From Dud to Stud, Pt. 2: Redemption

If you read my original From Dud to Stud post then you know that I was making moves to do away with a bunch of items that I considered less than par.  On the list of items was a CoverGirl blue eyeshadow that yielded very little color when swatched.  Well, as I was gathering some more items to trash, I gave it a second look and had a light bulb moment: Why should I throw it away when I could just re-purpose it?  Re-purpose it as what, you ask?  Well, how about as a deep, blueberry-hued lippie?  Hmm... OK.  Mission accepted!

First, I took a clear lip gloss and put a few swipes of it on the back of my hand. 

Next, I took my lip brush and swiped it back and forth across the CG shadow to loosen it up so I could gather a good bit of it on the brush and mix it with the gloss on my hand.

I then applied the blue mixture to my lips with the brush.  The final result was definitely cool, but I wanted a little more dimension so I took a white eyeshadow and dabbed it in the middle of my pout, instantly giving it more of a metallic look.

I absolutely LOVE how this turned out!  I loved it so much that I was inspired to complete the look with a "creative" eye.  I wanted to do something out of the box and totally on the fly.  I was emboldened to attempt my very first freestyle...

And I actually like how this turned out, too!  I always wanted to freehand a graphic eye look, but just never did it.  Well, I surprised myself when I came up with this simple, but "galactic" take on a cat eye and even succeeded at making it symmetrical!  Alas, that was what I was most worried about; I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to dutifully repeat the design exactly on each eye, but I did.  And I am poppin' my collar, y'all.  Pop! Pop!

Oh, and let me just tell you... I had a semi-emergency come up and had to run out and handle some things after I took these pics.  Umm, do you think I took this makeup look off?  I surely did NOT!  I ran out "as-is", galactic eyes/blue lips and all!  I thought people were going to look at me weird (not that I cared one iota), but not a single strange glance or off-colored comment was uttered.  And I felt so, SO pretty... I can't tell you why, but I honestly did.  Yes, I looked like I just stepped off a spaceship, but I felt comfortable wearing this look and, again, very pretty.

But it's the lips that are the focus of this post.  And the almost missed opportunity to bring them to life with an eyeshadow that was destined to be dumped.  This is probably "old hat" to most of you; most of you know that you can use an eyeshadow on the lips to modify and/or enhance the effect of a lipstick, but don't forget that - with a little gloss - you can make it into a lippy as well. 

And that's what I want to impart to you all: the idea that if you think outside the box, you can turn a deadbeat dud into a stellar stud.  Shadows can be whipped into lippies, lipsticks into blushes, eyeliners can double as lip liners, mascara to color brows, etc... and the list goes on and on.  Sometimes the only distance separating a makeup dud from being a stud is how far you're willing to allow your imagination to take you.  So, just have fun and be creative.