The worst thing you can do to me is leave me with a bag of pigments. I realized this the past few days. I didn't know how obsessed I had become when it came to mixing makeup. I just thought, make my Lazy Ass colors and that would be it!
Then, I thought I could do better. I could make some other colors, and I did. But, a few more thoughts popped into my head which I will get into later.
I mentioned matte pigments require major mixing or manual labor. They have to be crushed and smoothed into the mix.
To incorporate manually, it doesn't take much effort especially when the pigment is very fine like the gold one above. If you have ever made drugs, OKAY I AM KIDDING! I never had some Walter White meth lab or anything! Basically though, I have become the Wilma White of makeup! Without smashing the mica, I just incorporate by cutting and spreading. Using my eyes to judge the finish, the result is not only a well incorporated mix, but a smooth one as you see above.
Then there are the ones which become pure frustration. I just couldn't get the color I had envisioned the first time around, so I added a dark color to see where it would go.
Yeah, I know, it looks like a dog went on a soft peach carpet! I decided to use a cool tone mix to cut the warmth of the fair peach base.
I continued then found the color really bland. I decided to add some gold to the bland base.
This is what I got which turned out to be a very nude beige with some coolness and warmth. Not bad!
What I Learned Through the Agony of Pigment Mixing
Premixed colors are great when starting out but after some playing around, boredom. Pure boredom! I would rather buy the individual matte pigments and mix to my heart's content. As I mixed these pigments, I also wanted to add some moisture or oil to them but then I would have to add a preservative and such to prohibit fungus growth or discover a new strain of penicillin! I would also want to tweak the base of the eyeshadows with something like clays and waxes or oils to allow them to sit on my eyes better without some eyeshadow primer.
Another occurrence when one starts mixing colors is the scrutiny of the ingredients listing of the major brands. It doesn't take much to create a $45 eyeshadow but then again you aren't buying the powder, you are buying the image, packaging, and PR. Nothing wrong with it.
The colors don't have pan appeal. They look ugly and awful under department store lights which means they will work on my skin! I find many of the colors catering to the masses can be a bit warm or just too much the same. I am not saying the colors I created for myself are original, but they do suit my skin tone better than any major store bought line.
One other important product needed when mixing, the color wheel!
No matter how much you think you know, there will come a time when you will second guess yourself or your brain is so cluttered you just forget how colors work! A color wheel will be one of your best mixing friends!
And, here is a sneak peek of some of the colors I mixed with just using the premixed foundation blends from DIY Cosmetics. The nude beige is on the far left.
There you have it, my adventures or my misadventures in mixing pigments the old fashioned manual way! Yeah, my arm is pretty tired and my hand looks like that of the Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters, but that is the price of custom made beauty!
Olivia
*Yeah, I bought these! You know it!*
