Get Mindy Kaling's Makeup Look for Less

I pretty religiously follow Mindy Kaling's Instagram account, and over the weekend she posted a snap of a quite cool party look — featuring bold metallic purple lips and some pretty major smoky eye. It was something I had to try out.

Only problem? Well, the lipstick and lip gloss alone totaled up to around $80 ($50 for the Tom Ford in Violet Fatale, and $29.50 for the Chanel Glossimer in 175). No thanks. It got me hunting high and low for a dupe, which took a pretty exhaustive search of the drugstore aisle... I was hard-pressed to find a budget lip gloss with that level of opacity, but I found my solution in lipstick form — Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Iced Amethyst, to be exact.

It's not perfect, but it's pretty darn close, IMO. The purple undertone of the shade makes it high impact, and the frost (which I'm not always a fan of, but works in this particular shade) gives it a cool metallic look. It's not quite as glorious as the Chanel's fuchsia microglitter but hey — it is more than $20 less. Once I had the lip color on lock down, everything else kind of fell into place.

Here's my inspiration (for everything in life, not just this particular beauty look):

Smoky eyes, and a bold lip — and everything else is pretty simple.

The Face

• For foundation, I used my Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Foundation in 51. It's not quite a drugstore product (though to be fair, I did buy it at Waitrose, which is basically British Whole Foods) but it's still pretty cost-effective, compared to the high-end products that'll run you up $40-$60.
• Budget concealer = Rimmel Match Perfection.
• For blush, I lightly dusted on Revlon Powder Blush in Softspoken Pink. Go for something neutral, and apply it with a light hand, since the eyes and lips are the stars of the show today.
• Finally, I lightly filled in my brows — if you have a good arch, emphasize it a la Ms. Kaling!

The Eyes

It's a pretty standard smoky eye, and metallic pigments make it perfect for the holiday season! I used NYX Eyeshadow in Smoke and Mirrors all over the lid (up a touch past my crease) and layered it over with Rimmel Glam'Eyes in Night Jewel, which I focused in the outer corner/crease. You want to go for a slight cat eye effect with your shadow here, so play out the outer edge of your eye.

Next, I went crazy with the eye pencil (Milani Liquid Eye in a discontinued, glittery black to be exact. The shade Blackest Black will work just as well, though). I started on the upper lid, and (again) created a slight cat eye, smudging as I went along to blend it into the shadow. On the lower lid, I did the same, but with a little less smudging (after all, you don't want to go all Taylor Momsen). Finally, I set it all with more of the eye shadow — on the lower lashline, I did a (very) slight ombré effect from outer corner to inner corner, fading the black shadow into the gunmetal shadow.

Oh, and don't forget your mascara (my favorite drugstore mascara of the moment is Maybelline Volum'Express Pumped Up! Collossal).

The Lips

Here's my best Kaling-inspired sassy face (it needs some work). Anyway, the lips were a total breeze — just apply a few coats of Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Iced Amethyst, and you should be good to go! If you want to drama-fy it up a little, I'm sure Mindy would approve of some deep fuchsia, micro glitter-heavy gloss layered on top.

Images: mindykaling/Instagram; Rosie Narasaki