“If you’re sad, add more lipstick and attack!” This oft-repeated quote from Coco Chanel holds so true. The right make-up can not only enhance your beauty, but can also make you feel confident and add that spring to your step.
Right from our childhood when we raided our mother’s make-up box to our adult days, our make-up kind of defines our personalities. More the reason we should get it right. Your make-up box may not give a run for the money of runway models, but it may contain some hard-working essentials that may make you look like a diva every time you step out of your home. Sounds too good to be true?
Not really, when you get to know about some neat make-up hacks which could help you go from your office to that important party in a matter of minutes. Smudged eye liner? No problem! Botchy foundation? No issues.Bleeding lipstick? We have got all covered. The perfect make-up tips to turn your face into a canvas and you into a veritable artist. Shall we begin the journey then?
Perfect make-up needs pains taking preparation. If you prepare your skin well, it becomes easier for you to apply make-up flawlessly. That foundation should blend with your skin naturally, your eyebrows should be on fleek and so should your winged eyeliner. Nothing looks more jarring than a patched-up make-up effort! A CTM routine is a must before you slather on the expensive foundations. By CTM, we mean cleansing, toning, and moisturising.
Rule 1: Cleanse Your Face
First things first, clean your face, make-up sets well on a clean face. Especially when your skin is oily, it is important to blot out the excess oil and dirt first. Wash your face with a mild face wash or cleanser and pat dry. If you have open pores, rub ice cubes on the pores to close down the pores.
Rule 2: Tone your Face with a Toner
A toner can smooth down all the open pores on the skin, you have to specifically follow this step if you have oily or pimple and acne-prone skin. It also helps equalize the pH levels of your skin and also shrinks your pores. Get a mild toner, or you can even use good old rose water. Dab a little of it on a cotton wool and pat it all over your face and neck area.
Rule3: Slap on some Moisturizer
Choose a moisturizer according to your skin type and make moisturizing an essential part of your skin care regime.If your skin is hydrated well, your make-up is going to look perfect as well. This will help you achieve an even finish as opposed to a caked up look. Even if you have oily skin, remember you have to moisturize, just use a water-based moisturizer for that. Choose the right moisturizer according to your skin type to avoid break-outs.
Rule4: Apply Sun-screen
“I think a natural look is prettier. I rarely wear make-up, but we always wear sunscreen on our faces.” Says model Kendal Jenner and it is so true, sunscreen can protect your skin from the harsh rays of the sun and using the right sun-protection can make you look young for years together. You can avoid hyper-pigmentation, premature aging, and many other skin conditions if you make it a point to apply sunscreen every day. It can stall the signs of aging right on its tracks.
A few things in your make-up kit and you can multi-task and save you from embarrassing glitches. You need just a few things and you will be able to get your make-up done in a jiffy. Here are a few things you need to add to your make-up kit and you will be good to go.
What You Need:
You can wear all the above listed products according to your preference. These are just the basic stuff to put together different kinds of looks, a party glam look or a more sober office look. Also, I can’t stress on one point enough, that you need to do your make-up according to the place or occasion you are dressing up for.Too much of glittery make-up may not go down well at a formal day time office party, similarly smokey eye make-up isn’t perfect for all occassions.
Also, always choose your make-up according to your skin type. Keep your make-up box full with lots of skin-friendly products which do not harm your skin in the long run. Choose among the three kinds of make-up, oil based, mineral based or water based. Choose the make-up products according to your personality, don’t go by trends alone.Even if you stick to the beaten path, do it your way.
What is make-up? it is not only to enhance your features but also to hide your blemishes. And also, a fact that cannot be emphasised enough, make-up should look like you have not put on make-up. Well-blended makes up can earn praises, whereas cakey make-up can earn sniggers behind your back. Here are some amazing make-up tips to make you look flawless at all times.
A primer is the first thing to apply on your face, the perfect stepping stone for a foundation. Ensure that your primer and foundation blends beautifully, so they must be the same base. Blend, blend, blend! This helps banish the appearance of fine lines and crow’s feet.
