If you ever read my pigpen post, you can see I have a small collection of mineral makeup and loose pigments. When I gaze into my pigpen, my brain starts calculating what colors will create a certain color. In this case it is a taupe to be used as an eyeshadow base.
I bought a couple of mineral foundations in varying degrees of depth and tone. The darkest one turned out to be one called Brown Sugar which isn't dark at all. The original color turns out to be a cocoa but not really that red. The journey of this Brown Sugar is to turn into a slightly ashy brown or a dark taupe.
What I like about this mineral foundation is the texture, it never feels dry and it reflects off the skin beautifully. The face never looks flattened out or white. This is the main reason why I wanted to create a dark taupe eyeshadow base.
In the picture above, I have all the colors I need: Brown Sugar mineral foundation, Cooper Brown, and Soft Black. Equipment needed is a clean area, mixing bowl, spoons, mixing stick, pen (writing down the recipe) and some other stuff which you will see along the way.
When I mix colors, I usually start with what I feel and then go towards the color theory stuff. Here, I felt two big scoops of the foundation would be enough. I went for several small scoops of the soft black, and some of the Cooper Brown.
I mixed it by cutting into it several times. Now, I know how Walter White felt! Looking at it, then swatching it, the color didn't look right so I tweaked it again.
I tweaked it a few more times and mixed it in the bowl (which I didn't show). After what I felt was right, this is what I ended up with.
You can see the difference from what I started out with in the Brown Sugar foundation and what it ended up to be which is a darker brown. The swatches show (1) the foundation, (2) my attempt to perfection, and (3) taupe nirvana! The last color has that perfect color of brown yet it has a slight ash to it which will contour the valleys (bone structure) of the eye area.
Here, I pressed it into a pan which really turns out quite different in color from its loose version.
It doesn't have that "pan appeal" which cosmetic brands try to sell you on when you see a color under the department store lights. What it does have is a great texture and the perfect taupe color to work on skin tones form porcelain to medium dark. I am happy with it. I just wish I had 10 more pans of this color!
