Duping the Duchess!

Well, her makeup anyways.

(Please forgive me if I sneak one more post in before my trip :) ).

Last night the Duchess of Cambridge (who we all know I love) attended some swanky to-do in London. Besides drooling over her ridiculously beautiful Jenny Packham dress and LK Bennett shoes, I thought she wore simple but very flattering makeup.

(all images are from the Daily Mail)

What I loved most about her look is that it wasn't very complicated at all. She kept everything neutral and no one feature stood out from the others; the eyes, cheeks, and lips were all in harmony. It's normally considered a bit of a risk to wear such understated makeup to a red carpet event, because the whole point of the red carpet is to be oogled and stick out. But Kate is famous for always looking natural, and one should never mess with what looks best on them, a rule she seems to have embraced. She looks amazing, and I knew it would be so easy to copy this look with only a handful of products:

• Two eyeshadows
• Eyeliner
• Mascara
• Blush
• Lipgloss

The eyes are very simple: it's nothing more than a mauve-pink eyeshadow blended up above the crease, where it's blended with a frosty baby pink highlighter immediately beneath the brows. There are obviously lots of different shadows you could use to recreate this look, but I thought of five shadows right off the bat that perfectly match the warm, plummy undertones tones of Kate's look.

L to R: MAC Satin Taupe, MAC Haux, MAC Shale, Revlon CS Sterling Rose (the frosty pink shade), and L'Oreal Lavender Smokes shadow #2.

I decided to use the L'Oreal's Lavender Smokes quad (specifically shadow #2), a beautiful but very subtle mauve shadow. I chose it because it's a warm pinky-purple that looks amazing on green eyes (something I have in common with the duchess, and a feature I love to play up as much as I can). This shadow looks like suede once applied to the lid. It's a very soft, matte color, which is in line with Kate's makeup in that there is hardly any shimmer on the lid. Keepin' it simple, people.

I blended the mauve shadow out with my Sephora Professionnel rounded crease brush, bringing it right up to my brow bone. Because I have hooded eyes, I like to bring the color up as high as possible, because color tends to disappear when my eyes are open. Then I blended the frosted pink shadow from the Revlon CS Sterling Rose quad beneath my brown bone and into the inner corners of my eyes (pro-tip: this makes the eye look more open and awake).

I know Kate loves her eyeliner, and so do I, so of course I gave myself a healthy outline on the top and bottom lashes using Revlon's CS black liner before applying two coats of L'Oreal Voluminous Mascara in Carbon Black.

The goods:

For my cheeks I just applied a warm peachy pink blush from the E.L.F. bronzer and blush duo, and for my lips I used a Victoria's Secret brilliant shine lipgloss called "Mischief."

And this was the finished look:

Simple, flattering, and best of all, it only took five minutes from start to finish. I'm sure Kate's makeup took a bit longer than that, but five minutes works for me!

Do you ever admire someone else's makeup?

Kate Middleton DIY(!) Royal Wedding Makeup

I know I've mentioned my admiration for Kate Middleton before, but the more I hear about her, the more I like her. As an American, I don't really understand the hype behind the royal family. Frankly, they're stiff, boring, and generally very unattractive - to turn a phrase, they aren't my cup of tea. But the new Duchess of Cambridge is a bit more interesting, especially because unlike so many other members of the royal family, she's seemingly very down to earth and isn't afraid to get her hands dirty.

Case in point: Ms. Thing did her own wedding makeup. She's about to become a princess, one of the richest women on the planet, and she decides, 'Hell with it, I'm doin' it myself!'

As someone who also chose to do her own bridal makeup, I seriously respect that, because that shit can be nerve-wracking. And I only had to sit through pictures, not an entire televised event!

(I look so dour here, but I assure you, I was very, very EXCITED that day! :) )

See? EXCITED!

But enough about me: let's get back to Ms. Middleton, er, I mean Duchess Catherine.

The rumor mill is abuzz with all the little details about why Kate did her own makeup: she's practical, she's cost-efficient (which is a very good thing to be when the taxpayers are paying for your wedding), she hates looking "too done up", she wanted to look like herself. All valid reasons. However, if you're about to become the most famous bride on the planet, you'd better well do your homework and know a thing or two about professional makeup (because HD powder alone isn't going to cut it when billions of people are watching you on T.V.).

Image source 

And Kate definitely did her homework. She reportedly took private lessons with Arabella Preston, a world-renouned English MUA who specializes in "natural wedding makeup." By the time her wedding came around, Kate herself probably qualified as a professional.

When it comes to wedding makeup, I think it's a common for many brides to try something new because they think they're supposed to look a certain way on their wedding day. Unfortunately, this can result in makeup that isn't true to the bride's self. The best advice I got on my wedding day was to be sure I looked and felt like myself: keep it routine. I didn't want to look back at my wedding pictures in twenty years and wonder why in the hell I was wearing blue eyeshadow or red lips! So I stuck to my normal makeup routine, just applied with a slightly heavier hand so that it would stand out in photographs. I felt fabulous, and most importantly, my husband recognized me once he finally saw me.

I think Kate understood that exact idea loud and clear. She is known her for understated, simplistic makeup, and it seemed that she didn't want to stray too far from her norm. Nothing she applied to her face looked out of place. She just played up her everyday face. She defined her best features a little more prominently and ended up looking like a million bucks (which is funny, because she's worth a hell of a lot more).

Image from Reuters

For those of you wondering what products she's reported to have used, look no further than Google and Bobbi Brown. Kate was spotted at the BB counter in Harvey Nichols buying a boat load of products a few days before the wedding. A few days after the wedding, Bobbi Brown confirmed their association with the royal wedding party and even released a face chart detailing which products you yourself can use to look like Kate Middleton.

How to look like a princess 101:

 Image source

So off with you if you're in a rush to emulate this look. Chances are good that these products will probably be in short supply for the next few weeks, seeing as everything Kate Middleton touches seemingly turns to gold. All hail the Kate Middleton Effect.

I leave you with this, because, well, it's pretty much true:

Image source: Lols here