By Request: Dr. Quinn, Madwoman (with tutorial)

I'm so excited to share this look with you today!

My sweet friend Jess asked me via Facebook and Twitter if I could design her a day-look for Batman universe villainess Harley Quinn. Jess is obsessed with all things Harley Quinn - and ya gottah admit, she's one crazeh lady, what wit her boyfriend bein' dah Joker 'n all - and she wanted a look that Harley would wear while in disguise at her day-job as Dr. Quinn.

Here's what I came up with!

I kept Harley's signature colours red, black and white in mind for this look. Harley usually wears all her outfits with a deliberate asymmetry, but I decided to go symmetrical because I figured that she's smart enough to hide the crazy while working her day-job. However, she's also bold enough to keep wearing her signature colours out in the open, hence the overall design of the look.

For some weird reason, the lipstick turned out a lot more pink in all the pictures than it was in real life. It's actually a deep oxblood with a hint of brick.

And now for the tutorial! NB: I'm only walking you through the eyes, lips and cheeks, as the rest is totally up to whatever foundation routine you usually do. Just go with that, then follow my instructions.

I primed the lids with two different creaseless cream shadows: MAC's Painterly Paint Pot first, all over the lid up to the brow and underneath the lower lashes, and then Maybelline's Color Tattoo in Mauve Crush on the upper lid, fading it out as it hits the crease. I used Mauve Crush because I find it looks stunning under greys and silvers, making them pop. You can also skip this step if you don't have it and just use your normal primer.
Once the cream shadows are set, take a white, long-lasting eye pencil (I used one by Sephora) and apply it in the inner corners of your eyes, then blend it there before it dries. This will help later on in keeping the look day-friendly.
Take a light grey or silver eyeshadow and apply it all over the Mauve Crush, steering just a teensy bit clear of the inner corners of your eyes. Make sure to go slightly above the Mauve Crush, above the crease, but blend well in that area.
Take a dark grey or silver eyeshadow and apply it over the outer half of your eye. Pat it on first, then wipe off the brush and start blending the light and the dark into each other. Here, you can choose to slightly extend the dark shadow, so as to give it a bit of a soft wing shape.
With the same dark shadow, line your lower lashline two-thirds of the way towards the inner corner of your eye.
Take a matte white shadow and go over the blended white pencil areas from before, now blending it with the light grey/silver on top.
With the same white shadow, go underneath your brows and blend down VERY well, so as to make any and all harsh edges disappear.
Still with the white, dust it underneath the last third of your lower lashline and then take it over the dark grey/silver you put there earlier. Blend well. I recommend a tiny blending brush for this, such as Kosmetik Kosmo's Präzisions Pia.
Once all that groundwork is done, we can finally move on to eyeliner! With the black eyeliner of your choice (I recommend not using a pencil liner for this, to get the lines crisper - take gel, liquid, etc instead), line your upper lashline, making sure to make the line thinner as you go towards the inner eye corners. Ever so slightly extend that line past the outer corner of your eye, but don't do an actual wing. Just extend the line further!
With a red eyeliner of your choice - I used a pigment that I mixed with a mixing medium, but I'd actually recommend something clingier if you can find it - draw a V that hugs the tip of the black line on one side. Of course, this is just how I did it, it's not set in stone.
Add mascara and/or falsies and you're done with the eyes! Of course, a variation of this would be to take some red eyeshadow and just blend it in the outer V of your eye.

For the lips, I used a matte oxblood-with-brick lipstick that I applied out of the tube only on the inner part of my lips. I then blended that colour out with my fingers until most of my lips save for the very outer edges were covered in the colour. If you have thinner lips, go ahead and cover all of them. Blending it out like this takes away some of the harshness and makes that dramatic colour a lot more wearable too.
For the cheeks, I used a dark plum blush that I blended out thoroughly. It doesn't show up as nicely in the pics but looked gorgeous and sassy in real life.

And that's my Dr. Quinn tutorial! If you have any questions or other requests, leave them in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter and I'll be happy to respond or do a look just for YOU!

Stay beautiful and crazy, inside and out,

Anna

Disclaimer: The picture in the uppermost left corner of the collage is slightly photo-manipulated. The skin was smoothed out a bit and the colours lightened. I just wanted a shot where you could really see the shadow colours well and it was just fun to play with photo-manipulations again, a thing I occasionally enjoy. All the other pics are straight-out-of-camera.