1. About the Author
The 100 Days of Makeup Challenge is a story collection of my personal experiences in the field of product design, usability and user experience. I hope you enjoy it!
2. Day 1-The Foundation
A&F is one of the few online brands that’s been around for years, still going strong and growing. They have a 100 days of makeup challenge that invites users to create a new look per day. Monday: clean up your face, then apply your foundation (a foundation is the first thing you should apply after you wash your face). Tuesday: go for a bright, colourful lip colour and apply lipstick along with top coat. Wednesday: take advantage of the sun and wear a bold colour in your eyes. Thursday: do something different with hair, make it short or long, add highlights or bleaches it up. Friday: add some sparkle to your nails with colour (if you’re doing nails at home) by buffing them down with a brush to remove excess polish. Saturday: put on more makeup for special events such as weddings (or just because) then finish off with eye shadow and mascara.
We love this challenge because we like challenges where there is no clear winner and we want to see who comes out on top. We might not win every day but we are trying to find ways to improve our daily routine so that we can take better advantage of being “as good as it gets” in our own skin — in other words, being healthier than average!
3. Day 2- The Blush
Let’s get something out of the way: the makeup challenge is not for makeup enthusiasts. No, it’s for people who like to do things and look good at the same time.
The challenge is twofold. First, you have to do a certain amount of makeup in 100 days in order to be able to put a new version of your product on sale (I stress this because a poorly-made product can actually kill your chances at getting that sale if you don’t deliver). Second, you have to put on makeup every day.
Now, I want you to think carefully about this — because I think you should be thinking very carefully about it.
If you’re at all self-conscious about how you look, then this might be one of the most uncomfortable challenges any of us will ever face. If that is you, then please stop reading now and just go and get some advice from someone who does make up for it with his or her looks (if that’s what puts you off). I know some people who like to doin’ it and looking good all the same. But there are others who don’t; they don’t know how they look and they don’t want a whole bunch of useless notifications telling them they look great if they actually do look bad (which would be very bad news indeed). And if that sounds like me (and it should) then there are plenty of those too — those who aren’t into makeup but still want to take advantage of their beauty by getting out there with their friends each day and doing photos with their friends each day and buying products for each other for Christmas etc., etc., etc..
So let me tell you what this challenge is all about: what happens when we put on makeup, as often as possible, for 100 days? What are we actually up against?
There are three basic things we need to consider before jumping into this challenge:
They started: The first thing we need to consider is whether or not the product has been created yet. When I say “they started” I mean the point at which a team decided that they wanted to put their idea into an app form first (or an idea into an app form plus “on sales today!” marketing materials), otherwise known as Stage 0 development. It could also mean when your product design was completed; but more likely than not it
4. Day 3- The Brows
My friend from the office photography team (a talented female photographer) asked me the other day if I would help her with a makeup challenge. Her challenge was to not only finish a full face of makeup in 100 days, but also to do so in a way that created an attractive and flattering effect on her face. Now, this is easy at the start. Once you look at yourself in front of the mirror and see your eyes, nose and mouth, you know what you look like. But it’s still not that easy after 100 days have gone by!
But she had some tips:
• Don’t get lazy when applying your makeup throughout the day. You don’t want one big blob all over your face. Get into small sections with several layers working each section until it looks smooth, finished and even (and it will take more than just a few minutes to do this). For example, for my eyebrows I use my blending brush for them (don’t use your fingers!), then apply my mascara on top of it with a smaller brush so that I can blend everything together smoothly (and keep my eyebrows from looking too bushy).
• Use under-eye concealer before bed so that your eyes don’t look as tired at work or on social media etc.
• Don’t use too much eye shadow; go light enough to make your eyelids look plump but make sure they aren’t too dark or too light in order not to look creepy/dramatic/gothic (also remember that people are going to be looking at you anyway!).
• For lips, try to make them pretty natural — thin them out, add some pigment and try not to feel like you need any lip balm!
And then she asked me: “What should we do for our eyebrows?” So here is what we did:
1. We used our blending brush for eyebrows until they were thick enough for us to blend lots of color together without making them look unnatural (we had either 1) lots of eye shadow applied before using our blending brush or 2) lots of mascara applied before using our blending brush — which is how we had seamless brows before! 🙂
2. Then we went on Amazon and bought two tubes of MacBrowsing Eyebrow Pencil ($40) which comes with two color options: “natural brownie brown”
5. Day 4- The Lips
In the most recent 100 days of makeup challenge, I was inspired to share my comic about how I plan to do my makeup for the challenge.
I’ve been emulating various styles of makeup tutorials on YouTube and in a blog post, so here is a quick comic that gives you an overview of how I plan to go about it. The goal is to get all these different looks at work on day one, so I’m going to need a couple of things done in two different ways.
For simplicity’s sake, I am going to use more simple versions of products that people already know and can already buy. If you want something a little more complicated than this, feel free to believe in magic and try something else!
First up: foundation. This will probably be my least enjoyable task as it requires me to be patient with the product itself. For example, if I have some kind of powder foundation (or any other kind) that feels really nice on my skin but doesn’t seem like it would stick very well under makeup… Well, let’s look at this step by step and see if we can find some alternatives!
Second: concealer. Concealer is one product where having better-looking skin isn’t quite all there is to it — you also have to cover blemishes and such too! We need something a bit more “human-like” so we can get away with wearing less expensive stuff than what we would normally wear in real life — especially now that we are working with our models all day long!
