Ethereal Girl: My Tori Amos Ripoff Tutorial

There was this gorgeous picture in Kevyn Aucoin's book, "Making Faces", of Tori Amos looking ethereal, as if she stepped out of a Botticelli painting. The magic of highlighting and amplified natural beauty. 

I sought out to find a gorgeous, bronze and beachy equivalent, as if Tori Amos was Latina, or a Kardashian. Yeah, I said it. I've been a long time hater of various highlighters and over contouring, but I put together a look with both to show the world you can take a chill on using a business card and a Hershey's Kiss, but still get a contour that gives you something to highlight. 

At this point I'm assuming we all know what a primed lid looks like. For this look I used Mirenesse's primer for eyes and face. 

Using a contour brush, I created a "V" using a dark brown matte shadow from The Balm's "Meet Matte" collection, Matt(e) Batali. Ugh. Sorry, the name is cringe worthy. Using the same brush, smooth the same matte shadow underneath the eye. 

Following my love of using products for what they weren't necessarily made for, I used Mica's bronze shimmer powder, a mineral based shimmer that is rich in pigment and shimmer, for the lid color. Don't worry about being perfect in application. Loose shadow is sometimes hard to control, use a flat brush and pat on the lid, within the "V". Taking the tip of the brush, wing out the edge of the bronze shimmer, breaking through the edge of the "V".

Using the tip of a lining brush, apply the matte brown shadow over the "V" on the upper crease and near lash line to correct any overlap of the bronze shimmer.

Here's the fun but most labor intensive part of the tutorial. "Labor intensive" might not be the best description, but you definitely need to be more attentive if you're new to contouring and highlighting.

People have different opinions on what makes a better contour, shock, but for this I used a creme compact foundation from Shiseido, 2 shades darker than my skin tone. I apply it with a flat foundation brush, under the apple of the cheek and stopping about 1-2 inches from my nose/mouth area. Cupids Bow would be the official fancy term I suppose. Meh. 

The contouring needs to fade out to the hairline, like the nike swoosh. Don't get your knickers in a twist just yet, you're gonna let it "cook" first and then blend and THEN apply powder, so it doesn't need to be perfect at first. 

With a stippling foundation brush, softly apply a sheer foundation with a satin finish, like Maybelline Fit Me. When you're going for that ethereal look, you want the appearance of healthy, glowing skin, so just apply foundation to wear you need coverage and blend. You don't want your face to look like a paint bynumbers,  velvet art piece that used to hang in your sisters bedroom, so blending and blending well is key.

Now when I say "glowing" and "healthy", why didn't I just use a luminous foundation? Let me count the ways. I love a great luminous foundation, trust me, but when you are using highlighters and shimmer on eyes and gloss on the lips, it can look like you were playing Americas favorite past time: bobbing for chicken from a KFC bucket. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but for this look, too much can be, well, too much!

Next, apply your favorite concealer to any dark circles. I prefer True Match from L'oreal as it has a decent brush, but more importantly, has perfect colors and tones to even out the bitchiest of imperfections. 

Now comes the blending part for your contour. This is really the only time I approve of using a blending sponge or beauty blender, which is a pink, spherical, fancy version of my long time foe. Sponges absorb, that's their nature. You will go through your foundation like water if you simply dump on to a sponge and then apply. Using a makeup sponge to do what it was made for, blending, will give you that flawless look. Gentle tap and press into your contour so that it blends naturally into the surrounding skin. You want it to look like it melted into your foundation. 

With just balm (above)

Before you set your foundation this is when you have the option to apply cream highlighters. I used Watts Up from Benefit above the cheek bones, arching upwards,  next to the brows. You can do this with a powder highlighter too, but if it's not a high shine it shimmer highlighter, it may show up better if used after setting your makeup with a loose powder. 

For my loose powder I used Palladios Rice Powder in a medium shade, dusting it to the t-zone and then over the rest of the face for further blending purposes. 

Using one of my all time favorite blushes, Cupid from Clinique, I applied directly to the cheek bone, sweeping upwards to the temples. You will want the pigment to be concentrated on the cheekbones, but blending upwards gives a pretty lift to the skin.

Taking a fan brush I enhanced my highlight further and applied that Mica bronzing shimmer in a "3".

