked best with the pigment. However when smudged, the red came through stronger than I wanted it too and the white was picking up a lot of the dark pigment and taking the shine out of the eyeshadow. The green ELF cream eyeshadow however (see bottom swatch) stayed in place and blended nicely without losing any of the eyeshadow's natural pigment. Therefore I plan to use this for my final look

I'm really happy with the tests that I did because it really showed how different products react with each other and I think I've enabled myself to make my smokey eye what I really want it to be. Below is another test I did on my own eye. I added liquid metals in bronze and gold to the centre for extra dimension. I really like how it turned out but I think in my final image I will flare it out some more to make it more extreme.

My final face and hair chart is below. I have paired the eyes that I have tested out with a natural, glossy lip (as UD usually show strong lips or eyes, not both in the same photo) And big, shaped brows because this is typical of the UD brow.

For hair, I will use heated medium rollers to create gentle waves and then I will create a plaited crossover band with the models hair. I will accessorise the hair with a gunmetal, thorned tiara that I have. UD is ALL about gunmetal and the thorns give it a slightly darker edge which I think will capture the "beauty with an edge" mantra perfectly and contrast well with the girly hairstyle.