“There is no ‘going-out’ makeup for me. If I want to wear makeup, I’m going to wear makeup—I don’t care what I’m doing. It’s definitely more based on my mood than where I'm going. I have been really into smoky eyes lately, they’re just fun and there are so many different things that you can do with them. And it’s the thing I go to when I know it’s going to be a long night because it’ll just get smudgier and better as the night goes on. If I’m meeting up with my friends after 10PM, that calls for a smoky eye.
The smoky eye isn’t as intimidating as it seems—you just have to do what’s right for you. For my eyes, that’s really going overboard with waterlining and stuff like that because you’re not going to be able to see anything I do on the lid. Like, I’ll never be able to have the perfect cat-eye—it’ll just end up in my eyebrow. But I think blending different colors together and working underneath my eyes is a great alternative. I think oranges and pinks are really fun because they offset the color of my eyes. Lately, I’ve been really obsessed with blue in everything. From the clothes to the makeup that I wear—everything.
My base is always a really dark liner that isn’t going to move. Marc Jacobs Liner in Blacquer is the best for that. From there, I like to add dimension with grey and blue pencils—it gives depth without being too intense to look at. I use the Sephora Collection Colorful Shadow Liner in Grey and then I used the Sephora Easy Smoky Eye in Midnight Blue. The gray goes on the outside and the blue on the inner corners, and then I blend together with the brush on the back of the Smoky Eye stick. They go together really nicely. Like synergy! [Laughs] For this look, I wore mascara. Anytime I’m tightlining with a liner, I like to do mascara because my eyelashes are blonde and they stick straight out. But I don’t curl my eyelashes, because nothing is going to happen. So I just go in with the Buxom Lash Mascara in Black. It doesn’t clump at all and works really nicely on the bottom lashes too. That one is great and doesn’t clump them together, I do a little bit of lower lash.
I pretty much assume that anything on my top lid is going to transfer to my bottom lid. So I usually wait to do any face makeup until I know if what I use on my eyes is going to fall all over the place. The one product that I’ve found that doesn’t crease and I don’t have to set afterwards is the Laura Mercier Oil-Free Tinted Moisturizer. I’ll usually dilute it with Glossier Perfecting Skin Tint in Light. Tonight I’m also wearing a blush from the Nars Steven Klein Palette—it’s beautiful. I think blush is easy to wear—I think you can go out and just wear blush, which is amazing.
My going-out fragrance is my Carven deodorant… I just spray it everywhere. In my hair as well. I always blow out my hair the night before with Oribe Gold Lust Nourishing Hair Oil, the Kiehl’s Heat Protective Silk Straightening Cream and the Ouai Hair Oil after. Then, I’ll sleep on that, go through my day, and before I’m going out I’ll use the Oribe Texturizing Spray up through my ends. I have bleach damage hair so I never want to use hairsprays or anything that will make it feel dry and crinkly because I don’t want my hair to break off more than it has. That's my goal in all things that I do.
The only other thing that I do before going out is masking. I’m obsessed, actually, with masking. I get home, put one on, and take my dog for a walk basically every night. Living in New York, my skin really needs that reset. My favorite one is the Origins Rose Clay Mask, it’s really nice. It’s my favorite before going out because your skin feels really taut and ready. Then I always have to do an under-eye mask of some sort, just because I have dry under-eyes. But I don’t like wearing cream under my eyes, I get milia. I have the pearl sheet eye masks from Sephora.
After I mask, I do skincare kind of like a crazy person. I wash my face twice and pat my skin dry with a paper towel because I’m worried about germs from my bathroom towels. Then I use Glossier Super Bounce, followed by Priming Moisturizer or the Origins Ginseng Moisturizer. I think they complement Super Bounce really well. Actually, I apply moisturizers with a silicone sponge because I have really dry skin and I feel like I lose so much product in my hands otherwise. After you mask I think it’s really important to double cleanse and check your face out because you don’t want to go out and have someone be like, ‘Is that clay in your hair?’ Which has happened to me…twice.”
—as told to ITG
Kelly Mittendorf photographed by Tom Newton at her home in Brooklyn on April 21, 2017.
