Orange lips really bring out the blues in your eyes!

So I've been reading a lot of articles about trendy orange shades for Spring '11, particularly as an odd but interesting color for lips. Now, I don't have a stitch of orange anywhere in my wardrobe so I was hesitant to try it at first, but after the initial uncertainty I was totally convinced. Because the lip color is so dramatic and vibrant, it's important to keep the rest of the face really muted and natural looking. You don't want to look like an haute couture clown, especially if you want to wear this look during the day.

This is a great look to wear if:

You don't have a lot of time to get ready
You have blue eyes, or rich dark skin
You want to jazz up a LBD, or plain daytime look
You love colorful, noticeable lips

Holly Go-Brightly!

After I did the lips and makeup, I wanted to experiment with a hair tutorial that I saw on MakeupGeek. I pulled my hair into a high, slicked back pony separated the tail into about six pieces and then teased the everloving shit out of it. After that was good and tangled I wrapped the hair around the elastic (counter-clockwise) pinned it and fluffed it out.

Seeing as I'm super challenged at doing my hair, I appreciated how easy this particular tutorial was and how simple the styling was. It took almost no time at all and when I was done I was really happy with the result. Not only that, but I felt a very Hepburny with my big messy chignon. So I thought what the hell, grabbed a little black dress from my closet, some fake pearls and had a photoshoot on my porch!

Both of these trends are SUPER easy to do, I highly recommend trying them out. Til' next time.

Meredith Jessica

Today is a blah day. The weather is just grey and awful and I didn't get any sleep last night. Yet rather than sit around in a grumpy mood, I've decided to try and brighten my day (and hopefully yours too) by posting one of my old, but favorite looks that I did this past year. I collaborated on this shoot with a friend of mine Pat Murphy, who is another talented Guelph based photographer who is just the right kind of crazy-enough to indulge my desire to try something a little unconventional. I set about priming my face and eyes as usual, but rather than apply my typical shadow based eye-product, I wanted to experiment with the idea of literally painting your face. I tell people all the time that putting on makeup is like painting on a canvas, except you're using makeup instead of paint. However, the practice of literally painting on your face is a whole other story and presented some unique application challenges. That being said, all challenges aside, we got an incredible shot of the final product. Check it out:

The whole look, right down to the eyeliner was done with paintbrushes and acrylic paints. You can't get the same kinds of blending on your skin with actual paint so we experimented with blending by spritzing the eye makeup with water for this really pretty effect. Definitely worth the skin stains I had for the next few days. It's always fun to try something totally unorthodox and I'm hoping that Pat and I can work together on another equally creative shoot sometime soon. Please check out his Tumblr account if you're so inclined at Kid In The Backrow. He's an awesome guy, very talented, definitely have a look. That's all for me. Have a good one.

Meredith Jessica

In celebration of my very first follower, the exceedingly talented photographer and personal friend, Hayley Mullen of Pin Up Memo , I'm posting pictures from the first shoot that we collaborated on. These are from a set entitled "Junkyard Princess". It was my first time in front of a camera modeling so I was intensely nervous but once I got the general hang of it we had a lot of fun playing around in the after-hours construction site. Unfortunately as this was not a beauty shoot I don't have any close up pictures of the makeup look, but if anyone is curious I did a light baby blue lid with a smokey navy crease, minimal blush, and an icy pink lipstick. All the products were from my CS88 Palettes and the lipcolor was an old Maybelline lipstick I found at the bottom of my makeup bag. Take a look:

   

I can honestly say I felt like Cinderella in that amazing vintage party dress. You can see the full set at Hayley's Flickr account which I highly recommend you check out, she takes beautiful pictures. Looking back on these shots is making me feel like I really need to do a full set of Disney Princess inspired looks. Anyways, until then!

Meredith Jessica

Channeling my inner "Mere'ilyn Monroe.

Welcome to Pigments & Palettes, a blog about all things colorful and creative. That's me! I'm Meredith Jessica. Creator and sole author of this blog. I'm a 23 year old Canadian / British / American crossbreed with a love for makeup and an addiction to the internet so here the two passions shall meet. This blog will features makeup, beauty, hair, fashion, and all things flamboyant and fabulous with the occassional tutorial and giveaway!

Love, Meredith Jessica