GRUNGE GLAM II – SWITCHING UP THE VISUALS WITH NEW COLOURS

11 Jun 2022 8:29 PM

As promised, I’m back with another GG look !

For the third look of my Grunge Glam series, I tried to embrace the thoughts of grunge glam being an oxymoron – heavy rough punkish elements with soft sultry feminine girly looks. I used the eye makeup as one of the main ways for me to do so: going for heavy black eye makeup etched across my lids, contrasting with a striking block of hot pink. After seeing lots of heavy black eye looks being used in the runways and looks earlier this year, with one of my favourites being Chiara’s for the Balenciaga Fall 22 show in Paris, I thought I absolutely needed to have a go. Although I didn’t have the honour of Kanye West and Pat McGrath creating this look for me (Julia Fox you lucky woman), I think I did well! This look is most definitely a fun flirty version of grunge glam – drawing all the attention to the eyes (ooo seductive), and creating a more vivid loud visual. Unlike my last two grunge glam looks where I embodied the style of Charli XCX or Cleopatra, I think this one really screams XDF. I mean, it really has XDESFAN written all over it. Like hello! Black and pink? Literally the colours of XDESFAN!

I wanted for the eyeshadow to show up thick, clear and apparent. I simply used concealer and refrained from using any other natural eyeshadow colours to work as the lid base. I also didn’t use any transition shades to blend the two colours together. I thought the black shadow would show and contrast a lot better against the background of my base colour. This allowed it to look more clean and less busy, and kept the two colour blocks undisturbed with other eyeshadow colours. All the attention is on the flirty hot pink and the strong abrasive black!

Products used are listed at the end of the post! x

So, I chose to use eyeshadow powders rather than using eyeliners. For this look, I wanted the loud colours, but I didn’t want the loud strong texture of a liner. I just thought it’d be nicer if it was a little bit soft and easy. As you can see in the pic above, the pink shadow appears more softer on the edges, smudged ever so slightly. Using an eyeshadow also meant it was easier to apply and manipulate; I could put a lot on easily with a soft brush, rather than colouring in a big space with a pencil liner and consequently destroying my skin in the process (okay I’m being a little dramatic). Because this makeup was experimental and new for me, I like how easy it was to clean up and shape. Eyeliners tend to be a little harder to use when experimenting because once it has dried, that is it. You’ll have to go over with concealer or makeup remover and risk ruining everything! I am not here to say I hate eyeliner, I have a whole series on winged liners, and even expressed my love for it in my first grunge glam look, but it was in this makeup look I remembered how fun and simple it is to use the good ol’ powder eyeshadow.

For my brows, I tried to make them big and feathery. I didn’t heavily shape it with concealer so it looks a little more unpolished. The usual brow routine was essentially followed (keeping my natural brow shape rather than forging a new one), but I put less effort into them to have an exaggerated messy and effortless look. The days where I frantically obsess over the symmetry and neatness of my brows are coming to an end! I think that unrefined brow looks suits the grunge glam style a lot better. Unlike perfect dolled up classic glam faces – like my 20th birthday face – grunge glam welcomes the messy and unperfected brows!

For the base, I wanted it to be quite soft and simple, but also dramatic enough to suit the grunge glam vibes. You’re probably thinking “Desola tf are you on about?”. Welllll let me explain… As you can see I went for a simple blended out under eye highlight, and used a bronzed highlighter to make my face look soft and seamless. However, I did sharper contour lines to snatch the face a little, and to create an edgy visual that suits the punk vibes going on. But to suit the softness of the rest of the base, I used my beloved Fenty bronzer instead of a harsh deep liquid contour. I like exaggerating one feature rather than all of it, because then I feel like the look would be way too busy and overwhelming. For example, I refrained from a super bright under eye (like I did in my classic birthday glam look), and from having super rosy cheeks. The overall focal point was the eyes, so I didn’t want to do anything to compromise the attention it held. Having a simple soft base really helped for the vivid pinks and harsh black to pop well! And the contrast between the base and the black eye makeup is so clean and crisp I love it!

To compliment my makeup, I went for the all black outfit of course! But I didn’t want this to be super heavy and serious, so I went for a top that exposed my skin a little bit. From looking back at these images, I’m seeing such an alluring flirty fun vibe going on! To draw out these elements further, I went for a messy curly hairstyle. I get my curls from a straightener so that it doesn’t look too prim and proper. As mentioned earlier, grunge glam isn’t supposed to be perfect! It’s beautifully and neatly chaotic.

Right, the final thing I want to cover in this look are my lips! I went for the classic two tone, where I heavily line the top lip and lightly the bottom. But this time I lined it more heavy, and didn’t make it all that glossy and dewy. This isn’t sweet glitzy glam! I personally think the lip makeup makes or breaks the entire look. For me it was super important to do heavy lip liner because I wanted it to match my dark messy brows, as well as my dark eye makeup. And of course the hair and the outfit. If I kept it natural, it would look like there’s a piece missing to the rest of the jigsaw, especially as the lips are at the centre of the whole visual. Again, to link back to the idea of grunge glam being messy, I hardly put any effort in doing this lip liner. But I like the messiness of it.

Just as I always say at the end of my articles, I am literally obsessed with how it came out. Love love love it. I’ve never tried dark eyeshadow like that before! It looks really intimidating so I put off doing it for a long time. To be honest, it was a little tricky getting it the perfect size for my eyelids and extending it just right so it didn’t look too scary, if that’s even possible (like how can all black eyeshadow not look scary). Sometimes when I’m doing winged eyeliner and it fails, I always fight the urge of furiously colouring in my entire lids with the black liner pen just out of pure frustration, but now I know if I do give in and do this one day, it won’t look so bad!

Although I absolutely adore the grunge glam style, and it is seriously one of the best things I’ve come across, I’m going to give it a little break. Just a little one! I have created three posts in the GG series for this already, but I have to revisit my other ones and create more looks for them – the Sweet Glam series, and also the Winged Liner series. It has been a while since I dipped my brushed in the Sweet Glam category, and I can hear it calling my name…