Beaut.ienomics: Duping Gel and Cream Liners

The Beaut.ie mammy wouldn't teach me how to sew when I was about three or four, telling me I was too small yet, and she'd show me when I was older. I remember this incident pretty well, and I was hanged if I was taking that for an answer: I mean, my teddy needed a dress, and I was going to make it.

So she found an uncharacteristically quiet me in the front room some time later haphazardly fashioning a bear guna out of some floral fabric and corduroy strips that I'd found in her scrap bag. And I didn't do too bad a job, if I say so myself.

So even though I'm not three any more, if I can't find something exactly the way I want, clothes or makeup-wise, I'll always try and adjust it or do some form of customisation to create the look I'm after. I'm not particularly afraid to experiment - after all, necessity is the mother of invention and all that.

When I started seeing pics of Shu Uemura's new Painting Gel Liners on US blogs recently, my heart leapt. And also kind of sank: we don't have the brand here at the moment. But I had a serious hankering for the Vivid Blue option, so I got my thinking cap on.

We've been talking a bit recently about eye primers, rating two popular ones and getting a makeup artists' low-down on how they differ from the face version, so I got my Two Faced Shadow Insurance out, mixed it on the back of my hand with Barry M's brand new Block Blue matte Dazzle Dust, and hey presto, a bright screaming turquoise that's not a bad match for Vivid Blue at all at all.

While this is going to be easier to do with a loose powder or pigment than a pressed one, you're definitely not limited to colour - mix up any shade you like and see how you get on. And it lasts - the primer literally tattoos the colour on, keeping it there until I want to remove it.

While I'm currently rocking my bright blue eyes with a sheer red or a coral lip for a directional summer look, you can bet your ass I'm going to be extending my colour options till the cows come home - the only limits are imagination, primer and lots and lots of lovely pigment.