Photo from vivaadonis.com

A "3" is dusting a bronzer in a figure 3, starting above the brows, circling down to beneath the cheekbones next to the contour and then circling to the hairline down to the jaw line. Again, it's nice to be precise but if you make a mistake, which I of course NEVER do ;) , you can blend it away with a clean kabuki or powder brush. 

I wanted a bit more color and applied a bit to the bridge of my nose and sweeped acros the mask area, which is I finger width from the nose, following the cheekbone downward and then blended like a beast. 

This is the time to clean up any boo boo's and apply mascara. I'm really getting into my Tarte Lights Camera Flashes. I didn't think if like it at first, but the second time around seems to have been just the ticket. I brush out the top of my lashes first, removing any shadow or powder that might've gotten on there from my blending spree. This technique also gives you more length too. After you've coated the tops, use underneath in a curling motion. You want a nice long and full lash so I went for 3 coats. Truthfully, I didn't want to stop because of the beautiful lashes I was getting, but I also wanted to be able to remove my mascara at night without my eyes scabbing over in the morning.

Eyebrows need to be softly groomed. Sharp edges need not apply. I don't use anything but Chella for brows, their pencils are the bomb and the brow gel is perfect and non boogery. Use soft strokes to just fill brows in and comb with the brow gel to set.

To complete your Ethereal Girl (get it?) look, use a flesh tone liner to softly line the lips. I used Spice from MAC and applied with soft strokes around the lip and then filled in the center of the lip.

I like using MAC Lipglass because you get the coverage of a lipstick with the finish of a gloss. Now if you already have the shine you want, apply a nude lip balm like Mica's tinted balm in Nude. I used a bit of that balm for the moisturuzing benefits and also to get closer to the color I truly wanted: the JLO American Idol look. Rub lips together so the liner and balm melt together. You don't really want any lines to show, if you like that look, by all means, don't blend! Let the lines show! 

With just gloss (above)

If you're applying a gloss, I'd go for something like a sheer pink. I wanted that perfect nude pink look that was a little darker than Underage (MAC) and Turkish Delight (NARS). Cultured, from MAC is just the ticket. If you want a precise application, like if you are doing a photo shoot and it's an extreme closeup, use a lip brush. I find that the doe foot wands in the Lipglass packaging to be just fine. It doesn't take much skill to fix a bleeding gloss!

I don't normally talk about hairstyles in this blog, but I'm going to start going there. I made it a New Years resolution to actually do more styling with my red ombred hurr, something more exciting than a flat iron. 

This look really requires beautiful waves. You kinda want that bed head, messy curl look. Great segue actually, because I used my TIGI Bed Head Rock N Roller Bubble curling iron that looks like a dirty sex toy. I'm not kidding. I was with my mom when she bought my Xmas present at Target and I could tell she was a little embarrassed.

Anyway, I like to apply the TIGI Casual Sea Salt Texturising Spray to damp, towel dried hair and let air dry. I have a natural wave, so air drying contributes to the pretty curls and texture. If you're antsy, go on and blow dry. Go ahead, I'll wait.....

When you start curling, grab a couple clips to hold back the pieces that need curling but will also hold those already curled. Pieces need to be fairly small, in fact, run your fingers through your hair, the hair you capture between each finger is just the right amount. These curling wands make curling less fussy and the final product so gorgeous. 

I like to let curls cool down before styling. They may get too poodley if you use a brush, use your fingers or a comb to pull curls apart. 

I like to have a side part for this look, tousle curls and set with a light hair spray to set. If my hair is exposed to too much humidity then it droops like a, well, it droops. Take my word for it.

I think to complete this look, wear minimal jewelry and light, airy dresses or a chic maxy dress. I wore my staggered gold chain necklace and a strapless black maxi dress and gold, thin strapped sandals. 

For extra credit, apply your highlighter or shimmer cream to your clavicle, shoulders, and arms for extra glow. I used my MAC Strobe cream and my Michael Kors bronze leg shimmer.

With liner, balm and gloss (above)

This look that Kevyn Aucoin created for Tori Amos was so iconic for me that I'm surprised I never covered it before. Someone compared my first shots as being very mermaid like. Greatest compliment.

What are your most favorite iconic looks? Drop me a line at mo9191976@aol.com !

Xoxo

Miss Lady Mo