Hi everyone, I’m MizzJ from JustJ.ca, a Vancouver based beauty and lifestyle blog! I’m really happy to guest post today for Chelle for this month’s CBB guest post theme, which is pastels. I love doing makeup look posts, so of course I had to attempt doing one for Chelle, who is renowned for her eyeshadow prowess! Since Chelle is such a pro, I knew I needed to up my makeup game, so I decided to do a look inspired by one of my favourite spring flowers: sakura.

I’m very fortunate in that my street is lined with cherry blossom trees and right now, it’s literally snowing outside with pink petals! So romantic right? To create this look, I also took inspiration from a few Asian beauty trends, namely dewy skin, under-eye or “Momoko” blush, and gradient lips. These trends are all designed to give the wearer that fresh-faced, innocent look and is perfect for capturing that pretty, glowy spring feeling.

For my pastel/sakura inspired look, I decided to capture the pinks and greens of the cherry blossom tree. The focus here is the eyes, but also on a bright pop of color on the cheeks. After two failed attempts, here is the final look!

And now, here is how you can recreate this at home…

Face

The key here is to create a flawless, radiant base. I started off by using a moisturizing primer, like the Moisturizing Foundation Primer N from Paul & Joe; this primer contains a hint of shimmer and provides a smooth base for makeup. Next, I applied a full coverage foundation to smooth out any bumps and cover any discolouration. TheBeyond Perfecting foundation + concealer from Clinique is perfect for this purpose and photographs beautifully. Instead of setting this with powder, I wanted to keep the dewy thing going by instead dusting my face generously with the Hourglass Ambient powder in Dim Light.

The last two items I used here for my face was blush and highlighter, which I applied after I did my eyes in case there was fallout that I need to clean away. For the blush, I really wanted a rosy-pink color that emulated flushed cheeks and the Guerlain Meteorites Perles les Blush Angelic Radiance fit the bill. To create this youthful, Japanese blush look, generously sweep the blush right under the outer-half of your eye, sweeping it up and around to your temples and always keeping it at the top or above your cheekbones. Lastly, sweep a shimmery highlighter along the tops of your cheekbones to provide light and to eliminate any blush that may have crept downwards.

Eyes

Next is the funnest part of doing makeup – the eyes! First, I applied Revlon’s Photoready Eye Art Lid + Line + Lash in Fuchsia Flash all over my lid; it’s a frosty cream shadow that doubles as a great base. Then, I took the golden shimmer shade Trick from my Urban Decay Naked 3 palette and applied it from lash line to just above the crease. Next, I needed to apply my green accent, so using my fingers, I liberally applied the middle shade from the Bourjois Trio d’Ombres A Paupieres trio in Les Verts to the outer-half of my eyes. I’ve always loved how Temptalia lines the bottom rim of her eyes in a contrasting colour, so I decided to do that here, with a bright purple liner from Almay. I then went over that liner with a lilac glitter shadow from the Jill Stuart Eternal Platinum trio palette. Lastly, I topped off my peepers with two coats of black mascara.

Lips

Last, but not least, were the lips. To create a gradient lip, blank out your lips with concealer; I just used the leftover bits of foundation on my buffing brush to do this. Then, very carefully, dab on a strawberry coloured lipstick to the centre of your top and bottom lip. I’d recommend using a lipstick brush for this as it’s pretty tricky to keep the color just to the center otherwise. Finally, top lips with clear gloss, again using a lip brush and working from the outside in, so as not to smudge your colour. This was my first attempt at creating a gradient lip and I found it pretty tricky, but the overall effect is so pretty, I’m definitely trying this again.

I hope you enjoyed this look! Have you tried any of these Asian makeup trends before? If so, I’d love your tips and don’t forget to visit me as well on my blog!

Chelle’s Aside:

Isn’t MizzJ’s eyeshadow application beautiful? I love how it just whispers spring to me. However, one of the most standout parts of this look has to be the undereye blush. I *love* how this looks on her! It’s so different to how I apply my own blush – I really want to give this technique a shot. It may not come out nearly as lovely on me, but hey, at least I’ll be trying something new, right?

Totally agree about the contrasting colour on the lower lash line as well. I’ve seen more and more people doing it lately and I feel it adds depth to any look.

Thanks so much for putting together such a beautiful look for my blog today!