Golden Freckles

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I recently had the pleasure of doing a photo shoot with my best friend, Victoria. It was nice to be able to sit down, do her makeup and chat, since it has been a little over a year since we last did a photo shoot together. I was very inspired by the way the sunlight reflects off of golden hues, and the freckles that currently scatter my little sisters face. In the end, we decided on a very soft, natural bronze eye, almost bare lips, and of course, the golden freckles across her cheeks.

While this look took us some time, it can be done super quickly when you aren't chatting away. It would be a beautiful everyday look if you used natural browns instead of the gold. Below are all of the products, brushes, and techniques used to achieve this look.

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Of course, to start off we perfected her already beautiful skin. Her skin was already moisturized, and then we applied the L'Oreal Magic Perfecting Base to areas where she either gets oily, or needed a bit of smoothing. This included her forehead, nose, chin, and the areas of her cheeks closest to her nose.

Next, we applied the Covergirl Ready, Set, Gorgeous Foundation in the shade 105 with my Real Techniques Buffing brush. I used a very tiny amount of this foundation, because we only needed it to even out her skin tone, and I didn't want the foundation to cake up. 

To conceal, we decided to use the concealer that goes with this foundation, which is slightly lighter and brighter in color, with my ELF Flawless Concealer brush. The main areas it was used in were under the eyes, around the edges of her nose, and on her chin.

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To finish off the skin, we applied L'Oreal Magic Lumi primer to the tops of her cheeks, the inner corners of her eyes, brow bone, the bridge of her nose, and cupids bow. I also took a tiny bit just above her eyebrows to brighten up that area as well.

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Instead of using a blush, we bronzed up her face using Honey Bronze Brilliance Powder in the shade Copper Shimmer. This just gives a beautiful glow with only a hint of tiny glitter. To add to the highlight, we took the lightest shade of what is left in my Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips along the inner corners of her eyes, and cupids bow.

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The eyes are very simple. For a base, we took Maybelline's Color Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze all over the lid, and blended up towards Victoria's eyebrow. We then took shade number 2 from this Forever 21 palette all over just like the Color Tattoo. Both of these shades were also applied right under the lower lash line. Shade number 3 was then used just to deepen up the crease a tiny bit.

To finish off the eyes, we did one coat of Revlon Lash Potion mascara in Brown-Black, followed by a generous coat of MUFE Smoky Extravagant mascara.

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We then quickly filled in Victoria's brows just to add some more shape, and fullness. We used the NYX Eyebrow Pencil in Dark Brown, followed by the powder from the ELF Brow Kit in Medium, and a clear brow gel to set it all in place.

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Of course, we can't forget the focal point of this look: the freckles.

To achieve the golden freckles, we first dampened an angled brush and dipped it in the gold NYX pigment. After that, we randomly dotted the product on with the tip of the brush. We did the same thing with the copper pigment, simply adding less then the gold. At this point the freckles just didn't seem to stand out enough, so I added some brown freckles as well using that same brow powder. For a more wearable look, you can just use the brown and vary the intensity of the color.

Finally to finish everything off, we powdered under her eyes, her chin, and her forehead, and then set everything in place with a makeup setting spray.

To see all of the photos from this shoot, just go to the photo tab at the top of the page! I had so much fun working on this with Victoria, and would appreciate if you all gave her some love on her instagram: @mintyhippo

As always, thank you so much for supporting me here at oceanexpressway, and feel free to let me know what you want to see next. xoxo