Current Beauty Pairings

This summer I've been staying inside, playing with makeup and mixing pitcher after pitcher of Starbucks' passion tea lemonade.  Here are some things I've been going back to over and over again, because they just work so well with summer colouring.  Despite not having gone out that much, my face has darkened somewhat, almost to the colour my body normally is (NC35-40), so I've been pulling out every kind of peach, coral, bronze and gold.

1. Orange lip + brown smokey eye -- Since making my lip palette, I'm obsessed with orange everything.  It really does prove that to use products, you need to see them. I used to use orange only in this look, but now I'm loving using this MAC Pro Longwear Lip Creme in Good to Go as a light stain on my lips and cheeks, paired with a smudgy brown smokey eye using Cocoa Puff and Push-Up the TooFaced Natural Eye palette.

2.  Viva Glam Gaga + Revlon Nude Lustre -- I know Viva Glam Gaga is one of those lipsticks that people hunt down in blog sales and on eBay (I used to be one of them), but after purchasing one...I just don't get it. I think maybe it's the gold/olive undertone in my skin?  It pulls all the life out of my skin and makes me look a little like a street walker the way concealer-filled lips do.  However, I knew there was a way to make it work.  After layering every single gloss I own over it, I finally realized that the peachiness of Revlon's Nude Lustre was the way to make me not look like a zombie hooker.

3.  Tarte Natural Siren + Bobbi Brown Pink Pout -- I've been so into layering blush.  It reminds me of my 9 year old self mixing eight different brown lipsticks (remember the 90s?  Good times).  Layering a cream blush under a powder one makes for great staying power, but I've been enjoying mixing my own colours.  Both these colours show up fairly natural on me, but in different ways.  Tarte shimmery coral makes me look like I'm 'glowing from within' and Bobbi Brown's mauvey lip and cheek colour is almost a natural sculpt on me, kind of like Benefit Dallas.  To get a dusty flush, I use a foundation brush and apply to the top of my cheekbone, blending down to the apple.

What products do you layer?  I'm think I want to start learning how to layer fragrance, so I'd love to hear your advice!