Almost every makeup look at Fashion Week involves some shade mixing. Makeup artists do it instinctively so it can be hard to duplicate their looks at home. They’ll mix multiple shades of foundation to get the right coverage for each girl, combine a million different shadows for one smoky eye and even create their own custom nail polish shades backstage. Here’s one such recipe from CND nail artist Angie backstage at Malandrino:

Mix together CND shades Cement, Desert Suede, Touch of Yellow, Silver Chrome, Eclectic Purple, Putty and White and you get “Purple Haze.” Easy — ha! — but the lesson here is to have fun playing with your makeup and polish and mix up shades that work perfectly for you.