Cosmetics 101: Lessons 3 & 4
Sept 29, 2008 19:07:44 GMT
Post by andavri on Sept 29, 2008 19:07:44 GMT
Lessons 3 & 4
I have been trying to work on this lesson for over a week and a half now and I haven't been getting very far. Not that I'm really too worried about it, as no one has actually completed the homework from the second lesson as of the time of writing this. Well, two people did half of it, but that's it. So I am not so much worried about it from the standpoint of getting this lesson off as I am of worrying that I'm wasting my time.
But between bouts of self-doubt and worrying about RL, I have been letting this class percolate in the back of my head. The biggest problem I've had with Lesson 3 is that most of what I've been thinking of to cover is stuff that I have covered before in other lessons or was planning on covering in lesson 4. Finally, this morning the thought occurred to me, why not, as Lesson 3 is going to be late, just merge lessons 3 & 4 give your brief overview of blusher and costume make-up and then go straight into setting a mood using cosmetics.
So that's what I'm going to do.
I don't know that I use blush very well myself. I like blush to be subtle, just a faint flush of color at the cheeks, sometimes a bit stronger for certain situations, but I more or less keep to subtle when I can.
Most of the time you want a blush applied to the cheek either under the cheekbone with a highlight on the cheekbone, or in a C or 3 (C from the temple to the cheekbone. 3 temple, cheekbone, jawline.) Sometimes you'll also find that the blush has a shimmer or highlight on the forehead, nose and chin. That's okay, but remember you want subtle, not clown like.
When using a blusher on your sim, keep in mind the undertones of the skin. In RL when choosing a blush you go for the color your face is when naturally flushed (something sims can't show you.) or you go with lip color. Some skintones have really well chosen lipcolors and it's really easy to do this-some-meh--not so much. IE my default skintones are great everywhere but in the color chosen for the lips, but it doesn't matter because I always have something applied to the lips of my sims.
For fair tones, cool, blue/cool pink undertones you want to choose blushes that are pinks. Raspberry, burgundy, baby girl pink, cotton candy, bubblegum sorts of tones.
For olive tones, warmer, warm orange/yellow undertones, you want to choose blushes that are orange-y, not like Oompa Loompa peach, apricot, brick red.
Don't go too dark, unless that's the look you want. It can make your sim look like a glamour girl if you do it right, but you have to know how to do it right and I find that really hard. Conversely with dark skintones don't go too light. There's nothing worse than a rich dark chocolaty skintone with baby pink blush pixelated across the cheeks.
For costume make-up, which often finds it's way into the blush category because it's easier to make a custom icon there. Really the sky is the limit, just watch that your skintone isn't too dark or too light for the base color used, often, like with scars they use a tone from a skintone to blend with. If the skintone you're trying to apply it to is too dark, you'll see the edge of that blending on the skin and that just looks bad.
Using things like scars, freckles, and beauty marks is a really subtle way to add some originality to your sims without having to really clutter your game up with a lot of skintones. They also give your sim a sort of a sense of history. If you include an intriguing scar on your sim it looks like they've had some life before now. But using these things is hard to explain, like forming a personal style for your sim, only you know where s/he has been, where you want to send him or her.
I often, in my own game, use several beauty marks on my self-sim, because in real life I have several. It makes her a bit more "me"
We're going to be doing something a little different for this, so I know up until now I haven't told you what to download at all, just gave my recommendations for creators I like. Now I'm going to change all that. We're going to be working for the next two lessons all with the same sim and all with similar clothing.
I feel slightly uncomfortable with this next part, because it requires putting my foot down and "saying my way", which is way out of my comfort zone. I'm much more comfortable with saying "do your own thing". However the whole point of this is to remove the variables. So all we're dealing with is the cosmetics and the changes that the cosmetics render.
I could do this with just Maxis stuff, I know, but not everyone has the same expansion/stuff packs, not everyone uses the same defaults and a lot of us run defaults rather than running Maxis. I don't see that it's any more fair to ask everyone to strip out their defaults for skin and eyes than to ask you to download just a little.
So what you are going to need:
Autumn: A sim I created solely for the purpose of these two lessons. ( Link ) She comes as Maxis only, you will have to download the skin, hair, eyes, and brows listed!! I don't think I have to really say this, but please don't redistribute her. You can of course play with her if you chose after the lessons, but don't upload her or anything.
