FOTD: Learn To Swim.

After getting my hands on some of Aromaleigh's wonderful, bright eyeshadows, I wanted to do another rainbow EOTD. I've been meaning to do a better one for ages, but they're difficult (at least, for me) and I tend to bugger them up. Still, armed with an awful lot of Aromaleigh products I decided to start and not stop until I got it right.

The step-by-step is heavily edited, because I'm wearing about 14-15 shadows, but you can only see... 10. So to simply things and avoid you repeating my many 'oops, I fucked it up' steps, I've just tried to leave the whole fucking-up part out.

Learn To Swim - Step-by-Step

Face

• Prime with Urban Decay Pore Perfecting primer.
• Apply concealer - Bobbi Brown's Corrector in Light Bisque - where necessary.
• Dot Estée Lauder Doublewear foundation in Shell over areas that need the most coverage using the MAC 191 brush.
• Buff foundation into skin in circular motions using the MAC 187, adding more where necessary, until it's all blended in.
• Wipe off the MAC 187 and buff Purely Cosmetics Diamond Perfect Finish all over face to finish.

Eyes

• Prime with a MAC Paint Pot in Painterly, smoothed all over the lid and up to the eyebrow.
• Add a dab of Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy to the lid and smooth it over the paint pot. (A review of this is forthcoming - spoiler: it's fucking amazing. If you don't own it, go and buy it now to save yourself having to do it later. While you're at it, why not buy some eyeshadow samples and get free shipping?)
• Wait a few seconds for the epoxy to become tacky, then pat on Aromaleigh Rocks! Sonic Eyeshadow in Fanclub to the inner-corner and first centimetre-or-so of your eyelid. Kinda depends on how big your eyes are. Divide the lid into four (mentally, please) and fill in, roughly, just under a quarter. Use a thin brush, like a pencil GOSH round/MAC 219 brush.
• Go over that with Aromaleigh Les Papillons Eyeshadow in Flying Flower.
• Wipe the brush off and apply Aromaleigh Hot In The City Eyeshadow in Neon Lights to the next quarter, using the ol' dab/pat method. Blend the edges into the edge of the pink segment very lightly. Overblending will kill the look, so blend by simply sweeping the colour against the edge of the pink lightly, with the tip of the brush.
• The next quarter is Aromaleigh Hot In The City Eyeshadow in Italian Ice, wipe off then apply as above, using the same very light blending method.
• Next one is green. Here I started with Aromaleigh Rocks! Sonic Eyeshadow in Estranged, blending it into the Italian Ice, and then I switch to a MAC 217 stiff-domed brush to darken the outer-V with Aromaleigh Rocks! Sonic Eyeshadow in Greenhell, and darken the crease/bring the green up, above the crease slightly.
• Back to the thin pencil brush, apply a little of the Pixie Epoxy along your lower lashline (not waterline) and once it's tacky, pat on a thin line of Aromaleigh Rocks! Sonic Eyeshadow in Planetearth, starting from the outer-V and progressing to the middle of the eye.
• Wipe off, and dab Aromaleigh Rocks! Sonic Eyeshadow in Spellbound along the remaining half of your lower lashline, into the inner-corner.
• Highlight along the brow-bone with your standard highlight, I used MAC Shroom and a MAC 275 SE brush.
  
• With a clean, thin brush (pencil will do, or smaller) use any shimmery white you have to highlight the inner-corner, blending it into the crease and lower-lashline, and use the same to highlight under the highest point of the brow arch. As ever, I use the shimmery white in the Sleek iDivine Safari, Graphite, and Curious palettes.
• Re-apply any of the above eyeshadows as necessary, if you overblended.
  
• Line with black on the upper lashline and waterline. Try not to make it as fail as mine. I use Urban Decay 24/7 pencil in Zero, as always.
• Prime lashes with Urban Decay Eyelash Primer, or apply false lashes, if you fancy it.
• Top with a few million coats of Bourjois Liner Effect Mascara.

Lips

• Exfoliate, I used a little MAC Volcanic Ash Exfoliator on a damp cloth. I have no idea if that's safe or not.
• Apply Urban Decay Lip Primer (lip balm would do, but I don't have one. Nope. Not a one.)
• Apply Barry M Lip Paint in 100.
• Top with MAC Lipglass in Delicate Crush.

And done! In reality, this was a bit messier. I stupidly tried to combine soft sparkly shades with incredibly bright mattes, which ended up overpowering the others. The Hot In The City collection totally rescued me, and I can't recommend those highly enough. The colours are fantastic, but the finish is great, too. They were pigmented enough to blend perfectly over existing eyeshadow which had gone wrong and overpowered the rest, without changing colour or becoming muddied. The collection is limited and currently encoring - it's only there until January 2nd! Buy it now! Run!

The must-have shades are: Italian Ice, Neon Lights, Coney Island, Return to Tiffany's, Swelter, and Girl's Night Out. Gridlock is really nice, too.

Oh, and my scarf was a gift from my now-ex, it's a beautiful piece of rainbowhappy which came from Shanalogic.

A note on the FOTD title - I know, I normally don't explain these, but the thought process behind this one is even more oblique than usual. It comes from the biblical explanation of rainbows, essentially - ahem - God's promise that he'll never try to wipe us all out with a flood again (I guess it was a divine soft-reset? Hold the shoulder buttons and hit start+select...) rather than, you know, light shining on water droplets in the atmosphere causing a visible spectrum of light, or anything silly like that.

Anyway, that led me to thinking about the Tool song, Ænima, with the lyrics:

Learn to swim.
'Cause I'm praying for rain
And I'm praying for tidal waves
I wanna see the ground give way.
I wanna watch it all go down.
Mom please flush it all away.

And, so you have the title. Best learn to swim, just in case. But thank God for rainbows, eh? No pun intended.