Third: lipstick/lip balm. Lips don’t actually need lip balm (unless they are notorious for cracking/chapping), but they do need protection from dryness and chapping so they can still be used comfortably during the workday (and therefore still perform their job well). It seems like many people use chapstick instead though; but chapstick does come with its own set problems when you have long hours on your face for an extended time — especially because there are always different kinds of chapstick out there! So… let’s keep going with lipstick!
Fourth: eye shadow palette/eye shadow brush set. While lip balms do come in palettes as well (likely because they are easier to carry than lipsticks), eye shadow palettes also have their own issues since there are usually many different shades available for each palette (not just 1 or 2!).
6. Day 5- The Contour
This is the second of two posts on the makeup challenge by our community leader, Sammy.
The makeup challenge was launched on April 25th and it’s now time to wrap up another cycle and see how our community is progressing. As before, I am going to post a summary of what’s been done so far on this blog (post #5) as well as an analysis of what’s coming up in the next five days.
I will check in with everyone on day 100 but I will also be doing a blog post shortly after that, confirming some of the results that were posted today.
First off, let’s go through how you can join the challenge and participate in its activities:
1) Sign up here: https://goo.gl/forms/8nBQzfBhKj9iVRm2
2) Makeup challenge: https://goo.gl/forms/xrUzvEFyNp6UgRjNb
3) Follow us on Twitter: https://goo.gl/ggAqxS
4) Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1565184660629042/ (Make sure to like us so you get updates when we post new entries!)
5) Join our community at http://tinyurl.com/macrumours-challenge-readme (and go through all the posts there!)
As you can see, there are some very simple steps that anyone can take to join the community and participate in this amazing event! If you have any questions or suggestions about these or other things going on around here feel free to leave them in the comments below or use one of the contact methods below! We love hearing from our readers and always appreciate your input! You can find my contact information below along with my WordPress username MacRumours . Also feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected] if you have any questions about participating or simply want to say hi! Or feel free to follow me on Twitter at @MacRumors . Thanks for reading! Jason Page Website: http://macrumours.com Twitter: @MacRumors Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/MacRumors Google+ Page: http://googleplus.com/+MacRumors
7. Day 6- The Eyes
We’ve started doing some home testing of the new features in Slack.
One of the things I really enjoy about Slack is that it has its own private network, just for our team. The 14 other teams in our company can join, but not join into ours; which gives us a lot more privacy and security than any other platform we’ve tried (even Facebook).
Here’s a challenge for you: How many days have you spent on your last make-up look? If you’re like me, it’s usually several days; so why don’t we encourage you to cut out that time by making a donation to the Makeup Without Borders campaign!
8. Day 7- The Eyebrows
So we’re halfway through the 100 days of makeup challenge, and we’re still having trouble finding the right shade.
We can’t afford to spend too much time on this. If we don’t have enough time to figure out what shade will work, our customer base won’t know how to use it, and we won’t make any money.
We need to get this one right so that our customers know how to use it and can build its value in the future. And that requires a lot of trial and error — but if you are having trouble figuring out which shade is going to work for you then don’t worry about it — just keep going!
In fact, it might be a good idea not even encourage you to stop (and go back through your makeup case and look at all your shades again). Instead, find a new shade every day until you finally find the one that works for you.
9
I’ve been thinking a lot about makeup this summer. I’m not going to chide anyone who likes to wear makeup in the summer, but I’m looking at the way we do it and wondering how we could do it better.
The challenge is simple: take a camera with you everywhere you go, record yourself for a week, and post a video of your own makeup process. You can use any camera you want, but Apple’s iPhone 6S has the best video quality (and it also has an app for making videos!).
I think that we could all benefit from taking some time out of our busy schedules (or trying to squeeze in some extra sleep) to try out some of my favorite makeup looks from previous years.
This year, I decided to do my “No Makeup Day” challenge, which means no foundation, concealer or powder. The idea is that you start the day without any make-up on and work up as time goes on until you have a full face, and then blog about your process along the way. I wanted to see if there were any advantages or disadvantages for doing this — so if anyone wants to join me on this little adventure!
Last year:
1) Left side: Lips + blush = YSL Rouge Pur Couture + nude lip = MAC nude lip = MAC lip liner = MAC lipstick (MAC taupe) 2) Right side: Eyes + liner = MAC eyeshadow (MAC taupe) 3) Cheeks + blush = Bare Minerals cheek stain & blush 4) Top & Bottom: Eyelashes & mascara Flat lash brush 5) Foundation shade 1 Foundation shade 2 Foundation shade 3 Foundation shade 4 Base color 6 Eye shadow 1 Eye shadow 2 Eye shadow 3 Eye shadow 4 Shadow 7 Tinted eyeliner 8 Blush 1 Blush 2 Blush 3 Blush 4 Baked blush 9 Bronzer 1 Bronzer 2 Bronzer 3 Bronzer 4 Lipstick 10 Highlighter 11 Highlighter 12 Highlighter 13 Highlighter 14 Powder 15 Face powder 16 Scrub 17 Brow/lash tint 18 Eyelash tint 19 Eyebrow tint 20 Mascara 21 Kajal 22 Brushing 23 Perfume 24 Lip balm 25 Lip balm 26 Lip balm 27 Lip balm 28 Lip balm 29 Lip balm 30 Lip balm 31 Lip balm 32 Lip balm 33 Belly candy 34