GET THE LOOK || DDA Emma Rios [Major Crimes Week]

Major Crimes begins it's fourth season on TNT this Monday, June 8th, and my excitement at the return of my favourite show is bubbling with antici......pation (I had to do that!). I honestly cannot wait for the new episodes to see what my favourite sleuths will get up to. Plus, my beloved Mary McDonnell will be back on TV on a regular basis. This makes me very happy. With it's imminent return, it's only natural that I make a big deal about it here. My most popular posts are Major Crimes or Mary McDonnell related. Without further adieu I'm kicking off Major Crimes Week here on my blog, with it's own snazzy tag and everything. Like my previous special, Star Trek Week, there will be posts exclusively focused on the fashion and makeup of some Major Crimes' characters, i.e. the ladies. To kick off MCW, I'm starting with Deputy District Attorney, Emma Rios.



Love her or hate her, you can't deny that her style is flawless. Granted, her style may not be what you would imagine a DDA would wear, but nevertheless, it is enviable. 

Since the season 3 finale of Major Crimes was The Special Master, I decided that this week would focus largely on that episode by looking at the featured costumes of the ladies and their makeup (with some poetic licensing because there has been a request for a character that wasn't in the finale and this is the perfect opportunity to finally fulfill that wish). 

The beautiful thing about the way that the ladies were styled is that every article is very appropriate for those of us that love their style. What I mean by appropriate is that you can wear it yourself for any occasion. You can wear it to the office, to wherever you work, on a date, on a shopping trip, anywhere. What's more is that you don't necessarily have to wear the complete ensemble. What I personally do is that I take one or two items and use those to 'embody' that character, you know what I mean? That way I'm not blatantly copying them - not that anyone around me would know that I'm copying Sharon Raydor's or Emma's style. For example, wearing the dress featured below or the shoes, I could embody Emma and get a sense of her confidence and sassy attitude. It's basically a fashionable placebo. That sounded wrong...

In this blog post, I've pieced together two of the outfits that resemble Emma's look from the two-parter and a kind of makeup tutorial of how I would emulate her look.

T H E   O U T F I T S    

- Navy Textured Blazer || Next - £34.00
- Sleeveless Black Dress || H&M - £24.99
- Platform Court Shoes || H&M - £24.99
- Gold Tone Chunky Stone Necklace || River Island - £15.00

- Shell Pink Crepe Blazer || New Look - £24.99
- Sleeveless Black Dress || H&M - £24.99
- Long Chain Necklace || Topshop - £10.00
- Platform Court Shoes || H&M - £24.99

Have I mentioned how much I adore Emma's style? I just love it. It's right up my street. I wish that I had her figure to wear all of this because I would love to have these in my wardrobe. I especially love the dress and the shoes. I know the shoes look incredibly high but they have a platform so the height doesn't feel as intimidating. 

Now onto the makeup that I would use to get Emma's look.

T H E   M A K E U P

For this look, use the foundation that matches your skin tone. I'm deathly pale compared to Nadine Velazquez so for me to use a foundation to match her would make me look like I were auditioning for a new version of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. I'm talking Oompa Loompa, people. It would not be pretty. So, do your own foundation routine. For me, I used Revlon ColorStay Foundation (Ivory), Rimmel Lasting Finish Concealer (Porcelain) and Urban Decay Naked Concealer (Fair Neutral). I set everything using my L'Oreal True Match Pressed Powder (Rose Ivory). Also, I used the Rimmel concealer to prime my eyelids for the eyeshadows and set it with the L'Oreal powder. 

As usual, everything that I used is what I have in my makeup collection. You don't have to use the exact same products that I have. Colour match whatever you can and you'll be cooking with gas. Let's get started then...

To get a good look at Emma's eye makeup, I had to go back a couple of seasons. Her makeup was fairly routine, she's a Deputy District Attorney and she can't be rocking a smokey eye every day. The focus of Emma's makeup seems to be the lip product that she wears with each look. Watch her episodes again and her makeup focuses on her strong, enviable brows and her gorgeous lips. Yes, I'm envious. But let's face it, I'm envious of everything Nadine.

