PYT Beauty Reviews, Swatches and Pictures on Makeup and Beauty Blog

smokey eyes sparkly lashlines — Back in my happy place!

Can I get a whoop-whoop from all my kindred spirits out there? — the makeup lovers who love rubbing freshly washed air-dried brushes ever-so-gently across their face, and love the fresh scent of those baby soft bristles? (Side note: If this describes you, I bet you also like sticking your face in clean laundry when it comes out of the dryer, too!)

The reason you’re staring at this bevy of brushes is because I built a big-@ss pile of dirty brushes I’d been needing to wash since — gulp! — before Thanksgiving. Weeks ago, I tucked them away in a corner of my office and kinda forgot.

WHOOPS!

Well, I washed them yesterday because the bakery has been closed this week. Apparently, no one comes in this time of year because many people are still on their New Year’s diets, but folks start to fall off the wagon toward the end of January.

So…I finally had time to wash this big-@ss pile of brushes, and I also had time to do the makeup love of my life: SMOKEY EYES.

A few things…

I always forget what a difference clean tapered blending brushes can make. Just in case you don’t know what I’m talking about, this is what they look like:

tapered blending brush clean — It’s handy to have a few around.

Whenever I’m doing smokey looks, clean tapered blending brushes are very, very handy… At the very least, I like to keep two or three on deck. Having bristles that don’t have any eyeshadow on them is key because the clean brush hairs pick up/remove excess eyeshadow while also softening any hard edges, so everything looks that much smoother and more seamless.

Another thing? You’ll want to use the lightest touch while blending, and avoid pressing so hard that the bristles splay out (this just presses the powder into your pores, which makes it harder to sheer out your shadow). All you want is the very tip to lightly touch your lid.

smokey eyes tapered blending light touch — Please don’t smash your brush head into your crease.

smokey eyes sparkly lashlines unblended blneded — You know those pics of yourself online where you look crazy? YUP.

Last, but not least, always keep a clean tapered brush around for a last blending pass at the end. After you’ve done everything — base, blush, lips, the whole schebang — lightly blend your eyeshadow one last time, both on top of the lids and along the edges of the shadow to finalize the shape of your eye makeup.

It makes all the difference!

Makeup worn in this look

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pyt beauty no bs eyeshadow palette 1 — WINGS!

I haven’t been sleeping through the night lately, and by “lately” I mean for the past two weeks, which was approximately when Tabs started his new workout regimen where he does wind sprints up and down the stairs beginning at the witching hour, and Connor started having dreams that wake her up in the middle of the night. (Last night she woke up saying, “Mama, NO! Those are my bubbles. MY BUBBLES!”)

The routine has gone something like this: After I’ve comforted all of the little animals, I crawl back into bed and lie there for an hour or two with my gumbo stew of thoughts.

Among last night’s ponderings…

Is it possible to make a gluten-free roux for a white sauce?
If all of your teeth were pointy, could you still eat Popsicles?
When was the last time I wore winged liner?

I have a pretty good memory for makeup-related tidbits, like what lip liner I wore with Clinique Black Honey circa 1994 (it was Wet ‘n’ Wild 666, which is still around!), so to NOT remember when I wore winged liner last is a minor tragedy in my book, which is why I busted them out today with a mix of products, old and new…

PYT No BS Eyeshadow Palette ($28)

Ooh, can’t say enough about this cool-toned palette with its eight neutral powder eyeshadows. Whether you’ve taken a two-year hiatus from serious blending (LIKE ME), or you’ve just started experimenting with making windshield wiper motions, these buttery powders will make your crease work look like you can blend in your sleep. The shadows combine the fineness of NARS eyeshadows with the softness and smoothness of Dior, and they feel much higher end than $28 to me.

pyt beauty no bs eyeshadow palette swatches — I’m an NC42 in MAC for reference.

For my wings today, first I lined my upper lash line with a black pencil liner to sketch out the wings, and then I dipped an angled brush into the matte dark brown and layered directly on top to set the pencil and soften the color just a touch.