The first key thing to remember is often forgotten. It is really important to sit down with a mirror near a source of natural light. Tungsten lights which are most household light bulbs, or fluorescent light sources, can leave a really marked colour cast on your face so you will not know for sure what colours of make up you are applying to your face.
Make sure you have cleaned and dried your face thoroughly.
Apply a brand of concealer that will not gunge up too much. If it does, a moisturizing cream applied first can help with this. Key areas to concentrate on are any blemishes, marks and rings under the eyes. The shade of the concealer should be very slightly lighter than your foundation.
Foundation comes next. The shade should be a close as possible to the tone of your skin. Many people have a yellow based tone to their face and many foundations will to designed for this. In this case, do not pick out an orange or pink based one. Apply a few dots around the middle of your face and smooth it outward using a sponge.
Moving on the eyebrows, you can use either an eyebrow brush and powder or a pencil which gives a very different look.
The areas around the eyes are sometimes the most challenging. Apply a paint base to your eyelids then start with the eyeliner. Using a brush and eyeliner or an eyeliner pencil, carefully trace a thin line across the eyelid both above and below the eye and at the base of the lashes. You might want to only complete this line two thirds of the way across from the outside of the eye at the bottom. If you complete this in full, it gives a more dramatic effect.
Choosing your eyeshadow colour and finish will depend on your mood and what you are doing that day or evening. But a safe bet is to go with a colour that is complementary to the colour of eyes. Purple goes well with brown eyes and orange with blue eyes. Remember not to go below the eyelash line or your eyes will appear very heavy and use a lighter shade for the brow bone area.
To complete the look around your eyes, apply mascara to the lashes thinly to avoid it clogging. Brown works well if you have light skin tones, black if your skin is darker.
Smile so you can see the apples of your cheeks and apply blusher there. A simple sweep of the brush in the shape of a tick outwards from your nose works well.
Apply your lipstick before you line your lips. This way if they rub off over time, they will rub off together.
There are quite a few steps to even a basic application of make up and when you multiply this by all the colour and brands a girl likes, you have quite a kit to content with and that you need easy access to. Try our make up storage ideas to give you more time for the fun things in life.