Let's start with those brows. Nadine's brows are very bold. I've never done my brows that bold before - I'm only getting used to doing them at all! I used my L'Oreal Brow Artist Kit (Light to Medium). I first used the spooly to comb the hairs into place before filling in the sparse bits with my Real Techniques Accent brush. Like a dope, I didn't record that bit... Yeah, way to go there, Kazzie. #FAIL

To start off with the shadows, I took my Sleek i-Divine Ultra Mattes (v2) eyeshadow palette and the shadow, Flesh (a soft, peach-toned shadow) on my Sephora Crease Shadow brush and blended that into my crease. This will act as my transition shade. I took the excess from that brush and swept it over my lid.

Using the same brush, I took a brown eyeshadow and blended it through my crease and outer third of my eyelid. I used the Paper Bag shade from the Sleek palette.

I used my Real Techniques Deluxe Crease Brush to fully blend those two shades together and get rid of any harsh lines.

I then took Espresso from MAC, a neutral, matte brown shadow. I ran it through my crease and outer corner using my MAC 217 brush, This is just to define my crease a bit more.

Using a skin toned shadow, I used Creme Brulee from Wet N Wild on my EcoTools shadow brush and patted it all over my lid.

I went back in with the Deluxe Crease brush and blended everything together again.

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To buff everything together and bring a little bit of coolness to the look as I felt as if it were too warm, I grabbed a grey toned brown eyeshadow. I used this one from my Maybelline The Nudes palette using my Seventeen eyeshadow brush.

Again, I went in to get rid of any harsh edges. This time I used my Real Techniques Base Shadow brush.

In Special Master, Rios seemed to have some eyeliner going on. You can skip this step and go onto mascara as Rios doesn't always wear extremely noticeable eyeliner, her lashes just took thicker which to me says tightlined more than eyelined. To do this step I used Maybelline's Lasting Drama gel eyeliner with my Real Techniques Silicon liner brush and drew a thin line along my upper lash line. I've had this brush for a couple of weeks and I find that it gets so close to the lash line and doesn't lose it's precision Alternatively, you could take a black eyeshadow - I'd recommend Panther from Wet N Wild on an angled liner brush.

I then went into with my black Rimmel Special Eyes Precision pencil eyeliner and lined my tightline. I then took it to my lower lashline. I didn't put it into my washline.

I curled my eyelashes and coated my top lashes only with L'Oreal's Volume Million Lashes So Couture mascara.  You can use whatever mascara you want, I was just feeling this one today.

Now back to the face.

I'm testing out my new Maybelline Master Sculpt kit for this look in the Light-Medium shade - I'm being extremely brave. I took the contour part of this kit on my No7 Contour & Hightlighting brush. I place a small amount just under my cheekbones and blended it out.

Then to warm up my face, I took my Body Shop Honey Bronzer in the Fair Matte shade. I used my Real Techniques Blush brush to run it around the perimeter of my face, hitting the high points - the temples, the cheekbones and forehead and not forgetting the neck.

My favourite part of my makeup routine is always the blush. Rios' blush can be very subtle. It was noticeable in Special Master but it wasn't OMG BLUSH! I took my Rimmel Lasting Finish blush in Santa Rose on my DeliPlus Polvos brush and dusted this on my cheeks and blending it out. My camera didn't really pick it up but it's noticeable to me. Pale problems.

For her lips, I'm actually using my favourite lip combination of the moment. In Special Master, Rios' lips looked a nice neutral colour. You could tell she was wearing something that was her lip colour but made them look better, you know? So, I first took my Maybelline Colorsensational lip liner in 063 Velvet Beige. I lined and filled in my lips before using the matching lipstick to just make it pop.

Et voilà, c'est finis!

The shadows appear more washed out here than they do off camera. And the lighting apparently wanted to make me look like a ghost with lips. Irish skin, I tell ya, it's a nightmare. I also have to say, that I'm not a professional. My only profession is breathing. I simply record these tutorials with a simple digital camera in front of my bedroom window so apologies for the quality.

I hope that you liked this tutorial and that you're excited for the return of Major Crimes next Monday. Seven days! I cannot wait as we're now on the final countdown. Whilst Major Crimes will see us on Monday, I'll be seeing you again on Wednesday for the next post for Major Crimes Week. See you then!

Previous Major Crimes related posts
Get The Look Season 3 Promo | Get The Look || DDA Andrea Hobbs ||| Raydor's Rouge  Christmas Style 3x12 Acting Out ||Get The Look 3x15 Chain Reaction || The Trenchcoat 
1x03 Get The Look

** Disclaimer: All photos of Emma Rios, character of Major Crimes are from MajorCrimesTV.net.