TUTORIAL || Mary McDonnell [The Cherry Orchard]

Surprise! A post on a Sunday? Yes, dear friends, a post on a Sunday. I thought that I would surprise you all with a little makeup tutorial today. This has been a makeup tutorial that I have been wanting to do for weeks but one that I shamefully haven't gotten around to doing until now. Though, the timing couldn't be better. The theatrical run of The Cherry Orchard at the People's Light is coming to a close today in Pennsylvania *sad sigh*. Being in Northern Ireland, I never got the opportunity to go and see it and I would have gone to see it in a heartbeat because it stars someone who has been featured on this blog several times, Mary McDonnell. Plus David Strathairn (one of my favourite actors) and Mary's daughter, Olivia Mell. So to mark the final curtain call for this wonderful production, I thought that I would share with you my take on the makeup that Mary had for the promotional photography for this play.

 

Oh and I fangirled so much when I found out that those photographs were taken by Dennys Ilic. I nearly flipped with excitement but I kept my cool - and totally tweeted Dennys that he was killing me with his skills and clientele. He favourited it. Onward!

 

The makeup used for this photoshoot was very understated and natural. It was simplistic in that it highlighted Mary's natural beauty and drew attention to those incredible green eyes of hers. Yes, the photos have been run through photoshop but her face isn't caked in product and there wasn't a lot of that raved about contouring and highlighting. I know the way her makeup artist works from reading interviews. There was a warmth to her features and a youthful flush to the cheeks. The look is very wearable for an everyday look and I went out after doing this and I can honestly say that I felt so much more attractive and confident like this than I do when I have the smokey and cat eye going. Less is definitely more at times.

Listed below are all the products that I used to achieve this look. You certainly don't need to use all of these, I just happened to have these in my collection. What you have will do the trick especially with shades of foundation, concealer and powder etc. The specific brands used don't have to be used either as long as the colours match up, you'll be grand. The same with the makeup brushes used. You can used whatever you want.

Makeup Used

• L'Oreal Paris Infalliable Mattifying Primer
• Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation - Ivory
• Collection Lasting Finish Concealer - Fair
• Bourjois Healthy Balance Unifying Powder- Vanilla
• Urban Decay Naked Flushed Palette - Streak
• Chanel Joues Contraste Powder Blush - Frivole
• Gleam Lips Radiance by Melanie Mills - Pop My Cork
• W7 In The Buff Eyeshadow Palette
• L'Oreal Paris Color Riche Mono Eyeshadow - La Vie En Rose
• Rimmel ScandalEyes Gel Liner - Black
• Helen E Soft Black Eyeliner
• L'Oreal Paris Volume Million Lashes So Couture Mascara
• Soap & Glory Archery 2 in 1 Eyebrow Pencil - Blondeshell
• ELF Lash & Brow Clear Mascara

Tools Used

• Real Technqiues Buffing Brush
• Real Technqiues Deluxe Crease Brush
• Real Techniques Contour Brush
• Real Techniques Powder Brush
• Real Techniques Blush Brush
• Real Techniques Base Shadow Brush
• No7 Contour & Highlighter Brush
• Eco Tools Eye Enhancing Duo Brushes - Blend & Shade
• Revlon Duo Eye Brush
• Ted Baker eyelash curlers

COMPLEXION & LIPS

 

• I always like to prime my skin as I feel like it makes everything sit better on my face. For this I used the L'Oreal Paris Infallible Mattifying Base. I rubbed this all over my skin with my fingers and then patted it in to help settle it more.

 

 

• For my foundation, I used Rimmel's Match Perfection foundation in the shade Ivory. This has a beautiful medium coverage. It covers those smaller skin imperfections but isn't too heavy on the skin. I buffed this into my skin using my Real Techniques Buffing Brush using circular motions.

 

• I then took Collection's Lasting Perfection Concealer in Fair to conceal those more niggling blemishes and to also highlight my undereye area, just to make myself look that little bit more awake. Mary's skin looked flawless and glowing in the promo photos and to match that, I used this concealer. I patted it into my skin using my Real Techniques Deluxe Crease Brush. I patted it in and eased it towards my temple and taking any excess onto my eyelid as this will act as my eyelid primer. It also cancels out any redness and veins on my lids.

