Make Up Tutorial: Glam-Femme Inspired by Kylie Jenner and Ariana Grande

While trying to keep up with what all the hip young people are doing and liking (let's face it, we're not the target audience anymore), I've noticed a trend in the look of today's pretty young things. A trend that is pleasing to my aesthetics, and inspires me to tweak my own beauty routine. I call it glam-femme. Necessary components:

- flawlessly contoured

- preferably tan skin

- perfectly shaped brows

- long lashes

- classically elegant eye make up (think cat eyeliner or a soft smokey eye)

- lips lined just outside the natural lip line, finished with a luscious taupe-mauve-beige-nude (depending on your colouring) matte lipstick (I got my eye on Mac Velvet Teddy)

I love this trend especially because it's a look that keeps coming back into style. Remember Brigitte Bardot, Audrey Hepburn, Cindy Crawford: every decade has beauty icons rocking the glam-femme look.

Brigitte Bardot, Audrey Hepburn, Cindy Crawford - pictures via google

Perfect contemporary examples of this trend are singer/actress Ariana Grande and reality star Kylie Jenner (youngest of the Kardashian clan).

Ariana Grande and Kylie Jenner - pictures via google

Now, tell me you can look at these girls and not be like "DAMN I wish I had a live-in make up artist". In the case of Kylie Jenner, her perfect lips are undoubtedly surgically enhanced (make up can do a lot, but not TRIPLE the fullness of your upper lip), but that doesn't mean we can't take a page from her book.

I created my own version of the glam-femme look on a whim and decided to put together a step by step tutorial. This make up look is perfect for any sort of dressed up occasion so I bet you'll find some use for it.

What I used:

1: Lancôme Teint Miracle foundation

2: Sleek Face Form contouring kit

3: Catrice lipliner Lost in the Rosewood

4: Hema full eyeshadow brush

5: The Body Shop contouring/blush brush

6: Hema flat eyeshadow brush (used for eyebrows)

7: Essence black matte eyeshadow

8: Catrice Prime and Fine eyeshadow primer

9: angled eyeliner brush

10: Maybelline Volum Express mascara

11: (not pictured) Hema Eyebrow pencil in dark brown
12: (not pictured, I did a crappy job) Hema liquid eyeliner

And these two mauve-ish shades from my E.L.F. 100 colours eyeshadow kit.

First step: foundation! I love the Lancôme Teint Miracle foundation because it provides amazing coverage, and natural skin-like finish.

Huge difference, right? This particular shade is a tad too warm for my own complexion, but a friend gave it to me and as long as I blend it down my jawline, the colour does work.

Second stap: add eyebrows. I do this in two stages. First, I use a pencil to draw clear lines along the edges of my eyebrows. This step is necessary for a clean shape. Secondly, I use my flat eyeshadow brush to blend the pigment towards the middle of my eyebrows.

Next step: on the left, you see my face with just foundation and brows, on the right I added contouring, blush and highlighter. For an in depth tutorial on contouring, check out this post.

Now, time for the eyes. I used the lightest shade (a purple leaning beige) on my entire moving eyelid, and the darker mauve in the crease. Then I used my angled brush to draw on a black line following my lashes. I've noticed that using eyeshadow or pencil underneath my eyeliner helps me get a neater result. Finally, I drew on a cat eye with eyeliner and used mascara.

Are you still with me? We're almost there! Last step: perfect lips. Using nude lip liner to draw JUST outside the natural edges of your lips gives roughly the same effect as very subtle collagen injections but not as permanent, much cheaper and totally painless. WIN WIN.

Just compare picture number 1 and picture number three to see what a huge difference a little liner makes.

And voila! 

Va-va-voom! Obviously I took some more pictures, because: good face day.

Not too bad, right? This has been my go-to look over the past week, but I usually skip the eyeliner and swap it for smudged pencil since it takes a lot of time to get just right.

Hope you like it, and let me know if you have any questions!