Tales of Trial and Terror: Dark and Dramatic Make up-- Take 1

People who know me, know I'll try anything once--I love trying new things. Even if that means I make a wreck of whatever I am learning. My quest in the pursuit of my idea of perfect aesthetic and material treasures are not without consequence, but it is through these terrors and miraculous discoveries about what works and what doesn't, that I find I learn the most important rule in life: learning the meaning of 'humble'. These are my humble beginnings...

As I've mentioned countless times in the previous posts, I am pretty new to make up-- my recent haul was probably the only time I've ever spent so much on cosmetic items in one trip.
So I've been timid with how I do it up until today; pining over picture after picture of beautifully and creatively done make up as seen by the likes of Madam Noire's blog or Lady Bathezda's blog, to name a couple. I finally decided I'd try my hand at it.

I wanted a dark and dramatic look, but I had no idea where to start. Down to the basics it was... so I figured, who's more dark and dramatic than the ever iconic Siouxsie Sioux?

The inspiration: Source

 I realize now in retrospect that I could, and still can, be easily eating my words because it's not a look where a beginner should begin, so I should emphasize right now that the resulting look is loosely based off of Siouxie Sioux's illustrious looks.

Anyway.

I normally have my brows on the thicker side, but today I took my tweezers and started plucking. The brand of tweezers in case you're wondering are Sally Hansen, and I don't recommend them.
Since I'm not new to plucking my brows, I didn't find it all that difficult to know my brow limit and the shape I desired. When I started plucking my brows back in high school I used a brow brush to brush my brows upward, take a pencil liner and mark out the shape I wanted and plucked out whatever was below the line. After a while you just know. I really underestimated how a change of brow intensity changes your face dramatically, and gives the illusion of a cleaner palette-- something I think that many of us newbies really overlook, as well.

It's amazing what a little investment of your time can yield; granted if I invested money, perhaps the results would've been truer. I was working with a dollarstore shadow palette (no joke) and a paint brush to apply all of this.

The first 'wash' I did I chose a faint lilac, which with my skintone turned into a translucent silver. The second color was a darker shade of purple that was showing up on my skin as a brandy color. The final touch was a black that turned into a pale charcoal. Lip color is wet and wild red.

As I write this, I realized I forgot the dramatic blush. Maybe next time...
It's not a look I'll be quickly adopting for my everyday, or even my evening look, and not for any other reason than I am too new to make up so I haven't found my niche-- and I love the experience!

Do you dare to do dark and dramatic yourself?