In today’s market of decorative cosmetics there are many means for facial makeup. While in the past women made do with foundation, eye shadow, mascara and blush, as well as lipstick, now there are products like corrector, concealer, highlighter and bronzer. And there is already a question – how and in what sequence to apply such cosmetics on the face? And what tasks does this or that product performs, is it necessary to use it? The journalists decided to put a stop to these questions. We found out how to apply makeup on the face step by step, what function different means of decorative cosmetics perform and how to change the appearance for the better with the help of makeup.
The list of cosmetics for performing daytime makeup
If you want to know how to properly apply makeup to the face, then you should definitely master the technique of lip makeup. Although, if you do not like the feel of lipstick on the lips, you can just not paint this area. But most girls still use lipstick or gloss,so our experts tell you how to do it properly:
Lips should be treated with a light scrub to even out their topography and stimulate blood flow to this area. This is done before you are going to apply makeup on your face.
Using an egg-shaped sponge you cover your lips with primer (in an extreme case, foundation or powder). Primer should be light patting movements “beat” into the skin, so that the product penetrated into all the small folds of the skin lips.
If you plan to mark the contour of the lips pencil, use it at this stage. Some fashionistas, to visually increase the volume of the lips, perform the contour is not on the border of the lips, and a little beyond it. It is true that this technique can make the lips look fuller. But professional makeup artists do not recommend using a contour pencil in this way. Any outsider can see that you have painted over an area outside the natural lip skin boundaries. And it looks unnatural. It is better to apply contouring techniques, which are no less effective in visually increasing the volume of the lips, and the result looks natural. This is why it is important to use a coloured pencil only for the outline of the lips. You should start drawing in the middle, moving up to the edges, up to the points where the upper and lower lip incision begins. You can use a pencil to make the peaks of the upper lip more pointed, this slight interference in the anatomy will not be noticeable to others, but it will help to make the lips more sculpted. The pencil can also be used to highlight a small section of the inner surface of the lips. This is done to improve the staying power of lipstick, which can slowly wear off as you talk or eat your food.
After the contouring pencil you can use lipstick, it is applied with an applicator or brush inside and over the contour. The first layer should be blotted with a paper napkin after 2-3 minutes, then powdered, after which the final layer is applied.
To give pouty lips, take any light cream product (foundation, concealer, highlighter, eye shadow), put it on the brush, put a dot in the middle of the lips at the junction. Then line your lips up several times, making a characteristic movement, as if you were spreading lipstick. A light blotch, well shaded over the lipstick, will give your lips extra volume.
If you, to paint your lips, use gloss, then you do not need a contour pencil. Simply apply the product to the lips, spread it evenly over the surface, nothing else needs to be done.
Beautifully expressive eyebrows
It is impossible to apply makeup without adjusting the eyebrows, because the expression of the face literally depends on it. Even if your eyebrows are naturally shaped and bushy, you still need to work on them.
Even before applying makeup to the face, brow bone area should be corrected. First of all you should decide on the form. As the basis we take the natural shape of the curves. Tweezing those hairs that stand out from the crowd. At the same time, you need to remove only those elements that grow under the lower border of the arches, between them (on the bridge of the nose) and at the extreme points. It is also necessary to form a soft curve of the lines. The point where the eyebrows curve is above the pupil of the eye. The optimal start of the brow is the place above the inner corner of the eye. The eyebrow should end where the reference line, drawn from the wing of the nose to the outer corner of the eye and further to the temple, crosses the brow.
When the shape is corrected, it is necessary to shorten the hairs. The thing is that during the day you touch your eyebrows unnoticed by your hands, long hairs can crease, get out of the general mass and spoil the image…. The hairs on the eyebrows need the proper length to prevent this from happening. For this in most cases a trimmer is used with a limiter head, which prevents unnecessary cuts. If you do not have such a trimmer, use a pair of nail scissors and a small flat comb with small, dense teeth. Comb the eyebrows, positioning the comb horizontally and upwards. All hairs which are so long that they go beyond the limits of your defined shape must be carefully shortened with scissors. Then the procedure is repeated, but the hairs are slicked down, not up.
After correcting the shape and length, the hairs should be combed in the direction of their growth, i.e. right and up for the right eyebrow, left and up for the left. Very well with such a task can cope special brush for eyebrows or a brush from an old, used mascara, pre-cleaned from the remnants of the dye.
Now, if need be, you can slightly emphasize the shape of your eyebrows, to make them more graphic. For this it is necessary to take a pencil similar in color to the natural shade of eyebrows’ hairs or one tone lighter than the hairs on the head (for blondes – one tone darker). Carefully mark the lower edge of the eyebrows as well as the upper edge, leaving 3-5 millimeters distance from the foundation with a pencil. With the same pencil you need to shade the surface of the skin inside the shape of the brow arches. The strokes should imitate the natural hairs in thickness, length and direction of “growth” as much as possible. The intensity of the shading gradually increases from the base to the tip of the eyebrow. To lightly tint the eyebrows, you can use a special mascara or shadow. For daytime makeup, it is better to use the latter option.