 

• To set everything, I used Bourjois' Healthy Balance Unifying Powder in the shade Vanilla. It has a slight pigmentation to it but it's not overpowering. For my T-Zone, I used my Real Techniques Contour Brush to set everything there before going back in with my Powder Brush from Real Techniques for the rest of my face. This powder smells amazing too!

 

 

• Mary's face had a beautiful warmth to it in the photographs and so I took my Urban Decay Naked Flushed palette in the Streak shade and used the bronzer from it on my No7 Contour & Highlighter brush. I blended the bronzer around the outer areas of my face and my cheek area. I had a very light hand with this and took my time to blend it out. I've got pale skin so it doesn't take much to warm my complexion up! Irish skin problems.

 

• For my cheeks, I used my Chanel powder blush in Frivole on my Real Techniques blush brush and applied it to the apples of my cheeks. In the photos, the blush seems concentrated on the apples so smile a little and apply the blush to those cheeks. But remember, blend it out by moving the brush upwards towards your ears or swirl it and dot it.I love this blush because it's actually the one that Robin Siegel mentioned in an interview about the makeup that she uses when doing Mary's makeup. Everyone stalks Kim Kardashian's makeup artist. I stalk Mary McDonnell's makeup artist. #Regretnothing

 

 

• Her lips were the most  gorgeous shade of pink and I don't have a lot of pink lipsticks so I took a lipgloss instead. I lifted my Gleam by Melanie Mills Lip Radiance in the shade Pop My Cork. I love this lipgloss. It smells amazing and it is such a beautiful colour. Plus, it feels incredibly moisturising! (And it's also an exact lipgloss that Robin has used. See previous point and you'll get the picture.)

 

EYES & BROWS

 

• The eye makeup is really subtle and it just accentuates the incredible green hue of Mary's eyes. I have blue eyes so I'll do my best to copy. To start with, I took my W7 In The Buff palette. It has beautiful warm pink shades. I don't want to create anything spectacular here, but I do want to accentuate my eye area and brighten it up a little bit. I took the shade Marilyn (a cool toned, matte pink shade) on a fluffy brush - I used my EcoTools dual ended eyeshadow brush and used the Blend side - and applied this to my crease, not going more than half-way along.

 

• Then I took La Vie En Rose from L'Oreal Paris on the Shade side of my EcoTools brush and applied this all over my lid, packing it on. This is a lovely matte rose pink shade that will brighten up the eyes.
• You can go back in with the Marilyn shade to define the crease again but that's up to you.

 

• To soften everything up that little bit further, I then took Latte from the W7 palette on my Real Techniques Base Shadow Brush and swept it over my lid.
• From the photos, I could see that Mary was wearing eyeliner. So, with that in mind, I took my Rimmel ScandalEyes gel eyeliner and my Revlon Duo Eye Brush and used the angled end of the brush to line my eyes. It wasn't my best attempt at eyeliner because I was sat at such an awkward angle that it just didn't really work out too well. I did go over it again with Wet N Wild's Mono shadow, Panther to fix it up a bit. Lining your eyes is a great way to give yourself thicker lashes.

 

 

• In the photos, she hasn't got eyeliner on her tightline but since I did my eyeliner on my left eye so poorly, I took my Helen E soft black eyeliner and ran that along my tightline.

 

• I curled my eyelashes and applied L'Oreal Paris Volume Million Lashes So Couture Mascara to my top lashes and ever so lightly to my bottom lashes.

 

• To give my brows a bit more life, I took my Soap & Glory Archery eyebrow pencil in Blondeshell and combed through them with the comb attachment before using the pencil eye to fill in the sparse bits.

 

• To set my brows into place so that they won't stray, I used my ELF Brow & Lash clear mascara and just combed that through.
• And that's you done!

 

 

I put my hair up into a messy bun with a bobble that's my hair colour and then pinned stray bits into place usiing some hair grips and let other, shorter pieces fall down. I pulled out some strands at the front of my hair so give it that 'I just put my hair like this and I don't care' vibe. My hair has natural kinks to it and so I didn't create any more waves. But if you want to, you can take a curling wand or a straightener to those strays bits and give them a curl.

 

To all those that went to see The Cherry Orchard, you lucky ducks! I hope you enjoyed it doubly for me. Thank you so much for stopping by and for reading this post. I hope that you enjoyed it and that you have a wonderful Sunday whatever you're doing.

 

* All images of Mary McDonnell are owned by their respective owners. I don't own anything and I'm just playing around with it for fangirling purposes.

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