Valentine’s Day doesn’t seem to cause a whole load of genuine joy these days. I don’t mind the idea of flowers or sweet gifts, but I do mind the idea of crazy and expensive standards being set for poor students to attempt to pull off for the person they like. A lot of new collections have been released with a Valentine’s theme, involving candy coloured lip products and the inescapable heart shaped eye shadow pots. Maybe this is your thing, or maybe it isn’t, we’re free to be as into or out of February love as we please. However, purely for the sake of breaking some new ground and keeping sane amid the confetti, I decided to look at putting together a refreshingly different make-up look for people who are feeling a bit suffocated by St. Valentine and his holiday.
Dutch make-up artist and YouTuber NikkieTutorials has created a dark, grunge-glam inspired makeup tutorial which she called ‘Anti-Valentine’s Day Make-Up’, which I thought was a great alternative to most the February tutorials popping up on our newsfeeds. Princess makeup in all its shimmery pink glory is very sweet and romantic, but Nikkie and I are feeling more of an edgier style this month, regardless of relationship status. If you’re bored of the cute date makeup ideas and red lips out in force this month, take a look at our dark materials.
Nikkie went for a full on vampy look, with a deep plum lipstick set off by ochre-orange winged eyes, lined dark and smudged with rich red-brown shades. I loved her look, and although it may see a little intimidating, I think that’s part of its part of its dark charm.
FLAMING EYES
Nikkie layered like the pro that she is, using a mixture of bright orange and intense peachy shimmer shades. This might sound strange, but it looks incredible on any eye colour and is much more wearable than you would think thanks to the warmth and neutrality of its undertones. I raved about how great Anastacia’s Modern Renaissance Palette is and how much I loved the intense burgundy and orange shades last issue, and I can’t lie, it would be perfect for this look. But given that we aren’t made of money, I had a look on the high street and found some surprisingly affordable dupes. Nikkie layered lighter orange shades into her crease and blended them out into wings, before packing a more intense orange shade onto the lid. She topped this with a dark reddish rose gold colour that smudged under the eyelid and along the lash line.
Superdrug’s stock of the Makeup Revolution My Sign eye base palettes were a great find for recreating her choices. These palettes were a bit of a novelty as the brand has created one for each star sign (a bargain at a mere £5 each)! I found that using shades from the Aries and Libra palettes produced almost the same colours as Nikkie’s look: Aries has brilliant orange and mink colours, while Libra has some great deep rose colours. Blending these out into soft wings is a great base, while the orange in Aries can be layered and packed onto the lid for the intense firey look we’re going for. Topshop makeup is now something I need to give a lot of credit to, because I found their Chameleon Glow eye pots are something wicked and beautiful at the same time. ‘Wax + Wane’ at £9.50 is a metallic masterpiece – sweeping this shade over the orange creates an incredible reddish burned ochre look, just like Nikkie’s. Finishing the look with smudgings of Topshop’s Kohl Pencil with black mascara makes for an almost intimidatingly sexy anti-Valentine’s eye look.
LIT LIPS
Dark lips will make St. Valentine think twice about how cute next Tuesday really is. A beautiful deep purple shade looks fantastic next to our fiery eyes here, and although everyone tells us not to do a strong lip and eye at the same time, I’m afraid we don’t have time for those kinds of limitations here at the Anti-Valentine’s beauty counter. Nikkie went for a liquid lipstick here, and I agree that this is the easiest way to get a neat lined lip and an intense colour with staying power. NYX at Boots have some very affordable choices, their Matte Lip Cream in Transylvania is a lovely red-plum colour, and their Liquid Suede range has some impressive deep purple shades for those feeling braver.
Aside from liquid lipstick, a non-threatening but stunning dark shade is Revlon’s Black Cherry, also sold at Boots. It’s affordable and a rich shade which I have actually seen worn on a lot of different complexions. Finally, if you’re looking for some dramatic lip inspiration, I would recommend checking out Maisie Williams’ recent purple lip look, worn against her wonderful porcelain skin to the recent SAG awards. Otherwise, check out Nikkie’s look, you can find her on YouTube and on her website at NikkieTutorials.com!
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