Gilded Makeup - Because Black And Gold Is The Best Colour Combination

Today I'm showcasing a look I did a little while ago which I'm choosing to call 'Gilded Coal Makeup'. It was inspired by me buying Illamasqua's Liquid Metal Palette, which is gorgeous, if not a little impractical as cream shadows always crease for me. In the palette is a beautiful, bright, true gold - as in, not too yellow toned.

Black and gold is one of my favourite colour combinations, so I figured I'd pair the two in a look. This could be a kind of District 12, Katniss Everdeen Ceremony look, if the Hunger Games is still relevant. Otherwise, I thought it looked dope.

I started by priming my lids with Too Faced Shadow Insurance, of course, this kind of look needs a good primer. I then used Urban Decay's Perversion Eye Pencil all over my lids, blending out the edges with a slightly denser, fluffy brush - my favourite is Real Techniques Base Shadow Brush. Using the same brush I set this base with a black eyeshadow from Inglot, then blending the shadow out towards my temples, up to the start of my brows and to an extended point on my nose. I deepened the colour by keeping packing on the shadow as it takes a while to get black eyeshadow really dark on the skin.

Now comes the fun bit. I took the gold shade - Electrum - from the Liquid Metal Palette and applied it as winged eyeliner, both on the lid and under the lower lashes with a fine, angled brush. I connected the two in and extended inner corner and created a double wing at the outer corner. I then set this with Barry M's Dazzle Dust in 10 (a gold). I sharpened the lines using a black liquid liner. I then applied Electrum on the outer two thirds of my brows, brushing the hairs upwards. I again set this with the Gold Dazzle Dust, also brushing it on my brow bone.

Next, I curled my lashes very thoroughly as I was not going to be using proper mascara. I started by applying a white lash primer, I then topped this with Electrum, applying it with a spooley. I then set this all with the Gold Dazzle Dust. I made sure to do this to both sides of my lashes and had to do it a couple of times to get the full effect.

For my skin, I primed with Benefit's Porefessional, used Mac's Studio Fix Powder Foundation, Nars' blush in Outlaw, Benefit's Hoola to contour and Topshop's Glow and Sleek's Subsolar from the Solstice Palette to highlight.

For my lips I started by lining them with Perversion Eye Pencil, I then used MUA's Luxe Velvet Lip Lacquer in Potent all over the lips. Then I applied Electrum in the centre of the lips, setting it and blending it out with the Gold Dazzle Dust.

I then decided to spruce the look up a bit, because I was a little dissatisfied. I started by applying proper mascara on my lashes (after all that work), which immediately changed the look. I then used Inglot's Eyeshadow in 50 to soften all the edges of the black eyeshadow.

I finished by applying the red eyeshadow to my cheeks to tie the look all together.

I actually quite liked this look by the end of it. I have no idea if this could be themed for a costume, but hey, it was fun to do and looks pretty damn cool.