And with no further ado - my first post! A big HELLO to all of my new friends at Black Nail Polish & Lip Gloss! My name is Joey Healy and I am a NYC based editorial makeup artist and eyebrow specialist. Like most of you, I’ve been a smitten reader of BNP&LG since its bloggy birth in mid-2009. There is frankly no other site that explores the unconventional, eclectic ART of beauty like the one you are reading right now. A steaming hot shower, ginormous cup of coffee and pictures of Andrea’s nails always start my day off right! We all owe a big thank you to her for leading her very own dark, strange, black crusade in beauty! Bravo my darling.
Andrea has been such a doll in supporting my eyebrow shaping business and working with me to create a special BNP&LG promotion for all of you fabulous readers. From the minute we spoke on the phone, we instantly connected and it was a special honor when she asked me to contribute to the site! Total no brainer. For my first post, I would LOVE to start talking about my two favorite furry things on your face….guesses???.....EYEBROWS! (If two other furry things exist on your face other than your eyelashes, you might want to make some phone calls…..)
Before we can talk about how to expertly shape those suckers, we first need to address what to absolutely, unequivocally AVOID!!!!! For today’s post: TOP 10 EYEBROW MISTAKES. Let’s get counting:
1. Using a Magnifying Mirror When Plucking - A classic case of not being able “to see the forest for the trees”. By zooming so close, you will instantly fall under a deep tweezer trance resulting in overplucking! By getting too detail oriented, you will lose track of the big picture and your brows will ultimately pay the price. Pluck in good light close to your bathroom mirror and continue to step back and assess the overall shape from a short distance. It’s also extremely helpful to use a hand mirror to review the shape from both sides!
2. Aiming For Perfect Symmetry – Your brows are sisters, NOT TWINS! By striving to get them perfectly even, you will undoubtedly end up overplucking. First it becomes “Just a little on the left”, “No, now just two more on the right” and before you know it, there are heaps of innocent brow hairs all over the bathroom sink and you’re frantically digging through your makeup bag for brow pencils to undo this undoable brow crime!
3. Centering Your Arch – When the arch is perfectly centered in the eye, it gives you a Chinese boomerang / French circus clown effect. Not desirable. A downward tilted eye that looks puffy is the unfortunate result of this shape. My computer generated, graphic depiction of this shape is as follows: ^ ^ . That is literally how it will look on your face –triangles pointing toward the heavens. By moving your arch off center, away from the nose, the entire brow and eye area become elongated and far sexier.
4. Taking Off Too Much at the Tail – I know women who would kill to have more generous eyebrow tails. This end hair seems to magically disappear as one ages. Please people - love your tails, nurture your tails, WORK your tails. In almost every case, I shape above and underneath this area to bring it to a crisp point, cleaning up its shape without taking it in. The ONE AND ONLY brow “rule” I generally believe in is that the brow should end on the imaginary line from the corner of your nose to the corner of your eye.
5. Tweezing More Than One Hair at a Time – When cleaning up your brows in between professional shapings or when attempting to self groom, patience is a virtue! I know it could be tempting to speed up the tweezing process and clamp onto bushels at once, but it is so important to pluck one hair at a time (in the direction of hair growth, of course). Especially when it comes to arches and tails - taking just one wrong hair can spell eyebrow disaster. You must step into your role as an artist and judiciously remove only the necessary hairs with care.
6. Over Trimming – Don’t get me wrong, I love me some eyebrow trimming! However, like anything else in brow world, overdoing it can lead to unspeakable horrors. To be safe, use a disposable mascara wand to stroke the hair upward and carefully trim above the natural brow line. If your brow hair is very long or particularly coarse, go slow and constantly brush back into place to assess the shape before proceeding on. If you over trim, you may give yourself gaps in the brow. Sometimes it is the how longer brow hairs lie flat that gives the entire area shape, fullness and depth. Some people like to follow this initial trim by then brushing the hairs down and trimming the brows that fall under the natural brow line – this is overkill and could leave your brows balding little hot messes.
7. Over Thinning the Brow – Yes, yes, I know we preach individual beauty on this site and we encourage you to take your own unique path with your look HOWEVER I MUST CAUTION over thinning your eyebrows will affect your bone structure and facial definition. In my professional opinion fuller eyebrows are timelessly beautiful - it just so happens they are “on-trend” right now. A thin eyebrow will instantly age you, make the eyelids appear puffy and will give the eye an unflattering droop. Trust me on this one. Brows are my game.
