Glitter eye shadow application

As a belly dancer, I've gotten VERY familiar with the use of glitter. I've had also many frustrating moments when applying it. With practice, I've gotten better at it. Here are my tips and tricks.

Color on eyelid first
The tricky thing about glitter is that it nearly never applies completely uniformly as a regular eye shadow would. The only glitter that I've managed to do that with was the .44 Magnum color by Medusa's Makeup (see http://celestesmakeupcorner.blogspot.com/2012/10/product-review-medusas-makeup.html ).  But even with that one, it's not a sure thing that it will apply evenly. So, to help yourself, if you want to use glitter on your eyelids, apply a color on the eyelid first. That way, even if the glitter is not uniform, you won't have a big white space that will drive you crazy.

The simplest thing to do is to go for a similar eye shadow. For example, if you're applying silver glitter, apply silver eye shadow; if you're applying blue glitter, apply blue eye shadow; etc.

Another option that you have (and this can be real cool) is to apply another color than something close to the glitter. This could change the overall finished look but can be super nice.

Use primer/sticky product
Glitter loves to fly out everywhere and has a hard time holding on. So you need a good primer to help keep it where it belongs. You'll need a sticky product to help keep the glitter in place.

When I started playing with glitter, I discovered that principle while playing with the Glitter Cream Palette that I have by NYX. http://www.nyxcosmetics.com/p-80-glitter-cream-palette.aspx  I had applied some of the glitter cream at the outer corner of my eye (past my eyeliner) to do a pop of glitter there. For all that I applied more and more of the product, it just was not dense enough glitter-wise. So I started applying loose glitter over it and, lo and behold, it held! Why I started searching for alternatives was because I had a hard time manipulating the product to my exact liking and, while the hold was good for a time, it wasn't holding for the whole night of dancing at Greek Islands (which is my measuring stick for hold... dancing 3-4 sets of 15-20 minutes over a 3-hour period where they light cheese on fire on a regular basis makes for a good measuring stick).

Then, I discovered the Glitter Glue by Too Faced. ( http://celestesmakeupcorner.blogspot.com/2012/09/glitter-glue.html ).  That's what I use.

One makeup gal that I follow on youtube uses Duo eyelash glue instead of the Glitter Glue. I don't particularly like the eyelash glue feel and it wrinkles my eyelids a little so I prefer not to use that. The gal is younger than I am so she doesn't need to worry about wrinkling so much... yet. :p But, that being said, that's one way to make your glitter hold without spending a lot of money. The Duo eyelash glue is fairly cheap so if your budget is tight, you may want to use this. Anyway, that's the glue that I recommend for false lashes so double duty right there. ;)

So, using the primer/sticky product of your choice, apply it to the area that you want to apply glitter on. Quickly apply the glitter because once these products dry, the glitter won't be holding anymore.  And, yes, that means that you're applying the primer/sticky product over the eye shadow that you applied on your eyelid. Don't worry, that eye shadow won't go anywhere.

If you're slow at applying eye shadow (and, therefore, glitter), you may want to consider applying the primer/sticky product on a portion of the eyelid, apply glitter, apply sticky stuff to another portion, apply glitter, repeat as much as needed. That way, the product won't dry and not hold to glitter and you end up with just a portion all glittered up. ;)

Apply with little dabs
I mentioned in a previous entry ( http://celestesmakeupcorner.blogspot.com/2012/08/light-touch.html ) that using little dabs/pats will do wonders to prevent fall out of your eye shadow. Well, it's ESPECIALLY true for glitter. That stuff loves to fly!

Recommendation for brush
Given the fluffiness of glitter, I highly recommend using a stiff brush for application as it will pick up the glitter well and using dabs/pats is easy with these brushes. My favorite brush for glitter application is the E.L.F. brush that I mentioned in an old entry was good for a specific application (that'd be this and generally loose eye shadow as well). At 1$, you can't really go wrong. ;)  Any other stiff brush will work too. And you want a smallish brush so that it minimizes the fall out. Generally speaking, the bigger the brush, the more fall out you risk having.

Fall out
You'll likely have glitter fall out because, as I've mentioned a few times already, glitter loves to fly. You can use that fluffy brush or kabuki brush to remove it (as mentioned in this entry http://celestesmakeupcorner.blogspot.com/2012/09/keep-face-clean-while-applying-makeup.html ).  You can also just wait... since it doesn't have a sticky product to hold on to, it will just fall off your face.



Recap of eyelid application
This was a whole lot of info so here are my steps when applying glitter on the eyelids:

1. Apply regular primer all over eyelid and brow bone.  I use Shadow Insurance by Too Faced.
2. Apply regular eye shadow all over eyelid to crease.
3. Apply Glitter Glue primer over eye shadow. Do one eye only.
4. Apply glitter, using dabs/pats over the Glitter Glue.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the second eye.

When I'm getting ready to do the glitter part, I will actually open the glitter container, pour some in the cap and be ready to apply quickly after having applied the Glitter Glue.

Removing glitter

As the meme here accurately points out, removing glitter is not that easy. That gets embedded in any little crease on your face, you'll find some everywhere for a while. It's kind of a mess. To help not spread the glitter everywhere while removing it, try to keep the removed glitter away from your face. So, for example, if using a makeup remover towelette, use a corner on the glitter, and don't make that portion touch your face again. And, whereas I normally just rub the towelette all over my face, I won't do that if I have applied glitter. And you will quickly realize that you will likely need to use more product than typical to remove glitter.

I have burlesque friends who say that glitter is like herpes. And, yeah, there's quite a bit of truth to that.  It just spreads everywhere and it keeps coming back! Even when you haven't used glitter in a while, it will show back up.

But, yanno, it's well worth it.