All the time? Sometimes? Hardly ever? Or are you so stuck in your ways that you can’t even remember the last time you tried something different?
I, my friend, fall into that last group. It’s actually been a long time…
Well, before those crazy rainbow eyes from the other day.
Like, a looooong time…
I realized this while scrolling through my Instagram feed the other night (Do you ever do that just to see what you were doing this time last year? Anyways!). I thought, “Hey! I used to try different stuff all the time!”
I want to get back into the habit of doing that, because I really haven’t for the past 10 months. Most of my looks have been some variation of neutral eyes with a little liner, so it’s time to start breaking comfort zone barriers down!
How about you? With your makeup, how often do you bust a move and try something completely new?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. Happy Caturday. 🙂
I veered out of the friendly confines of my comfort zone today! Like you, I typically wear some variation of a neutral eye…browns, bronzes, creams, etc. Today I took a left turn and used the lavender, plum and purple tones from the new Kat Von D palette. I’m really happy with how it turned out and of course I’m saying to myself, “why didn’t I try this sooner?”
Hey, Karen! Love the rainbow eyes!
I think I try new stuff pretty often, and sneak outside my comfort zone from time to time, but I’m not sure how often I actually break out of it (and wear the look outside). I have developed a way of using eyeshadow on my small, round eyes with the hooded, wrinkly, beyond-crepey, crinkly lids, that hide behind glasses, and I usually stick to what I think works on my lids, although occasionally I’ll do more of a traditional smoky look instead. But that tends to look dark on me, and looks like a bit much for daytime with my favored bright or deep lip colors. But I did wear that look out shopping last week, when I tried my new Sweet Nutcracker Smoky Eyes kit 🙂
The most adventurous makeup thing that I do most often is put on dark blue, grey, or purple lipstick (think NYX Stone Fox or Foul Mouth, MAC Halsey or Blue Beat or Leap of Delight, NARS Train Bleu, Ardency Inn Black is Blue, Urban Decay Heroine) and go food shopping. This tends to get me compliments from: women over 70 and under 25, and young gay men. It tends to get me strange looks from a few (presumably straight) men of any age other than very young, and from a few middle-aged women.
Oddly, nude lips are outside my comfort zone. I think this is probably because ‘nude’ lip colors are almost always warm-toned and usually have some peach in them, and they just make me look sick, dead, or worse. If I want to wear a nude lip look, I’m better off with Tom Ford Stavros, or Egon, which most people probably don’t think of as nude lip colors, or OCC’s Sebastian pencil topped with Laura Mercier lipstick in Milky Way. So I guess I have experimented, if I know that!
I like to experiment with layering lip colors, actually. The above-mentioned Urban Decay Heroine looks great with a bit of their Bobby Dazzle mixed in to the center of the lips, for example…
I wear bright, shiny, sparkly, or metallic eyeshadows most days, and I think that combined with my wrinkly, crinkly lids would be outside most peoples’ comfort zones. But I’ve found that, often, what we’ve been told to do or not do often doesn’t work out in real life. I think when your lids are just starting to get a bit crepe-y, you can maybe play that down with matte shadows; but nothing’s going to hide the crinkles at the stage I’m at — it’s either embrace it or save up for surgery — and the matte shadows actually just make my lids look really dry and dull, they don’t hide anything at all. If I want to downplay the crinkly-ness, satin-y shadows actually work better. If I hadn’t experimented, I’d just have given up on eyeshadow, if all I did was struggle to try to make the prescribed matte shadows work.
I’ve been experimenting with using more, and shinier, highlighters, but bit by bit. If I was really adventurous I’d do a science-fiction-inspired eerie glow. But I’m not there yet.
I really should experiment with false lashes… at least the little ‘individual’ lashes.
And I’m always in search of coral and plum lipsticks that actually look good on me.
And, in case you haven’t noticed, you’ve been experimenting with a lot of new things these past few months, even if maybe fewer of them than usual have involved makeup — cut yourself a break!
Not very often, and I’m okay with that. My comfort zone is where I feel… comfortable, hence confident. If I wear something a little too “out there” out of the house, I may feel very self-conscious and that has a tendency to ruin a good time.
I think my comfort zone is pretty wide anyway, there isn’t much I’m afraid of on the eyes, except wearing a different look on each eye, lol! For lips and cheeks I like things either subdued or very classic, I don’t think I could wear a blue or green out of the house.
I’m 100% with you here. I don’t have the confidence to wear bold make up and if I’m self conscious in a social situation where I feel like everyone is staring at my make up I just want to run home and hide my face in a half gallon of ice cream and turn on Net Flix. I’m totally okay with being a neutral kinda my face but better gal. Which leads me to ask myself why do I own so much blue eyeshadow???
I usually take a baby step! Like real bright liner or lips or a color shadow I normally don’t wear like red-brown.
I recently tried rainbow eyeliner to prep for a Halloween costume, so that was a little outside my comfort zone. I also am doing eyeshadow lessons with a friend who’s a great makeup artist tomorrow, so I’m excited to do that and then blow some Ulta points on some new products (I found stinkbugs in one of my vanity drawers, so I’m throwing a lot of things away).
I don’t usually veer too far outside my comfort zone. I did try burgundy lips too a few months ago, and wore them again because I liked them. I think I just need a higher quality liquid lippie if the Anastasia colors I want ever come back into stock.
Quite often. The blog challenges me to do so 🙂
I break out of my comfort zone about once a month, when I do an “Inspired by…” makeup. Some of the adverts are really, really over the top.
Usually when I wear a more colorful outfit.
Oddly enough, I’m more likely to wear bright eyeliner with a lip oil (Yes To Miracle Oil is my new bae) or bold lips (purple, pink or berry) with black eyeliner rather than do smokey nude eyes or neutrals. My current obsession is the Chrome Tattoo liquid eyeshadows by Maybelline; I use them as eyeliners for a bold metallic look & they last forever on my oily lids. Forever. I cannot emphasize forever enough! I have the khaki, emerald, and purple shades all of which enhance the green in my eyes. You could use an eyeliner brush for a more subtle look but the doe foot applicator works just fine for me.
I rarely venture out of my makeup comfort zone. I think it’s because I’m often out of my comfort zone in other areas of my life. I also have this urge to do major downsizing lately, so as I’m eliminating extra products I find I’m only keeping the most versatile things.
Hmm… probably not that often with regards to color. I’m very much a warm-makeup devotee. Sometimes I’ll try doing a cool-toned look, but I find that it makes me look ill (I’m quite pale with dark hair). I am very open to trying new techniques with colors I know I like, and I love to experiment with texture. I’m hoping to try eye gloss soon! How trendy!
The only thing I’ve been doing lately is really making an effort to do liquid/winged liner. I just want to finally get it. I’ve always hated it on me, but I’m finally starting to enjoy it once I’ve figured out the right style and product. See, just keep trying until it works!
Karen, I meant to respond sooner than today. I have to admit that as I have gotten much older, I rarely move out of my comfort zone with makeup, or other things for that matter. I have always gone with a more classic style overall and pretty much stick to it. For me, going out of my comfort zone would be a shimmery highlight either on my face or sparkle on the eye. I might wear leggings in a different shade than black, but for the most part, I stick to the basics. Makeup has certainly gotten more fun in the last 25 years, and if I was younger and more adventurous, I would take advantage of it all. My life so different now. I am not in the corporate world in the big city. I live in suburbia and have the kind of job that if I wear a bright silk blouse, my boss asks me if I am going somewhere special. I do enjoy following the various blogs like yours, just to live vicariously, and I thank you for that! Be well.