Pick a Bunch of Pretty Pastels and Welcome Spring With a Sweet New Look
By BeautyLass
Spring colors are just about ready to start popping up everywhere, and this year enjoy these dainty, gorgeous colors on your eyes, lips, cheeks and nails with soft pastel makeup.
Eyes. Bring a bright, youthful gleam to your eyes with soft pastel shadows in shades such as dewy peach, soft mint, buttercup or petal white. The key to this look is to keep the eye looking fresh and saturated with a wash of color rather than looking weighed down or heavy (as with a smoky eye), so start by dusting a light shade over the entire eye lid from lash line to brow bone. Then add some personalization with mint green, soft pink or even eggshell blue. Apply to the eye lid and blend out softly just to the crease. Follow with navy, royal purple or coffee eyeliner and a few coats of your favorite mascara and you are ready to hit the cherry blossoms.
Try:
Sephora’s Pastel Pop Eyeshadow Palette. Featuring eight shadows, four matte and four shimmery, this complete kit offers every
pastel shade a spring girl could want – purples, blues, pinks and greens for endless look combinations.- Coastal Scents’ Go Palette Nuuk. Inspired by the lights of the Aurora Borealis shining down over Nuuk, the capital city of Greenland, this ultra-affordable (only $8.95) palette of 12 bright pastel shades is the perfect complement to all skin tones.
Lips. Maybe one of the easier ways to bring a pastel palette to life, there is an abundance of gorgeous pastel lip glosses, lipsticks and lip stains in shades perfect for everyone. For a super sheer look, simply wear your favorite sheer pink or peach lip gloss on nude lips, and for a bit more drama, layer a pastel lipstick underneath the gloss. In addition to giving you an added punch of color, the lipstick will help anchor your gloss for longer wear.
Try:
ck one Lip Gloss in Quirky. Soft, shimmery pink in a multi-dimensional color and high-shine formula with an ergonomically designed handle applicator to feel as good going on as it looks.- Revlon ColorBurst Lipgloss in Sunset Peach – perfect pale peach for the ultimate pastel-nude lip.
Cheeks. You want to look for an ultra-natural and super soft blush option that will leave skin looking as radiant as a freshly-picked flower and lit from within. For paler complexions, consider a cotton-candy pink while deeper skin tones will glow with icy lilacs. And for all skin tones, dust a satiny-soft luminizing powder over your blush for a flushed, healthy and vibrant radiance. As with all blush shades, pastel can also look overdone, so build your color slowly to avoid a kewpie doll look.
Try:
Bobbi Brown ‘Lilac Rose Collection’ Blush in Pastel Pink. Need I say anything else? It’s Bobbi Brown, it’s pastel pink, and she’s the godmother of all things natural, beautiful and perfect. Go buy it. You won’t regret it.- Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blush in Orchid Hush is the perfect lilac essence in a dreamy mousse texture.
- Sephora’s Pastel Pop Air Fresh Face Luminizing Powder is lighter than air and a perfect complement to all skin tones.
Nails. Getting serious about a delightfully pretty pastel manicure just got easier with this season’s profusion of flower-colored pastel polishes. For a sweet new take on the ombre trend, polish each nail with a different shade of pastel color, either in the same family or alternating shades. Unlike primary colors or jewel tones, the softness of the pastel colors allows for more shade gradations without running the risk of looking garish, or worse – overdone.
Try:
The New Black’s Cream Puff Light Confections 5-Piece Set. Five chip-resistant, long-wearing, vegan-friendly nail polishes (made right here in the U.S.!) that are free of toluene, formaldehyde, camphor and DBP in gorgeous pastel shades including yellow, peach, mauve, pink and mint green. .- Orly’s Cool Romance Collection. An all-grown-up pastel nail polish collection in shades like “Steel My Heart” and “Jealous Much?”.
A final thought on your pretty pastel look – pick one area of your face that you wish to accent with pastel makeup colors and stick to it. Like any other targeted makeup look, the key here is to maximize the trend in one area and let that area be the focus, versus covering the entire face in pastel hues.
BeautyLass is a local writer who has been working in the beauty industry for 20 years. She tries and uses dozens of products, some even spill out from under her bed, yet is always on the lookout for more.
