I made a mess!! :D I'll blame my preggo brain / extreme enthusiasm to play with OCC Lip Tars.
I know most of you have already seen Luna's blog on how to make Lime Crime colors using OCC Lip Tars, if you've become curious about lip colors and color
theory:http://lunasoeth.blogspot.com/2010/02/occ-lip-tars-review-vs-lime-crime.html
I wanted to prove it to myself that I could do it, so I got the "basics" for color mixing from OCC:
NSFW, Tarred, Feathered, Rx, and Traffic. Because most lipsticks have pink-based color, I also got Anime.
First of all, the Lime Crime colors are cool, but they don't even COMPARE to the texture and wearability of OCC Lip tars. Like everyone else reviewing these have said, a little goes a long long long way! I carefully opened them the first time, because I wanted to mix in very small quantities, as to avoid wasting color. There are some youtube videos of people mixing OCC makeup, but they used alot, and I wanted to see just how much it took to 1. color mix and 2. be able to have one good application.
So I picked up a paint palette from Michael's, and I mainly used my MAC 316 brush to mix the color directly. I put little bitty dots of each color on my palette, just what fell out when I opened the tube. I had also bought plastic droppers, but I wasn't working with a large quantity, so maybe I will use those later. I'd love to have a small-opening pipette, but those are expensive and I don't know of any chemistry supply shops around here.
At first I tried a long way around to recreating the colors without the products on hand; I found three different photos of the same lip color, took a screen print, opened it up in paint, and grabbed the color, which gave me RGB/HSL values. I took the average of these, and from that it gave me ratios of RGB and White/Black (From L) to mix to get the color I needed. After much trials and tribulation, I had a talk with my graphical art design sister and she told me real color doesn't mix like color on a computer screen. Oof! Maybe I was on some sort of scientific track, but then I decided to follow her advice of "Why don't you try eyeballing it?" So working with extremely small quantities, I eyeballed these colors as I mixed until they looked the same.
The colors I recreated were:
Lime Crime No She Didn't
Lime Crime d'Lilac
MAC Viva Glam Gaga
MAC Ever Hip
MAC Cosmo
For each look, I'm wearing the Lime Crime or MAC color on top, and the OCC recreation on the bottom. I'm also posting how they looked in the palette, too :D I apologize ahead of time for the no photo shopping, but I wanted to show you the true color, despite the fact that the lip tars liked to stain my lips and face surrounding the lips :D. Not to mention the fact that they got REALLY dry with all the wiping and re-applying.
General tips: Too orange? Add more pink. Too warm? Add some blue. Too cool? Add some yellow! Too dark? Add some white. Too light? Add a little little atomic molecule sized amount of Tarred (Tarred is way potent!).
From left to right: (ignore bottom left) MAC Cosmo, my OCC mix, Lime Crime No She Didn't, my OCC mix.
For MAC Cosmo:
Anime + Feathered + Tarred + Traffic
Start with Anime, add some Traffic (the amount that is held by the very end of your 316 is just enough, which is a pin prick amount) Add Feathered, and if you get too light, add a miniscule amount of Tarred. MAC Cosmo on Top, OCC Mix on bottom.
For Lime Crime No She Didn't:
Rx + Feathered. Start with Rx, and add Feathered until it's light enough.. you don't have to warm it up at all. Just those two colors for a recreation!
For Lime Crime d'Lilac:
Anime + Feathered + Rx:
Start with Feathered, add some Anime until you get a light pink. Add some Rx to get the light purple; you might have to add a little more Anime if you are too much on the blue side.
For MAC Viva Glam Gaga:
Anime+Feathered+Traffic+Tarred
Start with Anime, add some Feathered. To warm it up slightly, add a sparing amount of Traffic. If it is too light, but you know you are in the same color family, add a teensy eensy little amount of Tarred. I had to keep adding a little Anime along the way because it became too orange. This one took me a while to get, but nothing longer than 10 minutes.
For MAC Ever Hip:
Anime+Traffic+Feathered+NSFW+Tarred
Be careful careful careful with this one. I used Anime, Traffic, and Feathered the most; NSFW and Tarred, like a pin prick amount. Start with Anime and Traffic, mix to a light pink, but not pale pink. Add a bit of Traffic, and then adjust Tarred or Feathered for how light or dark it needs to be. I was so proud to make this one :D My mix on the left, Ever Hip on the right.
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So these were just the lipsticks that were around me at the time, I didn't pick them for any particular reason except to challenge myself with randomness. I hope this shows the versatility of the OCC Lip Tars, and how you can make pretty much ANY shade with them!