8. Filling In the Brow With a Waxy Pencil – I find my brow shaping service to be unique due to the fact that I spend a good deal of time instructing women on how to fill in their eyebrows after I’ve tweezed and trimmed them to perfection. With shaping you can only take away hair, but when one embraces “the fill” you can really start to redesign those bad boys. I prefer using pencils that are hard (versus creamy) and gently fill in the area over several strokes. Also, using light taupe / ashy brown powder in conjunction with your chosen pencil gives the brow a naturally full look. Brushing through the brow several times at the end of a fill creates an even more effortless looking result. Definitely avoid overly creamy and/or waxy filling pencils which impart the dreaded “drawn in” look. Besides looking phony bologna, it calls way much attention to the brow and not enough to your overall beautiful face.
9. Taking Too Much Hair From the Top – Some will preach that you must NEVER tweeze the hair above the eyebrow, only beneath. This is bogus and can leave the brow shape looking unfinished. With that said, there is some merit to this rule when it comes to the amount of hair taken off. I personally like to get the peach fuzz above the brow and the hair in “no man’s land” – the area above the arch and tails that creeps toward your hairline. Generally, most of the shaping should come from underneath to lift the brow up. If too much hair is plucked from above, it instantly flattens the brow and can give you a scowling effect. Use your best judgment when working above the brow and be sure to keep it to a quick cleanup.
10. Following Rules for Brow Shaping – Yes, I realize I’m giving you what might seem like rules. However, upon closer inspection, these are really more of….um….tips? Basically what I’m trying to say is that there is no predetermined “formula” for the perfect eyebrow. Every single one of us has vastly different bone structures, eyelid spaces, and eyebrow hair growth patterns. It is important to take a close, objective look at your own brow and let it be your guide in terms of shaping. Following rules for where the brow should begin and where the arch should be placed could give you less than flattering results. As I mentioned before, the only rule I find is GENERALLY useful is ending your brow on the imaginary line from corner of nose to corner of eye.
Wow – that was a lot! Have you ever put so much thought into your eyebrows? Did anyone actually finish reading? If so, give yourself a pat on the back. You are on your way to some killer eyebrows! If you have any questions, suggestions, comments, threats, etc. please feel free to comment below! For additional information on my services and to view my makeup work, feel free to stop by my website at http://www.joeyhealy.com/. Can’t wait to continue sharing all of my pro tips, tricks and techniques with you wonderful beauty junkies! Till next time! xoxo
Blogger has the stupids
I cannot post pictures....
Blogger changed their picture uploader and not only is it slow, turns pictures wonky but it has serious emotional issues! I cannot load any pretty pictures!
I'm sorry for the no post!
As soon as I can load pretties I will post!
*smooches*
I want you to meet my friend Joey Healy The Brow Master!
Hello my beautiful friends!
I want to indtroduce you to my sweety Joey Healy.
I know that you all will adore him as much as I do!
Isn't he a hottie!
Joey is an amazing up and coming Makeup artist and a Master brow artist!
He is a licensed Makeup artists, Esthetician and he is a specialist in brow design.
Joey's work has graced major Runways, Ballet stages and International Fashion magazine covers.
So yeah he rocks pretty hard at what he does.
Joey is a freelance MUA and has a fantastic brow service.
Joey can completely redesign your brows, seriously.
Joey offer a very unique service, he's not only your new favorite MUA but he is your mobile brow master.
He travels all over New York city designing and grooming beautiful brows.
So you have an event on Thursday and no time to go to the salon to get your brows done.
Joey will come to the office on your lunch hour or your house or hotel where you are he will come and bring his magic with him.
Joey uses a combination of trimming and tweezing to sculpt the brows to correctly accentuate facial features and give the proper definition to one's bone structure.
You will get a consulation to determine exactly what you want and what can be achieved.
You can go to Joey's website here to find out more about him or to make an appointment.
A regular brow session with Joey is $55 but for my readers in New York or those who will be vacationing there can get your first session for $40 by mentioning Black nail polish and lip gloss blog when you make an appointment. Joey also does Makeup for events or whenever you need his magic.
I wish I lived in NYC!
You love him already right?
Well guess what...my sweet friend Joey will be guest blogging right here once or twice a month to answer your makeup and brow questions, offer tips and whatever else he wants. I give him free reign to hang out with you all and just be his awesome self. Friday will be his first post so lets make him feel welcome and send him lots of BNP&LG smooches!
Halloween Artisanagogo Winner issssssss.........
YaY I got mine and Julia is a Goddess!
It's even comfy and yes I wore it to the grocery store and to the optometrist! (they loved it)
Now the Winner......
......
......
Does it really matter who won?
......
......
OK, OK
The
lovely
lucky
Winner
via
random.org
is
#6
Emybloom!!!
Congrats doll!
New hair and matchy nails!
I decided it was time for a change!
I've worn my hair all natural except for the underneath of the back, which has been Hot pink forever.
I decided to go with turquoise and purple.