To keep your eyebrows in a beautiful shape all day long and to avoid smearing the paint, you can use a special fixing gel or spray, as well as wax-based products.
Highlighter or any light-colored product can help to accentuate the elegance of the brow arches and raise them slightly. It should be applied to the area under the lower arc growth line and blend it well.
Makeup for the eyes
To apply makeup on the eyes, or rather on the eyelids, should be done after the work with the face and eyebrows. Eye makeup can be done in different techniques, and then you need to start pushing on the anatomy, and the effect you want to get, and the presence or absence of certain cosmetics in your arsenal.
Our consultants recommend that you start with some of the most basic eye makeup techniques. After mastering these, you can move on to more complicated techniques, which will help emphasize all the positive aspects of your appearance.
The first technique, best suited for daytime makeup, is nude. The colors of cosmetic products that our experts recommend using are universal. They are suitable for women with different appearance types. You can use other shades of eye shadow, pencil and mascara, if you think that they will suit you better.
How to properly apply makeup to the face in the nude technique:
On the face we apply all the necessary cosmetic products, starting with a primer and finishing with a foundation of light, translucent texture. The eyebrows should be superficial, and look as natural as possible.
We are going to use a primer on the upper eyelids, so we’ll put a light beige or flesh-colored eye shadow on the whole moving eyelid.
We take the light brown pencil and draw the inter eyelid space. In the same way, underline the eyelid below.
Take a light brown eyeshadow and apply it along the lash line on the upper eyelid. Reaching the outer corner of the eye, go to the fold over the mobile eyelid. Let’s put some colour in it 5-10 millimetres towards the inner corner of the eye. Blur the shadow well.
We take the same brown pencil and draw an arrow over the eyeshadow on the upper eyelid. The tip of the arrow goes beyond the boundary of the upper eyelid by 2-3 millimeters.
We touch lightly the upper and (optionally) lower lashes with brown or black mascara. Instead of using mascara, you can curl your lashes with eyelash curlers. The effect will be almost the same.
After putting on eye makeup, we can put makeup on the cheeks, giving the most natural simulation of blush. And also on the lips – you can use a transparent or nude gloss, matte pastel shade lipstick.
The second technique will allow you to make a brighter, but still quite restrained eye makeup for the daytime look. The shades of eye shadows and other means of decorative cosmetics are suitable for almost every woman, but they can be replaced by other suitable colors.
How to apply makeup to your eyes to make them expressive:
The surface of the eyelids is prepared, it is primed, so we can immediately use a light shadow with a minimal pearlescent cast. The cosmetic is applied to the entire surface of the static and mobile eyelid, from the lash growth line to the eyebrows, from the inner corner of the eye to the outer one.
Take a black or gray pencil, leaving the outer corner of the eyelid 2-3 millimeters, begin to draw a rounded line toward the tip of the eyebrow, and then over the crease of the eyelid. We must get the letter “C” (on the right eye “C”, mirrored), that is a figure in the form of an ellipse (oval), which lies on the side. The rounded side of the figure is over the outer area of the upper eyelid.
We take a dark shadow – brown, gray, dark beige, and start shading the pigments behind the border of the ellipse. It turns out that the area of the mobile eyelid is covered with light pearlescent shadows, and the outer corner of the eye is painted with a darker pigment.
Draw a thin, delicate arrow on the upper eyelid with a pencil, and draw only dark shadows on the lower eyelid.
We put a coat of mascara on each of the upper and lower lashes.
To apply such eye makeup is not difficult, but experts recommend practicing a few times before going “into the world” in order to get your hand.
Taking care of dark circles under the eyes
Eyebrows aren’t the only area on the face that draws the eye. Circles under the eyes can ruin the image as irreversibly as untended eyebrows. That is why the correction of this area is an obligatory step, without which it makes no sense to apply makeup on your face.
It is appropriate to remove dark circles and bags under the lower eyelids at the first stage of makeup. We made this treatment a separate sub-heading because it is related to eye makeup. But apply the tips listed below at the stage of preparing the skin for the application of cosmetics.
How to eliminate, or effectively camouflage the aesthetic defects of the skin under the lower eyelids:
Make a cooling mask on the area under the eyes before applying makeup. Take two bags of black, or better yet, green tea, brew it as usual. Squeeze the bags slightly from the liquid and place them in the fridge for 30-60 minutes. Apply cooled sachets of brew to the skin under the eyes for 15-20 minutes.
Rinse your face, pat your skin dry with a paper towel, and apply an eye serum.
