Whether you're a self proclaimed Beauty Guru or more of a Mascara-and-Go type of person, here are 11 tips including some makeup recommendations that can help get the most out of your makeup looks!
1. Start With A Clean Slate
Always be sure to start with a fresh face! Make sure you wash and moisturize your skin before application. This will help remove all dirt and oil that can be lurking on your skin and gives you a clean palette to work with. Even if you have oily skin, moisturizing is key. Depriving your skin of moisture in fear of oil will only make your glands work EXTRA hard to moisturize and result in more oil by the end of the day.
2. Prep & Prime
In order for your makeup to last all day and combat sweat, oil and the environment, you need a strong base. Using primer helps makeup stick to your skin, keeps eyeshadows vibrant/crease free, lips and lashes from flaking or whatever other area you decide needs extra help surviving the day. Specific primers can also reduce redness and blur pores if needed.
Recommended Products: NYX Perfect Primer, Benefit POREfessional Primer, Urban Decay Primer Potion
3. Blending Is Your Friend
When creating different eye looks remember: BLEND, BLEND, BLEND. Blending can help create seamless transitions between shadows and can help soften harsher colors such as vibrant pinks and blues.
4. Wings For Days
Winged eyeliner is a crowd favorite, but some can find getting the perfect point challenging. Thin felt tip and pen liquid liners can help even the newest makeup user create wings pointy enough to ill a man with precision and ease. Whether you want subtle and thin wings or dramatic, thick wings that look like you could take off flying any second, pen liners are build-able and can help you achieve any look.
Recommended Products: Kat Von D Tattoo Liner, NYX Super Skinny Eye Marker
5. Lips Like Kylie
Over-drawn nude lips are still fairly popular in the beauty world. In order to achieve a Kylie-like pout, lightly trace the outer area of your natural lip line, then gradually build on top of that line until you achieve the level of fullness that satisfies you.
Recommended Products: Too Faced Perfect Lips in 'Perfect Nude,' NYX Mechanical Lip Pencil in 'Nude'
6. Smooth Application
If you use a liquid foundation and/or cream contour and blend with your hands, it may result in streaks and uneven application. Using the proper brushes or beauty sponges can help make sure application goes on smoothly and is blended much faster. When using beauty sponges, make sure to use bouncing motions to blend, not rubbing motions.
Recommended Products: Real Techniques Travel Essentials, Beauty Blender
7. Tame Your Furry Friends
To achieve a clean and tamed brow look, fill inside your natural brow line using an angled liner brush and some brow pomade and line the bottom.
How to: Brush your brow hairs up with a spoolie brush and line the bottom your your natural brow. Then brush your hairs down and line the top of you your natural brow. Brush your brow back to its natural shape and fill in the rest of your brow using upward strokes.
Recommended Products: E.L.F. Angled Brush, Anastasia Beverly Hills DIPBROW, NYX Tame & Frame
8. Light Up Your Life
Even if you don't feel like applying a full face of makeup or contouring yourself into a new person, it's amazing what a little highlighter can do to a fresh face. This will accentuate the highest points of your face and add a natural glow.
How to: Take a fan brush and apply some pressed highlighter to you cheek bones, nose, forehead, chin and cupids bow.
Recommended Products: Eco Tools Fan Brush, Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector
9. Ready, Set & Go!
It doesn't seem too fair to leave all the hard work and trust to your primers, so make sure to lock all your hard work in place with some setting spray. It's always better to be safe than sorry!
Recommended Products: Urban Decay All Nighter, NYX Setting Spray
10. Don't Let Your Past Haunt You
Once your day has ended and you're ready to rest your head, make sure you go to sleep with a clean face. As mentioned before, washing your face is very important when trying to get the most from your makeup. In order to prevent wrinkles, clogged pores, acne, loss of eyelashes, styes, and loss of eyebrows, removal of all your makeup before going to sleep is key to keeping your skin happy and healthy.
11. Purge Away Your Past
Even after removing your makeup and washing your face, your pores can still become clogged over time. In order to keep your face as the perfect canvas, weekly (or bi-weekly) exfoliation helps purge and purify your face back to it's best self. There are many products and ways to exfoliate: pore strips, scrubs, masks, peels, and my personal favorite, cleansing brushes. It's up to you as an individual to experiment and find what works best for you!
Recommendations: Biore Pore Strips, Kate Somerville Exfolikate, Clarisonic Mia, Cure Natural Aqua Gel
