Today I’m sharing a formulation I have been working on for months—a Long-Wear Cream Eyeliner. It goes on like a dream, wears beautifully, and easily holds its own when compared to products like Bobbi Brown’s Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner and KVD’s Tattoo Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner. The formulation I’m sharing today has been in development since May, meaning I tested it through some of our hottest summer days to make sure it was worthy of being released 😄
It’s been almost five years since my first book, Make it Up: The Essential Guide to DIY Makeup and Skin Care, was released (!). I’m still really proud of it, but today I want to share an update to the eyeshadow formulation that I think is a pretty big upgrade. It’s part Bee-Bettering, part expansion. We’re making one small ingredient swap to the base and then updating the making process so you can make lots of different colours more easily (and in more reasonable batch sizes). I’ve also worked out exactly what you need to do to press the shadow so you can easily make yourself a beautiful pressed palette 😍 Let’s dive in!
I am so excited to share this formulation with you guys! Today we are making Sephora-quality long-wearing shimmer cream eyeshadow. You will need three specialty ingredients, but if you love cream eyeshadows, it is absolutely worth it. Just as I did in my book, Make it Up: The Essential Guide to DIY Makeup and Skin Care, we’ll be making a larger batch of base and you can then use that base to create every colour of cream eyeshadow you can imagine 😱 For a bit of a cost teaser—you can make 5g of cream eyeshadow (which is a lot—roughly 250 applications!) for about $1.50USD. Cream eyeshadows are regularly 10–30x that much, and now you can have ’em in every colour your heart desires for a fraction of the price!
Post last updated February 2023.
One of my only claims to some sort of familiar fame is a distant relation to J.M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan. Cool, eh? I remember telling this story to a classmate in elementary school, only to have him call me a liar and insist that there was no way that Walt Disney was in my family tree. Um… yeah. Anyhow, one of my favourite parts of the Peter Pan story is the addition of fairy dust to the story.
Speaking of things I wasn’t sure I’d ever crack—mascara. There’s a reason this is my first entry of my third year of blogging. I have been trying to figure out mascara for ages now. You wouldn’t believe the amounts of black goop I’ve tossed over the last few years. You see, mascara is tricky. Infuriatingly so.
First off, mascara must dry quickly—but not too quickly. Once on your lashes it must dry straight away, but on the brush or in the bottle, it must remain supple and apply-able. (more…)
I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to share this recipe with you. Eyeliner is one of those things I have tried (and failed to make) many, many times. I tried many times, and ended up tossing a lot of small dishes of darkly coloured muck down the sink. However, I believe I have finally come up with something with which I am happy. Awesome!
NOTE: Do not make this recipe, and instead use the assorted eyeliner recipes in my book. They are much better, require far fewer weird ingredients, can be made in a full rainbow of colours, and are safer as well since these clays are no longer recommended for use in eye cosmetics, though they were when I purchased them.
Make it Up: The Essential Guide to DIY Makeup and Skin Care is now available at booksellers all over the world!