Chakaru skintone in light. ((MTS Link) Not negotiable.
Dragon Mandy's Fantastical-dark eyes in black (MTS Link) Not negotiable. The downloads are labeled you can download and dump the rest if that's not the style of eyes you use.
Nouk's squid hair in brown. Light recolor version (MTS/Nouk's site Link here) You can make a case for using something in a similar style, but I'd prefer it if you used this hair.
Anva's Femme brows in Brown (MTS Link here) Not negotiable.
Clothing: (These are all suggestions, you can use whatever you wish in the style I've listed.)
1 white sleeved shirt. I'm using Senate @ MTS Thermal. (Link )
1 bottom of your choice.
1 princess style white formal wedding dress I'm using # 792 @ Liana's sims 2 (Link)
1 black cocktail dress. I'm using Elie Saab 015 @ InBeatz (Link)
And of course, cosmetics. Blush, lipstick, eyeshadow and eyeliner, I would recommend some costume make-up (though it can be in blush.) What you download here or use from your own game is your choice
When I say setting a mood, I mean matching the make-up to the circumstance. It's all well and good to pick one style of make-up for your sim and to carry it through, but it gets a little boring. I mean, we'll be covering the progressive idea of changing your sim as your sim ages in detail in the next lesson, this one is more about matching your sims make-up to what's about to happen. IE Your sim is going on a first date. Your sim is getting married. Your sims best friend is getting married to her ex boyfriend. All of these things would, in real life, spawn different choices in cosmetics.
I think it adds more depth to the game to use such concepts in your game. I personally do change my sims' make-up every time I change their outfit, (once to twice a season) and for major events. If there's going to be a wedding and said sim is invited, I plan their make-up along with their formal wear. If my sim is going on a first date, I almost always send them out to buy clothing and then change their hair and make-up. If my sim is going out with friends to a club I change their make-up.
It's just something I automatically do.
Here we have Autumn just with an every day sort of look, I thought freckles suited her face, and so I included them. (You don't have to.)
These first two looks might be good for a fantasy sort of hood or for a costume party, something whimsical. Notice that I kept the lipstick neutral in the blue one and matched the orange tones with the lipstick in fall one.
Again, this would be something of a theme type look either theme as in hood or theme as in party doesn't really matter which.
Here's something like a cocktail party look, again I kept to a neutral on the lip, but used a very shaping blush to add interest to the face, the pink eyeshadow is kind of playful and the lashes, while on the thick/heavy side, I think go with the playful look, adding just a little bit of sultriness.
This is very definitely a sultry look, something that might suit a femme fatale or say she's going to a party where she knows someone she wants to make an impression on is going to be. Might be the "I've so moved on from you dancing a jig on my heart (which you so conveniently ripped out of my chest)" look for an ex-boyfriend? I have no idea why flushed cheeks say both ingénue and femme fatale, but they're usually part of a Continental look.
And here we have a bridal look, it's very innocent, ingénue, notice again the flush to the cheeks from the blush but this is more a cotton candy tone than before. By keeping the lip neutral and eyes just accented enough to make them pop you give a very fresh sort of look, which is a very popular wedding look.
Here's a very different sort of wedding look. much more sultry and definitely for a bride who wants to the sole center of attention on her wedding day. This would also be a good "night" look, cocktail party or out to the club if that's the sort of look you want your sim to go for.
Now matching these looks up with the right sim is what we'll cover in the next lesson. Yes, you're going to see more of Autumn.
Tips:
I was realizing that one thing I didn't think to share with you back in the second lesson was a few tips about eyeshadow. Most sims shadows come in a wide variety of colors, which is how you can get away with only downloading one or two from a creator you like and still have seemingly plenty of make-up. But so, the shape is right, it's not too dark or too light, it looks good for what you're trying to choose make-up for... how do you now choose between the sixteen different shades you just downloaded?
The easiest way, as you're playing up the eyes anyway, is to decide based on the eye color you're using.
Blue eyes: Taupe, gray, violet, purple, deep blue, silver, turquoise, fuchsia
Green/Hazel: Brown, apricot, purple, plum, forest green colors gold, lime-green, very light green, bright purple
Brown: Copper, bronze, champagne, beige, forest-green tangerine, royal blue, hot pink, lime-green
Gray eyes: Being neutral almost any color will work, in doubt, light grays go with the colors listed for blue, dark grays go with the colors listed for brown.