I multi tone bleached the sections of choice in the front and bleached and removed my pink from the back.
I did the underneath back in Manic Panic Ultra Violet.
Then foiled in Ultra violet and NRage Twisted Teal.
I then sat with my lovely foil head for 3 hours, rinsed, shampoo, condition and let my crazy curls dry naturally.
I was hoping for better light. My hair is so dark that it kind of eats the color up if there is not good lighting
If you look you can see what the multi tone bleaching does as far as making the color different depths of each color.
I might add more next time since my curls hide a lot of the color
Terrible eye shots. Thank you sun for playing stupid today!
I'm wearing Valkyries as hilight, Moirae on lid and Nixies in crease and outer v.
Urban Decay 24/7 liner and my beloved Wet n Wild volume plump mascara
Kisses because I love you!
It is weird that Urban decay Voodoo is almost my natural lip color?
I added a tiny dab of Banshee gloss to add depth
You make me smile!
Weird lighting...part of my hair looks red/brown and part black......how not cool
Matchy nails
China Glaze Towel boy toy and un named purple Love Bites
I love these nail art decals!
So for one rare occasion I am all matchy!
Color Club Untamed Luxury Every Shades of Indulgence
These are beautiful fall shades with a fabulous formula!
Each is 2 coats with no top coat. Smooth application and very nice pigment.
Beautiful platinum white with silvery white shimmer
Wild Orchid is more of a grey with orchid shimmer but a favorite none the less
Positively Posh is a shade of the popular rich fall brown
Soft as Cashemere is the ever popular grey/beige
Nothing but Truffle is a deep brown with plum shimmer
Jewel of a Girl is a plum shimmer
Ready to Royal is a vampy wine
Dragons of Fate
Yesterday my allergies finally let up enough that I could play in my makeup!
I've been dying to wear some of The Mythology collection so I chose Wyvern and Moirae as my main colors. Wyvern is a legendary winged reptile with the hind quarters of a snake and a barbed tail. Moirae are the beautiful Fates, the ladies whom weave the threads of destiny.
Peek a boo
I am trying one more time to grow my brows back in and reshape the sad little things.
I love these two together! The aqua sparklies in Moirae really works well with Wyvern
Why do my brows look red? I promise you they are very dark brown, nearly black.
Note to self: Bad lighting makes you very pale
Karta is my friend!
Product breakdown:
Face- a dab of too face primer and Urban Decay De-Slick powder
Cheeks- Evil Shades Ravishing blush applied veeeerrrry lightly
Eyes-
Too faced eye primer all over
Detrivore eye primer on lid only
Evil Shades Valkyries to hilight
Evil Shades Wyvern on lid, down to tear duct, blended in lower lash line
Evil Shades Moirae in crease, outer v and lower lash line
TerraCotta Khol liner in Black
Wet n Wild Plumper mascara in black
Lips- Evil Shades Liquid sin gloss in Karta
I will try to get back to posting a few Makeup looks a week....if you wants!
Lilac tears franken
I was in the frankening mood last night and this is where I ended up
A pink toned lilac with soft blue shift and silver flecks
I am very happy with the turn out
Oh it's love...or at least strong lust
Click to bigify
I made it all with raw pigments
Thinking up my next franken!
OPI Go Goth and Big hugs for Kris
This was an all too kind gift from KrisInPhilly of My Lucid Bubble
In low light it is easy to under estimate this set of Gothic gorgeousness!
The packaging is adorable and the lace wristcuff...well you know I'll be wearing it!
2 coats of Unripened in shade. Pretty but....
In sunlight this deep blackened blue with duochrome shimmer is so beautiful!
Nevermore in shades is sweet
In sunlight this hot navy with fuschia shimmer is as badass as the band!
In the shade Sanguine is sexy...
In the sunlight you'll catch yourself drooling on your favorite studded leather bondage pants!
Obscurity is obscure in shade...
and obscenly matte worthy in sunlight!
Love this set and I need full size bottles of these...NOW!
White holo nails...I can haz?
Yes I can!
I've been lemming for Glitter Gal's White 3D holo but The Hot Guy is no
cool with the shipping from Australia so I figured my own delemmification! (yes that is a word)
3 coats Old Loreal Jet-Set Diamond shine (it does not dry in one minute)
Let dry completely. Then 1 ultra thin, almost dry brushed, coat of OPI Standing room only!
Ohhhhhhh....Ahhhhhhhhh
*Does the happy booty shake*
I think I might have to track down another bottle of that old Loreal
In the shade it doesn't look holo but the shimmer is still fan-freakin-tabulous! (yes that too is a word)
What do you think? (other than the obvious..."she needs to publish this dictionary she's using.")
Any other holo's we need to crush the lemmings on?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)