15 minutes after applying the serum, take a corrector or concealer – any lightening agent, draw an inverted triangle (top down) starting from the lower eyelids and up to the upper border of the cheeks. Blend the pigments carefully.
If dark circles are still very visible, use a corrective in yellow, orange, apricot or salmon shades. Such corrector will cover the purplish-blue color of the circles under the eyes.
After that, you can continue to apply makeup to your face according to the standard scheme – primer, foundation, etc.d. Bruises under the lower eyelids may be less visible, if not completely gone.
How to properly apply evening makeup to the face
Apply evening makeup to the face is not more complicated than the daytime makeup. You just need to use makeup in richer colors, for example, a brighter lipstick or darker eye shadow.The difference between evening makeup and the daily makeup is in these aspects:
Makeup should perfectly harmonize with accessories, colors of clothing and shoes. If in the daytime makeup such contradictions do not occur often, in the evening makeup this issue should be paid increased attention. The image must be harmonious, not to cause a sense of theatricality, unnecessary drama, glamour and dolls.
The accent can be done both on the eyes, and on the lips. Or on both zones of the face at once. Evening bow allows you to choose saturated gradients, but not to overdo it. A perfect example of understated makeup with an eye and lip focus at the same time are the images of Marilyn Monroe, Dita Von Teese and generally the makeup in the retro style. There are gorgeous arrows on the eyes and red lipstick on the lips, but a woman’s appearance looks quite reserved, though in a festive way.
Apply makeup under artificial lighting. At a gala evening outdoors or in a restaurant, there will definitely be dimmed light to create a comfortable atmosphere. Accordingly, you should assess how the makeup will look in this light, while you apply makeup to the face.
The sequence of execution of evening makeup is standard – adjust the eyebrows, scrub lips and skin, apply primer, concealer, foundation (powder, blush), paint the eyes, contour the face, the lips. If at any stage made a mistake, do not rush to wash off all the cosmetics, it is enough to use a light corrector or pass on the poorly painted area with a cotton swab moistened with micellar water.
How to apply makeup to contour facial features
One of the main objectives of makeup is to show off attractive features and to draw attention away from flaws, which often exist only in a woman’s imagination. And, nevertheless, a properly performed makeup can visually correct facial features. How it happens? Through the effect of light and shadow. What darkens, loses volume, length, becomes less noticeable. And those features and areas of the face, which are highlighted, attract attention, draw the eye. This means that if you apply cosmetics of a certain shade to certain areas of the face, you can visually change your appearance. The main rule is to apply products with a thin layer and blend them well, erasing the boundaries of the transition of light shade to dark.
How to correct facial features with the contouring technique:
A wide, flattened nose. In this case, it is necessary to draw attention from the side areas of the nose and to accentuate the back. For this purpose, after applying your foundation, you need to take any cosmetic product of a lighter shade, ideally a highlighter, apply it to the center of your nose along the entire length. And on the sides to apply a cosmetic of a dark shade, for example, a matte bronzer or dark beige shadow.
Long nose. To visually shorten the nose, apply a spot of dark pigment on the tip of the nose and flatten.
Unimpressive cheekbones. To visually lift this area of the face and make the cheekbones more graphic, you can apply highlighter just under the eye sockets. That is, on the top of the apples of your cheeks. Then you must draw your cheeks in, making your lips “bow,” and apply concealer where dimples appear. It should be shaded diagonally, from the depression towards the earlobe.
A low, drooping forehead. Pass the highlighter along the border of hair growth on the head in the forehead area, as well as in the center of the forehead, drawing a light pigment conventional inverted triangle, the lower top of which is located between the bases of the eyebrows. Don’t forget to shade.
A too high, flat forehead. In this case we use dark pigment, a bronzer, along the hairline. And the middle of the forehead, to give it volume, is also treated with highlighter.
Narrow Eyes. You can cope with this problem by applying a light pigment on the upper eyelid along the lash growth line, and on the lower eyelid, painting the mucous membrane.
Eyes that are planted close to each other. To visually “widen” the eyes, apply a highlighter with a light chimmer effect to the inner corners of the eyelids and nose bridge. Try to avoid dark arrows in the makeup, which originate in the inner corners of the eyes.
Eyes wide open. In this case, the inner corners of the eyelids and the bridge of the nose can be darkened slightly. Start drawing your arrows as close to the center of your face as possible.
Your lips are not puffy or expressive enough. Visually enlarge the lips will help the same highlighter, which is applied above the upper and under the lower lip.
A heavy chin or square jaw. Lighten up the middle of the chin and apply darker pigment along the sides.
Chubby cheeks. Where there is unwanted volume, apply bronzer. Apply Highlighter to areas that protrude.
Similar to the techniques listed above, you can correct any features of your appearance that don’t suit you. The main thing is to follow the principles of contouring, taking into account the properties of light and shadow.