Also remember, when working with clothing colors, it's somewhat cliché to chose the same tones for clothing as for make-up, use a complimentary color. (IE if she's wearing red, choose green tones for the shadow. If she's wearing purple, choose a yellow) Unless of course that's going to clash with her skintone/hair.
Neutrals are wonderful—but they can be as overdone as anything else, the focus of make-up is to enhance the features, this is the same for your sim as for your average celebrity. If you choose a neutral eyeshadow and a neutral lip, depending on what they're wearing they can look natural, or they can look washed out. This is especially true with dark hair and medium to light skin. Not to say you can't do neutrals on the face but if the color they're wearing is strong, choose something to make a facial feature pop.
Go with a slightly more dramatic eyeliner or a false lash accessory. Choose that bold lipstick instead of the pale pink.
Homework:
Using Autumn create an everyday look, a club look, a cocktail party look, and a bridal look. You can choose what you think her personality is like. No expressive shots if you don't want to and they can all be indoors or outdoors your choice.
Credits:
Chakaru @ MTS for skintone
Dragonmandy @ MTS for Eyeliner & Eyes
Shady @ MTS for Eyeshadow
Sumse @ MTS for Blush & Eyeshadow
Mirade @ MTS for Eyeliner
Bruno @ MTS for lipstick
Shojoangel @ MTS for Lipstick
Dedication @ MTS for Freckles
Anva @ MTS for Eyeshadow @ Brows
LaPink for Eyeliner
Barcelonista @ Just Sims 2 for Blush
~Monica (SA) @ TSR for Blush
Club Crymson for Costume make-up
Nouk for hair
InBeatz for dress
Liana @ Lianasims2 for dress
Senate @ MTS for top
frizelbliz @ MTS for jeans
Sims 2 Heaven for Lipstick
~Steph
I have been trying to work on this lesson for over a week and a half now and I haven't been getting very far. Not that I'm really too worried about it, as no one has actually completed the homework from the second lesson as of the time of writing this. Well, two people did half of it, but that's it. So I am not so much worried about it from the standpoint of getting this lesson off as I am of worrying that I'm wasting my time.
But between bouts of self-doubt and worrying about RL, I have been letting this class percolate in the back of my head. The biggest problem I've had with Lesson 3 is that most of what I've been thinking of to cover is stuff that I have covered before in other lessons or was planning on covering in lesson 4. Finally, this morning the thought occurred to me, why not, as Lesson 3 is going to be late, just merge lessons 3 & 4 give your brief overview of blusher and costume make-up and then go straight into setting a mood using cosmetics.
So that's what I'm going to do.
I don't know that I use blush very well myself. I like blush to be subtle, just a faint flush of color at the cheeks, sometimes a bit stronger for certain situations, but I more or less keep to subtle when I can.
Most of the time you want a blush applied to the cheek either under the cheekbone with a highlight on the cheekbone, or in a C or 3 (C from the temple to the cheekbone. 3 temple, cheekbone, jawline.) Sometimes you'll also find that the blush has a shimmer or highlight on the forehead, nose and chin. That's okay, but remember you want subtle, not clown like.
When using a blusher on your sim, keep in mind the undertones of the skin. In RL when choosing a blush you go for the color your face is when naturally flushed (something sims can't show you.) or you go with lip color. Some skintones have really well chosen lipcolors and it's really easy to do this-some-meh--not so much. IE my default skintones are great everywhere but in the color chosen for the lips, but it doesn't matter because I always have something applied to the lips of my sims.
For fair tones, cool, blue/cool pink undertones you want to choose blushes that are pinks. Raspberry, burgundy, baby girl pink, cotton candy, bubblegum sorts of tones.
For olive tones, warmer, warm orange/yellow undertones, you want to choose blushes that are orange-y, not like Oompa Loompa peach, apricot, brick red.
Don't go too dark, unless that's the look you want. It can make your sim look like a glamour girl if you do it right, but you have to know how to do it right and I find that really hard. Conversely with dark skintones don't go too light. There's nothing worse than a rich dark chocolaty skintone with baby pink blush pixelated across the cheeks.
For costume make-up, which often finds it's way into the blush category because it's easier to make a custom icon there. Really the sky is the limit, just watch that your skintone isn't too dark or too light for the base color used, often, like with scars they use a tone from a skintone to blend with. If the skintone you're trying to apply it to is too dark, you'll see the edge of that blending on the skin and that just looks bad.
Using things like scars, freckles, and beauty marks is a really subtle way to add some originality to your sims without having to really clutter your game up with a lot of skintones. They also give your sim a sort of a sense of history. If you include an intriguing scar on your sim it looks like they've had some life before now. But using these things is hard to explain, like forming a personal style for your sim, only you know where s/he has been, where you want to send him or her.
I often, in my own game, use several beauty marks on my self-sim, because in real life I have several. It makes her a bit more "me"
We're going to be doing something a little different for this, so I know up until now I haven't told you what to download at all, just gave my recommendations for creators I like. Now I'm going to change all that. We're going to be working for the next two lessons all with the same sim and all with similar clothing.
I feel slightly uncomfortable with this next part, because it requires putting my foot down and "saying my way", which is way out of my comfort zone. I'm much more comfortable with saying "do your own thing". However the whole point of this is to remove the variables. So all we're dealing with is the cosmetics and the changes that the cosmetics render.
I could do this with just Maxis stuff, I know, but not everyone has the same expansion/stuff packs, not everyone uses the same defaults and a lot of us run defaults rather than running Maxis. I don't see that it's any more fair to ask everyone to strip out their defaults for skin and eyes than to ask you to download just a little.
So what you are going to need:
Autumn: A sim I created solely for the purpose of these two lessons. ( Link ) She comes as Maxis only, you will have to download the skin, hair, eyes, and brows listed!! I don't think I have to really say this, but please don't redistribute her. You can of course play with her if you chose after the lessons, but don't upload her or anything.
Chakaru skintone in light. ((MTS Link) Not negotiable.
Dragon Mandy's Fantastical-dark eyes in black (MTS Link) Not negotiable. The downloads are labeled you can download and dump the rest if that's not the style of eyes you use.
Nouk's squid hair in brown. Light recolor version (MTS/Nouk's site Link here) You can make a case for using something in a similar style, but I'd prefer it if you used this hair.
Anva's Femme brows in Brown (MTS Link here) Not negotiable.
Clothing: (These are all suggestions, you can use whatever you wish in the style I've listed.)
1 white sleeved shirt. I'm using Senate @ MTS Thermal. (Link )
1 bottom of your choice.
1 princess style white formal wedding dress I'm using # 792 @ Liana's sims 2 (Link)
1 black cocktail dress. I'm using Elie Saab 015 @ InBeatz (Link)
And of course, cosmetics. Blush, lipstick, eyeshadow and eyeliner, I would recommend some costume make-up (though it can be in blush.) What you download here or use from your own game is your choice
When I say setting a mood, I mean matching the make-up to the circumstance. It's all well and good to pick one style of make-up for your sim and to carry it through, but it gets a little boring. I mean, we'll be covering the progressive idea of changing your sim as your sim ages in detail in the next lesson, this one is more about matching your sims make-up to what's about to happen. IE Your sim is going on a first date. Your sim is getting married. Your sims best friend is getting married to her ex boyfriend. All of these things would, in real life, spawn different choices in cosmetics.
I think it adds more depth to the game to use such concepts in your game. I personally do change my sims' make-up every time I change their outfit, (once to twice a season) and for major events. If there's going to be a wedding and said sim is invited, I plan their make-up along with their formal wear. If my sim is going on a first date, I almost always send them out to buy clothing and then change their hair and make-up. If my sim is going out with friends to a club I change their make-up.
It's just something I automatically do.
Here we have Autumn just with an every day sort of look, I thought freckles suited her face, and so I included them. (You don't have to.)
These first two looks might be good for a fantasy sort of hood or for a costume party, something whimsical. Notice that I kept the lipstick neutral in the blue one and matched the orange tones with the lipstick in fall one.
Again, this would be something of a theme type look either theme as in hood or theme as in party doesn't really matter which.
Here's something like a cocktail party look, again I kept to a neutral on the lip, but used a very shaping blush to add interest to the face, the pink eyeshadow is kind of playful and the lashes, while on the thick/heavy side, I think go with the playful look, adding just a little bit of sultriness.
This is very definitely a sultry look, something that might suit a femme fatale or say she's going to a party where she knows someone she wants to make an impression on is going to be. Might be the "I've so moved on from you dancing a jig on my heart (which you so conveniently ripped out of my chest)" look for an ex-boyfriend? I have no idea why flushed cheeks say both ingénue and femme fatale, but they're usually part of a Continental look.
And here we have a bridal look, it's very innocent, ingénue, notice again the flush to the cheeks from the blush but this is more a cotton candy tone than before. By keeping the lip neutral and eyes just accented enough to make them pop you give a very fresh sort of look, which is a very popular wedding look.
Here's a very different sort of wedding look. much more sultry and definitely for a bride who wants to the sole center of attention on her wedding day. This would also be a good "night" look, cocktail party or out to the club if that's the sort of look you want your sim to go for.
Now matching these looks up with the right sim is what we'll cover in the next lesson. Yes, you're going to see more of Autumn.
Tips:
I was realizing that one thing I didn't think to share with you back in the second lesson was a few tips about eyeshadow. Most sims shadows come in a wide variety of colors, which is how you can get away with only downloading one or two from a creator you like and still have seemingly plenty of make-up. But so, the shape is right, it's not too dark or too light, it looks good for what you're trying to choose make-up for... how do you now choose between the sixteen different shades you just downloaded?
The easiest way, as you're playing up the eyes anyway, is to decide based on the eye color you're using.
Blue eyes: Taupe, gray, violet, purple, deep blue, silver, turquoise, fuchsia
Green/Hazel: Brown, apricot, purple, plum, forest green colors gold, lime-green, very light green, bright purple
Brown: Copper, bronze, champagne, beige, forest-green tangerine, royal blue, hot pink, lime-green
Gray eyes: Being neutral almost any color will work, in doubt, light grays go with the colors listed for blue, dark grays go with the colors listed for brown.
Also remember, when working with clothing colors, it's somewhat cliché to chose the same tones for clothing as for make-up, use a complimentary color. (IE if she's wearing red, choose green tones for the shadow. If she's wearing purple, choose a yellow) Unless of course that's going to clash with her skintone/hair.
Neutrals are wonderful—but they can be as overdone as anything else, the focus of make-up is to enhance the features, this is the same for your sim as for your average celebrity. If you choose a neutral eyeshadow and a neutral lip, depending on what they're wearing they can look natural, or they can look washed out. This is especially true with dark hair and medium to light skin. Not to say you can't do neutrals on the face but if the color they're wearing is strong, choose something to make a facial feature pop.
Go with a slightly more dramatic eyeliner or a false lash accessory. Choose that bold lipstick instead of the pale pink.
Homework:
Using Autumn create an everyday look, a club look, a cocktail party look, and a bridal look. You can choose what you think her personality is like. No expressive shots if you don't want to and they can all be indoors or outdoors your choice.
Credits:
Chakaru @ MTS for skintone
Dragonmandy @ MTS for Eyeliner & Eyes
Shady @ MTS for Eyeshadow
Sumse @ MTS for Blush & Eyeshadow
Mirade @ MTS for Eyeliner
Bruno @ MTS for lipstick
Shojoangel @ MTS for Lipstick
Dedication @ MTS for Freckles
Anva @ MTS for Eyeshadow @ Brows
LaPink for Eyeliner
Barcelonista @ Just Sims 2 for Blush
~Monica (SA) @ TSR for Blush
Club Crymson for Costume make-up
Nouk for hair
InBeatz for dress
Liana @ Lianasims2 for dress
Senate @ MTS for top
frizelbliz @ MTS for jeans
Sims 2 Heaven for Lipstick
~Steph
But thanks, I'm glad to know it's helped a little for you at least. 
I understand about real life. It's evil and has this irritating idea that it should come first. And unfortunately it seems to be right. 
I know I have been away, and I got back earlier than expected. I havent forgotton about my homework for Lesson 2 Steph. I am going to do it. I have just been busy with building Apartment Lots to share. 
Promise!
I have downloaded all I need for these two lessons. I am so excited to start this part of the lessons. 
