#gemglam week 1: wearable amethyst look!

"Well she's an ultra-powerful stone cold betty...that part's me. And she's...kinda tall? That part's Pearl."

#GemGlam is a collab we're doing all April between myself, Mieke and Mollie! We all really love Steven Universe, and I really wanted to try some SU makeup looks but I thought it'd be more fun with friends, so here we are! Each Friday in April we'll each be posting a gem-inspired look based on one of the characters from the show. This week, mine is a "wearable" Amethyst look.




I thought about this look a lot, honestly. Amethyst was not one of the characters I liked very much initially, but seeing how she's grown and learning more about her made me come to love her.

I'm not going to let you stand there and remind me about everything I hate about myself!

I wanted to do a slightly soft and smokey eye, but nothing too dramatic. Amethyst is laid-back and a bit grungy and messy, so I wanted to keep it clean but not too harsh or precise. I think Amethyst has shown that despite her happy-go-lucky exterior, inside she's quite sensitive. She worries about her origins, she doesn't like herself, and she fears others secretly think she's nothing but a mistake. So I wanted to use this look to portray a bit of that "softer" side of her.

My hair is an utter mess from growing out of a pixie cut, but I let it down for this,
because that's what Amethyst would do!

Close-up of the eye makeup on the top lid.

For eyes, I primed using the NYX HD Shadow Base, then lightly covered the lid in Blackbird's Half-Full and blended it out very well to soften everything. I patted Notoriously Morbid's Slay Me matte in Done lightly over the middle and outer third of the lid with a dense shading brush, then blended it out to soften it and being careful to still make sure to keep some of the lightness of Half-Full in the inner corner. After that I took it to the bottom lashline and with a small pencil brush used Fyrinnae's Agenda across the entire length, and used a small smudger brush to really soften it and smoke it out. Then the outer third of both lids got a small patting of Femme Fatale's Prismo, which I used a fluffy clean brush to blend, just to give that outer section a bit more depth. I also patted the tiniest possible bit of Blackbird's Lucid on the very outer edge of the bottom lashline and used the same small smudger brush from earlier to smoke it out and soften it. Finally, the inner corner of the eyes got a bit of Shiro's Master of Whispers, blended in enough to bring a slight lightness and shine to them.

"Yeah, except I don't dance like that."

It might be a bit harder to see in photos, but for the cheeks I buffed in a lot of Revlon's Skinlights in Bare Light over the cheekbones, and then went for NARS' blush in Outlaw. I tried to build it up a lot, to give my cheeks a very full and flushed look, because Amethyst is round! She's got a nice roundness and softness to her, so I wanted to accentuate the roundness in my own cheeks, reminiscent of Amethyst's overall roundness but also her playful prankster ways and her adorable smile. I usually use makeup to play it down a bit, but today I decided to play it up and embrace it!

For lips I finished it off with MAC's Styled in Sepia over Nice n Spicy lip pencil to give it some warmth, then added a small bit of their Prolongwear lip cream in Goes n Goes to give it a slightly more lavender tinge. Finally I topped it all with MAC's lipglass in Steel Kiss. I wanted to go with something slightly neutral but also a bit grey-toned to reflect the slightly muted color palette in some of Amethyst's clothing and hair.

(Amethyst does have full lips, but I want to note I didn't purposefully overdraw mine in any way because I think her lips are a racialized aspect of her, much like Garnet's, and I would find it incredibly disrespectful to do such a thing. It is important to recognize this I think! Fiction does not exist in a vaccuum!)

"Which way to the baby war?"

So that's my small breakdown of this look, I hope everyone enjoys it!

Believe in Steven!

• Mollie's Garnet look for this week is here on her blog!
• Mieke's Pearl look for this week is here on her blog!