HOT FOR TEACHER: Back to the Future

My first tutorial! How exciting. Now you can all look as pretty as me (see above...). I was originally going to do some sort of helpful gentle smokey eye look for if you have smaller eyes and/or are scared of eyeshadow but then my friends suggested going to an eighties-themed bar tomorrow evening so this happened.

We are now not actually going tomorrow but I had already discovered how much fun this is when that was decided, so instead now I just get to do this a second time when we actually go, yay. For inspiration, I Googled first eighties makeup, which is quite useful, but then decided to focus on some eighties icons - Madonna and Cyndi Lauper. I am actually desperate to do specific looks for both of those as well - Madonna a good red lip, thick brows and pale skin and Cyndi Lauper a paintbox on the eyes with metallic lipstick, which worryingly it turns out I already own.

Anyway this time I went for a kind of mash up of various 80s looks as a starting point, which basically means forgetting everything you thought you knew about makeup and reverting back to your first ever attempts stealing your mum's, or just using finger paint on your face (anyone else?). To see what I had to work with I went through my bags and bags of makeup, which was really fun in itself because I am a hoarder and don't like to throw things out, and some of it is from when I was a tween. Yes I know it is bad to keep makeup for a long time, and I will do a clear-out, but for the purposes of this it turned out to be super useful to still have the eyeshadow I wore when I was 13... 
As you can see, I pretty much had lips covered, with lipstick and lipgloss in every shade under the sun, but eyes were more difficult because I have never been so big on eyeshadow. The Urban Decay Ammo palette is about all I have for coloured eyeshadows (I also have Bobbi Brown but that's a bit too tasteful), apart from one small pale blue eyeshadow that I didn't even know I had.

trout pout #sorrynotsorry

Here is a good point to say that I actually did this two nights running. The first night I used my Urban Decay palette for a purple smokey eye, but I sort of ended up making this too flattering (relatively speaking), which is not really the point, adding winged eyeliner and all sorts. I did a stunning baby pink lip using a variety of gross teenage lipsticks  and then pink and white Pout Paints I got in a Glossybox to do a sort of faded out thing, and topped it all off with a really horrific frosted pale pink lip gloss. I also had a good pink blusher situation going on which I got using the pink Maybelline Baby Lips, very carefully applied in large circles and then rubbed over my cheeks. 
As you can see, the lips were pretty hideous and therefore appropriately eighties, so I was pleased with them, but felt the eyes could be improved. Step in Superdrug and MUA Cosmetics...

I was wandering round my local Superdrug looking for just an orange eyeshadow when I came across the MUA Poptastic Eyeshadow Palette. This is perhaps not something I would normally go for now (ten years ago, definitely) but it screams 80s so for this it is perfect. It is also £4 and so, so pigmented (super impressed) that I recommend everyone goes out and buys one immediately for the purpose of fancy dress, if nothing else. I applied them over primer and there was still a tiny bit of creasing, but made obvious by the fact they're so pigmented, and really you can't complain for something so cheap.
I am, however, quite sad this palette hasn't got orange, I feel that's the one colour it's missing, but it is still amazing and now I have another reason to do a specific Cyndi Lauper look another time when I find some.

You too can look as pretty as me...

Anyway, I decided to still stick with purple because of the orange happening in the future, as well as a Hitchcock heroine blue eyeshadow thing at some point (yes really, it will be tasteful I promise) but it didn't seem quite enough so I decided on a triple whammy of purple, pink and yellow, from the outer corner to inner. 
If you're interested in doing this yourself, I would point out that the shape you do is really personal, I'm doing a post on this at some point, but basically different eye shapes = different eyeshadow shapes. Mine are small and downturned so I do an upwards wing. 

I started on the outside with the lighter purple (I just used the sponge applicator it came with, this isn't exactly supposed to be refined) across the outer third then pink in the middle and blended the two, then the yellow in the inner corner and blended some more. I then added the darker purple at the outer edge of my lash line for a bit more definitition, and I also took the pink slightly over the yellow because this really helped to blend them together. I didn't blend much at the top because Cyndi Lauper didn't and she is my role model.
I have to admit, I think this would look amazing with orange in the middle, but at the same time I think the specific shades of yellow, pink and purple here luckily work pretty well together.

To finish it off, I went for an orangey lip, but it turned out quite coral and not really exciting enough so I think next time maybe I would go for the baby pink again. I also chucked on a whole load of bronzer and had an interesting stripey situation going on that thankfully hasn't shown up in the pictures. And for the full effect, I sprayed on a whole ton of hair spray and wore sequins. The things I do for this blog...

I really hope this has inspired people to have a go at an exciting (read ridiculous) look like this, because I can't tell you how much fun it is, and I so so think you should get the MUA palettes if you're scared of eyeshadow like me (they do gorgeous neutral ones too). I think you need a bunch of shades to really find the ones you like and get used to using them, and it's a lot less scary paying £4 than over £20. And once you love it you can always invest more, safe in the knowledge it won't lie untouched forever! (That has never happened to me of course)
I am definitely going to be more brave now with my eye makeup and take full advantage of any fancy dress offers because I want to do this again immediately.