Over-Blending and the Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess The Nudes Eyeshadow Palette

Over-blending…

The struggle is real!

I’m so not kidding either. If someone hands me a fluffy brush like the MAC 217, I will swipe, buff and swirl until the cows come home.

With some eye looks, it works in my favor, like for blown-out super blended smokey eyes with subtle gradients where all of the shadows smoothly transition into each other.

In looks like that, you almost can’t blend enough, ya know?

But then there are those other times… Those times when over-blending isn’t so cool, and while you think you’re doin’ your thang, and blending those subtle transitions between the colors, the eyeshadows all merge together into a muddy mess.

It happens a lot sometimes with certain palettes and eyeshadows.

It happened to me recently with Estee Lauder’s Bronze Goddess the Nudes Eyeshadow Palette, a $60 limited edition summer palette available now with the Bronze Goddess collection at Estee Lauder counters.

Bedecked in tortoiseshell attire, it houses five nude matte eyeshadows in bone, beige, tan, brown and dark brown; and three metallics in white gold, bronze and plum.

First things first — these shades all being together in the same palette makes total sense to me, but figuring out the best way to work with the palette does not.

That’s because the nude mattes are all pretty close together in terms of color. There isn’t a ton of variation among the shades (lots o’ brown), and they’re kind of semi-sheer, so, like, when I pop them on my lids and start moving my brush around, they merge together into a blend of brown.

Same thing with the metallics… They appear quite dark in swatches but apply semi-sheer on the lids.

And, they also blend together a little too freely.

It’s not a big deal if I’m just going to be wearing one or two of these colors, but anything more than that can look muddy.

When I’m working with products I tend to over-blend, I like to trade out the big fluffy domed and tapered blending brushes I usually like to use for thinner, more precise domed brushes — any kind brush with a smaller pointy brush head works great.

These days I’m diggin’ the NARS #44 Precision Contour Brush ($28) and Sigma Beauty E34 Domed Utility Eye Brush ($12).

After applying the shadow on my lid with a flat eyeshadow brush, I take that pointed crease or pencil brush, and place it at the edge of the shadow. Then I start blending in tight, small circles.

Because the smaller brush heads cover less area, they limit how far and wide you can push the shadows around on your lids, making it easier to be more precise with them.

I just have to remember to go slowly…lest I STILL over-blend.

If you’ve ever had trubs over-blending your eyeshadows, give this trick a try. 🙂

It’s you-oooo-oooh!

Do you have Cafe de Flore in your Netflix queue yet?

Well, if ya don’t, do it! — so we can talk about the soundtrack (and other stuff, too).

One of the main songs in the movie is the one by Sigur Ros called Svefn-g-englar.

I have no idea what they’re saying, and it’s kind of long and rambling at nearly 10 minutes, but I freaking LOVE THIS SONG!

There’s something so lush and ethereal about it… When I listen to it, my heart swells with love.

Aww, so cheesy!

But totally true. 🙂

It’s you-oooh

Alright, friend. Onward to the hump!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen