Hooded Eye Makeup -- Ideas And Inspirations

A long time back I wrote a bit about hooded eyes. Now I have some fresh ideas that I want to share:

A hooded eye is not just little space on the moveable lid. It means that the unmovable lid looks pillowy -- however this is often not very obvious, especially on younger people. The more clear sign of the hooded eye is that the crease is longer than average, it extends to the outer corner of the eyes. This makes applying regular eyeliner impossible -- if you draw it on with your eyes closed, it will look very strange when you open your eyes (and vice versa). (I'm not going to talk about east Asian and monolid eyes here, because this is a whole big topic I'm absolutely not qualified for.)

Before I delve into actual makeup, I want to say that I always find it a pity when people approach hooded eyes as something that needs to be fixed. I find this eye feature is very charming, it is a very specific look and has not been called "bedroom eyes" in vain. A lot, and I mean really a lot of gorgeous famous women have hooded eyes -- from actresses to supermodels to singers.

I found it a pity that Renee Zellweger got work done that took away this distinctive feature of hers. I mean she is a beautiful woman and looks great still, but she looks so, I dunno, rather generic Caucasian now. Not to mention that her original eye shape that she felt the need to fix is due to her Kven and Sami heritage, which is another conversation all together.

Ok, off my soapbox and back to makeup. 

Many hooded eye makeup tutorials will tell you to apply a dark, matte shade on the unmoveable eyelid to make it recede. This is the standard "corrective" makeup for the hooded eye:

The Base Coat That Makes Nail Polish Last And Keeps My Nails Healthy -- Orly Bonder Review

 

I'm a practical person when it comes to manicures -- if it chips in two days, I can't be bothered. So I have been looking into all kind of base products and top coats, and wasn't that impressed. Most didn't seem to do make my manicure last longer. I also didn't want to use anything with formaldehyde -- while it strengthens the nails at first, with time it damages the nail and can make it separate from the nail bed.

After a lot of research I stumbled on the Orly Bonder Rubberized Formula -- a sticky base that is free from formaldehyde.

It's yellowish and a bit thick. When dry it's still tacky and rubbery, this makes it grip on to the nail polish so well. The Orly Bonder makes my manicures last around at least twice as long as along. And I'm not very gentle with my nails -- I do a lot of things with my hands, including cooking and washing the dishes by hand (and I'm unfortunately lazy about wearing gloves, mainly because I seem to be in between sizes). 

 
The Orly Bonder has another huge advantage. My nails are not very strong, and wearing nail polish for more than a week means my nail layers separate and peel off. This means I could paint my nails once every 4-8 weeks, that's how long it takes for the damage to grow out. Since I am using Orly Bonder Rubberised formula, my nails have been completely healthy. The base coat creates a barrier between my nail and the polish.

Minuses? The Orly Bonder does not completely keep my nails from getting stained by my red and orange nail polish. The Bonder itself leaves a light yellowish tint on the nails, which looks flattering on some nails and less so on others. The formula is a bit rubbery, which means it can be less than smooth to apply. Also the brush isn't the best.

The right way to apply it is to apply on dry and oil-free nails. Make sure that the outer edges of the nails are well covered, you can sweep a bit under the nail just to make sure.  Although the product is not that cheap, a little goes a very long way. The photo of the bottle in the post is a bit old, the new one is a bit sleeker.

 

Have you use the Orly Bonder? Or do you have other holy grail nail bases?

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Zeta

Photo credit: VenusianGlow

Should You Be Supplementing Vitamin D? My Personal Experience.

I'm writing this post because some of my family have been diagnosed with a vitamin D deficiency, with one family member having extremely low levels.
 

If you live in a country where you don't get much sun during the winter, you might be feeling sluggish and moody during the cold half of the year. And might be chalking it up to things like spending so much time indoors, the cold and the darkness. But actually a lot of people living in the higher latitudes are deficient in Vitamin D -- this paper suggests 41,6% of people in the US. And double that number of black people  -- research shows that the more melanin your skin has, the less it absorbs the ultraviolet radiation that is needed to synthesize vitamin D.