The application of your foundation must be on point to make you look flawless. If you are aiming for sheer coverage, your fingers can do the trick, and if you want full coverage then go for the brushes. Remember, the application of foundation should be downward strokes rather than in upward strokes. This is usually to cover the light hair or peach fuzz on your face.
Also, choosing the right shade of foundation make-up is so important, we always tend to choose a lighter shade, but our goal should be to choose the shade that blends well with our complexion.
In an effort to hide your dark circles, do not just dab lots of it under your eyes, use it in a conical pattern under the eyes and spread it right towards your nose. It serves two purposes – hides your dark circles and puffiness and contours the side of your nose.Use concealer in a semi-circular pattern under your eyes to reduce the appearance of the bags or puffiness.
Get your hands on to two different face powders – loose powder and pressed powder.Both come in two varieties of finishes- dewy and matte. Use the one which can suit your purpose. There are specific uses of both kinds of powder, loose powder is used to set the make-up in place and make it last really long. There are two kinds of loose powder, tinted and translucent, buy the colourless translucent powder to set the make-up as it also does not spoil the color of your foundation and concealer.
Pressed powder, on the other hand, is more suited for touch-ups on the go. If you want a glowing appearance, get a tinted powder if you want a more matte finish dab on some translucent powder.
Have you ever peeped into a make-up box of a make-up artist?You will be stunned to see the numerous brushes or applicators they store in their prized boxes.Although you may not need so many brushes, what you do need though, is one big fat fluffy brush to powder your face. As far as your make-up brushes are concerned, fluffy is the best.
That glow though! Don’t you marvel at the glow of cine stars who flaunt their glowing complexion with a quiet pride? Well, all they do is they never forget to put on their shimmery blush. Pssst…Some of them even apply the blush under their foundation, and the effect is quite incredible!
How to seal that blush? Just blot it out with a powder and use a tissue paper to do that. Press the freshly applied blush with the paper and round off with a make-up sponge to retain that color till the wee hours at night. Yes, your blush can stay put for hours if you use this DIY hack with a tissue paper and a sponge.
Shimmery blushes are not for the faint-hearted as it magnifies open pores and blemishes. So, when in doubt, skip the shimmery blushes.
While applying a bronzer, use a fluffy brush on the hollow of your cheeks, suck in your cheeks to find the hollow and apply the bronzer by drawing two inverted triangles with a bronzer. There you go, blend again and you will have a perfectly done up face.
Thick bushy eyebrows are all the rage now! Use a pencil to fill out your eyebrows with an eyebrow pencil. Brighten your eyes by using your highlighter above the arch of your brows and blend well. It helps to draw focus on your eyes. What do you do when your blusher box is empty? Use your eye shadow, of course! Your eye-shadow is quite a handy make-up arsenal, as it can be used as a blush, highlighter, and a bronzer. Talk about versatility!
If you want to make your eyes look a little bigger, use a white base in your eyelids, use a white eye liner for that and watch your eyes speak a thousand words! Your eye shadow can also soften the look of an eyeliner. On summer mornings or on days when the stark eyeliner is not quite your thing, use your eye shadow palette.
Respect for all those women who can draw a straight eyeliner at one go! As for me, my eyes sometimes end up looking like a raccoon, thanks to my quivering fingers which have a mind of their own and refuse to follow the right path! Okay, you have tried and failed, but one teeny-weeny little hack can work wonders. Make small dots on the lash liner and join them. Try it the next time, you will be surprised at how ridiculously easy it is.
Winged eye liner, anyone? You can use a business card or a spoon to get that straight edge. Once you are able to master that, you can ditch the props. To seal your eye liner, use an eye shadow of the same color to make your eyeliner last longer!
I am a Kajal girl, yes that’s right, cannot do without my kajal, but it does get smudged sometimes. So I use an eye-shadow to seal it in.
Also, my smokey eye make-up tutorial is really easy to follow! Just smudge your kajal lines and round off by drawing a sideways “V” on the outer corner of your eye and blend really well. You are now all set for a night-out!
