WARRIOR: A Spirit & Story Scarf Inspired Makeup Tutorial

Happy Monday, Dah’lings! I’m bringing you part TWO of my scarf-inspired series feature Sam Skyler’s Spirit and Story “Reflections” Scarf. For this look, I created something very angular, bold, and quasi-androgynous honing in on the red, gold, and black tones from the fire dragon design side of this beautiful scarf.

he Reflection scarf is part of her Honor Collection inspired by Disney’s Mulan and features dual designs. On one corner there are delicate pink plum blossoms with purple branches and the other side features an epic depiction of a Chinese fire dragon. This scarf is truly a wearable work of art. To see the other design and the look that I was inspired to create from it – click on over to my BLOSSOM makeup tutorial.

When looking at this scarf, as a whole, the Chinese fire dragon takes up about 3/5ths of the scarf’s total surface area so it was a lot easier to feature for the outfit shots. I love how bold and vibrant the design is and out of the two sides, this is by far my favorite side – because… dragons… duh. Heheh.

THE LOOK:

With Blossom, I wanted something soft, feminine and blended out with color. Warrior, on the other hand, went the complete opposite. I wanted to create a look that was angular, bold, graphic, and not-so-feminine. It helps to pull out the androgynous card when you don’t have a whole lot of hair. Ha ha ha . Enter the graphic liner so sharp it’ll cut a Hun.

Now, for this liner, It will take you a little time and a little work to get the three lines to look as crisp as possible. As someone who is well versed in shaky hands, the advice I can give you is to basically have three points of contact for your arm/hand. Position your arm in between the table or vanity and your torso so that it’s slightly sandwiched in place, take your other arm and gently stabilize your wrist and lastly – go slow.

To make my life easier, I applied the gold (Sugarpill’s Goldilux loose eyeshadow + Inglot Duraline) all over the area of the wing and then went in with the other colors on top of it. The red liner (Sugarpill’s Asylum + Inglot Duraline) is also metallic so I didn’t have any trouble with the metallic from the gold peeking through. Lastly, I took the black liner (Espionage Cosmetic’s Vault Hunter – discontined – mixed with Duraline) and carefully put that down. After the black was down, I let everything set before going back in and cleaning up any of the lines. Oh, and I also used NudeStix’s Roller LIner in Blackmoon to get a crisp inner corner line – but the switched to the other black liner for the rest of it. If you want to I’m sure you could also use a bit of tape on the outer corner to get that line sharp.

And now comes the moment in this post where I have a little confession to make… while I love an inky dark lip – I hate it too. I have a little snaggle-tooth and it inevitably gets lipstick on it whenever I choose to wear something more than a gloss. It’s not that bad if it’s a nude color or something minimally noticeable, but when it’s black boy-oh-boy does it stick out like a sore thumb. I also don’t check my lipstick very often when out and about so I will have lots of lipstick on my teeth and then go chat someone’s ear off without even noticing it.

Another issue I have with bolder lips is that I have fine lines around my lips – which I’ve always had and I’m okay with… but it makes feathering a potential issue. This comes into play a lot when I’m wearing the Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics (RIP) Lip Tars because they will eventually feather on me. To hinder the feathering, I apply a lip liner – then blot – then apply some more before taking a little loose setting powder around the perimeter of my lips and then going in with the Lip Tar (or liquefied lipstick/gloss).

And can I just say that I friggin miss OCC Makeup. They’ve officially been out-of-business for almost a year now and it is a complete bummer. I swear up and down about their Creme Colour Concentrates and Loose Pigments, at the very least. I wish that the whole fiasco with Sephora didn’t happen because I think that’s what inevitably took them over the edge. They where one of the first indie brands that I thought of when I thought edgy, editorial, and maybe even a bit draggy – makeup wise. I hope that David and his partner are doing well wherever they are.

The outfit:

Anytime I can throw on a moto jacket is a good time. I love them although as someone who is middle-sized (ie. right in-between skinny and plus-sized) I have larger arms with broad shoulders and most moto jackets are a bit finicky in the sizes. This jacket is from Her Universe and was part of one of their Star Wars Collections right around the time when The Force Awakens came out. While it’s not technically “Mulan” it was the only moto I had at the time that would go with the outfit.

The tank top, on the other hand, cracks my shit up. It’s one of my favorite quotes from Mushu in the movie and says “Say that to my face, you limp noodle.” It’s one of the best comeback lines in my book – right up there with Labyrinth’s “Your mother was a fragging aardvark,” and Monty Python’s “Your mother was a hampster and your father smelt of elderberries.” I found it on Amazon and while it is hilarious – the tank top fabric itself is quite thin… so good for summer I guess.

Other than that, I’m sporting some cutoff black jeans from Old Navy or Target and Black Moto Boots that I wear all the time. You might recognize them from my Jessica Jones Cosplay that I did for the Sartorial Geek!

Story Time:

Last year, when I initially created this look – I then went to the Mall… because it’s what you do when you have a really awesome makeup on and want someone to appreciate it (… that isn’t a puppyduck). Mr. Chaos totally calls me out on it sometimes too, which then cracks me up because – yeah, it’s exactly what I’m doing … but I also need to get XYZ from the store. Hehehehe.

Anyway, I wore this look to our local-ish mega mall in King Of Prussia and ended up chatting with a lovely lady in the MUFE store – who loved my eyeliner. Flash to now, we follow each other Instagram, she’s the absolute sweetest, and every time I go in there when she’s working it makes me smile. She also always kept on me for when I was going to officially post this look online and I haven’t up until now. Many thanks to her for keeping a fire under my butt to finally get over my hesitations and put this out there.

Behold the lumpy back of my head. That’s what I get from testing gravity WAAAAAAAY too often, unintentionally.

And now, the end of this post has come. I would like to know which of these two looks (Blossom & Warrior) are your favorite. Please take a moment to go check out Sam Skyler’s artistry and Spirit and Story fashion line. It would mean the world to me if you when and showed her some much-needed love. She’s @samskylerart on Instagram.

FTC Disclaimer: I did receive this scarf but was not paid to promote or produce content for it. All opinions are 100% my own.