Finish off your eye make-up with mascara, you can use either a colorless mascara or a black mascara, or even a brown one, thicken your lashes by dusting a bit of baby powder and coat it again with mascara to get dramatic volume.
9. Applying Make-up- Perfect Lipstick Application
To get that perfect pout, start applying the lipstick from the middle and then move outside. If you want to get plump lips, use your lipliner to line your lips on the outside. Just be careful while you do it so that it looks natural.
Blot your lips with a little bit of transclucent powder to seal the lipcolor. If you want to add that extra glam look go for a glossy lipstick. These are some of the easy make-up tricks which you can easily follow. Also, you can apply the lipliner after you have applied the lipstick so that you can outline your lips easily.
I know each of you loves applying make-up and looking like a total diva. But you know what they say, clean blemish free skin is the best beauty statement! So, however much make-up you put on your face, remember to remove every speck of make-up from your face. If you sleep with your make-up on, you are more likely to wake up to dry skin, acne, and horror of horrors, with wrinkles caused by a collagen breakdown. Leaving eye make-up on can give rise to many new problems, which include eye irritation, eye infections, styes, and also sparse eyelashes. So, get your make-up removed every single night, how ever tired you are.
How to Remove Make-up and specifically, eye make-up? Here are a few pointers,
If you are not absolutely caked up, your everyday cleanser is sufficient to clean your face. Put dots of cleanser on your face, and then massage the cleanser all over your face and neck, don’t leave a single area. Then get a wet cloth and wipe your face clean of all muck. For me, virgin coconut oil works just fine, especially in the winters.
It cleanses and moisturizes all at one go. Just a cotton wool and coconut oil and you moisten your face with water and then let the coconut oil do the rest. This is a surprising way to wipe the make-up off your eyes too. It is a gentle way to get rid of the extra muck. Also, remember do not use your strength to remove make-up, always try to be gentle with your skin.
Mascara and liner look great when you put them on, but unfortunately, they are hardest to remove. And the difficult part is you cannot rub the area much as the eye area is particularly sensitive. Use cotton pads and either a gentle cleanser or cold-pressed oil to remove make-up. Just remember to be gentle with your skin.
After you’ve removed the eye make-up, ensure you wipe off the oil as well to avoid the residue of the oil and the products on your eyes. This is one of the best make-up tips for eyes to avoid waking up to dark circles and fatigued eyes. Remember to clean your lashes as well. You can even use almond oil which soothes the extra –sensitive under eye area and prevents dark circles. Bye-bye racoon eyes!
Take special care of your lips, use a cotton pad soaked in cleansing cream and remove the stains of stale lipstick. A cotton pad soaked in liquid or cream make-up remover should take off most lipsticks. You need to use an oily formula only if the lipstick is long-wearing or deeply pigmented.
Another face make-up tip I swear by is applying the moisturizer while the skin is still moist, the moisturizer can penetrate the skin better, making your skin baby soft. You can also apply your anti-aging serum or cream now to rejuvenate your skin. The next morning your skin will look as amazing as before.
Remember, even if you forget to remove make-up for one day, don’t make it into a habit. Good skin, my dear friend, is always in, so you have to try hard to maintain its lustre.
Always, I mean always, clean your make-up brushes and do not share them with anyone.Unclean brushes may turn out to be the breeding ground for bacteria and can be contagious as well. Clean them time and again with a mild shampoo.
Throw away your old make-up stuff if they have extended their shelf-life, it will badly affect your skin if you continue to use old make-up past their expiry date. Make-up is indeed a gift to womankind so it only makes sense to use it the right way to reap its benefits and make you look absolutely stunning.
Keep learning about the latest trends in make-up and keep practicing them before you try it on for a particular occasion. As far as make-up is concerned, it is practice and practice alone that can make you look perfect.
Never underestimate the power of freshly put on make-up as Roberta Gately says, “Lipstick is really magical. It holds more than a waxy bit of color – it holds the promise of a brilliant smile, a brilliant day, both literally and figuratively.” It’s not lipstick alone but the whole of your make-up kit that can weave magic!
Manoja Kalakanti