The guide on the Do's and Don'ts of Makeup application
Makeup is a vast world of so many different products, potions lotions, styles and techniques. For anyone who doesn't know anything about makeup, it can be a really scary concept to tackle. I am doing this post to help so many of the women out there who don't have any knowledge of makeup.
Make-up is used to enhance your features or create illusions of features you'd like but I see so many women putting makeup on for the sake of putting it on without realising they are sometimes making themselves look worse. A common example of this is when appyling a foundation that is the wrong colour for your skin so you can see an obvious line from your jawline to your neck, this is not a good look on anyone.
Everyone has different face shapes, eye shapes, colouring etc so to try help everyone out I'm going to list the techniques for several different types but if you have a particular look that I have not mentioned please comment and I'll help.
Face
There are so many different face products liquid, cream, powder, mineral & mousse foundations as well as BB, CC creams & tinted moisturisers along with primers, illuminators and concealors. There are so many products you can use but the most important thing I think about applying makeup to the skin on your face is to MATCH the colour correctly. This is one of the things that stands out so much. Having a darker colour can make you look dirty against your lighter skin and using too much of a lighter colour can make you look ill. Applying the correct colour to your skin doesnt mean you can't play around with creating illusions that you skin is either darker or lighter, it's just about knowing where to apply different shades.
If you want to look more tanned or darker use a bronzer or slightly darker foundation and apply to your cheekbones, nose and forehead but the rest of your face should match your neck & body. This is a great way to contour your face quickly(see my Kim Kardashian Contouring post for more information on this, www.suzyclarkemua.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/kim-kardashian-contour.html).
On the other hand if you want your skin to look lighter, apply a lighter foundation/concealor under your eyes, along the centre of your nose and middle of your forehead. These lighter points break up the darker skin so instead of having one complete flat colour all over your skin, you've got the lighter parts of skin.
Our faces are 3D so we don't want to create a complete flat colour that looks like a mask, letting your skin shine through or adding blusher/bronzer are great ways to bring your bone structure to life.
If your skin is lovely please don't apply a heavy coverage foundation all over your skin, a CC cream & a small bit of concealor over any blemshies would work so much better to give the glowing natural look.
Eyes
Eyes are the windows to your soul so you've got to make sure your making the best of them. A lot of the clients I talk to don't know what to do with their eyes so to dress them up they just apply eyeliner and mascara even if it doesn't suit them. It's definetly not a good look for some people, especially me as you can see on the picture above. There are so many different eye shapes and sizes, and so many different tricks to make them look amazing.
Small Eyes
How to: If you have small eyes like me a great trick to do is apply a white or flesh coloured eyeliner to your waterline which opens your eyes up and creates the illusion that they are a lot bigger (like I have done on the picture above). Using a dark eyeliner can look really beautiful for making your eye colour stand out so it's a choice you can make, whether you want your eyes to look bigger or the colour to really pop.
How Not to: Don't apply lots of dark eyeliner under your eyes without balancing the liner out on the upper eyelid.
Close Set Eyes
How to: If your eyes are quite close set a great makeup trick to correct this is to wing out your eyeshadow or eyeliner. You can also use false eyelashes that are winged. This creates the illusion that your eyes are wider, closing the gap from your hairline to the outer corner of your eye. Also another great tip is to keep the inner corners of your eye really light and bright, shimmery colours work really well for bouncing light off and making the space look bigger between your inner corner and nose.
How Not to: Don't apply any dark eyeshadow too close to the inner eye area as this closes the gap and makes the eyes seem even closer.
Wide Set Eyes
How To: I personally love wide set eyes but if you feel your eyes are too far apart a good trick is apply your medium or dark shadow from your inner eye all over your lid instead of applying a lighter colour on your inner eye. If you contour your face another thing to try is when shading down the sides of your nose, bring that shade up towards the brows and blend towards your eyes to close the gap.
How Not to: Do not wing out your eyeshadow as that will elongate your eyes and create the illusion they are even wider.
Slanting Eyes
How to: When you have an eye shape that slopes down you have to be very careful that you don't make this more prounced when applying makeup. The trick is to pull your liner or eyeshadow up before you get to the outer corner which creates the illusion that the eye is lifted. This takes some practise so try it out a few times using different products, you could use a soft brown eyeshadow or a black gel liner, use whats best for you.
How Not to: Don't apply lots of eyeshadow/eyeliner to the very edge of your eye as this will create the illusion that the eyes are slanting down even more.
Lips
Lips are such a great feature on the face, unfortunately I haven't been blessed with full lips so I know full well that some people like to avoid them alltogether if they are thin. There are great ways to enhance your lips, any size lips can be made the best of.
Thin Lips
If you have thin lips, lipliner and gloss are the best tools for the job. My top lip is very thin but I can't draw over my lipline without it being obvious because my lip shape is very prominent. To tackle this, I create a very slight ombre effect by applying my lipliner all over my lips and then I add a lighter gloss or lipstick to the centre of my lips. If your lips are thin and flat, you can use a lipliner to draw over your natural shape to however thick you'd like them. A good trick is to apply your liner, then powder and reapply as this sets the liner and will make it last longer. Then adding a gloss always makes the lips look fuller.
Big Lips
I love big lips so I would never want to make them look smaller but I understand some people think their lips take over their face so they'd like them to appear smaller. To do this apply a darker lipstick to your natural lip colour over your lips avoiding going all the way to the edge of your lips. You can also apply a darker colour to the centre of your lips and blend out going lighter towards the edges. Doing this trick subtly can really help. Avoid adding gloss as this will make them look fuller.
Eyebrows
Eyebrows are so important as they frame your face and can completely change a look. I am a big lover of individual looks, so I don't think everyone suits defined brows. Bleached bushy brows are amazing and suit so many people. Defined brows can be created using many products, eyeshadows, brow pencils, brow gels, paintpots and more.
How to: If you've got thin brows then I would reccomend starting off using a shade lighter then your own brows to fill them in. This is so that their not too obvious and you can build up the shape with confidence. Also don't rub your foundation into your brows unless you are going for the bleached brow look as wishy washy eyebrows aren't usually very flattering. Get your eyebrows shaped by a proffesional then you've got a good base to work on. Try to follow the eyebrow guide below to see what your shape should resemble.
How Not to: Don't use a shade too dark or create a shape too big as it will look really unnatural.
I hope some of the information is helpful and if it does help anyone, I will be really happy. This is an ongoing project of mine so I will be updating this blog post with more pictures of Do's and Don'ts and helpful pictorials of each thing I have mentioned.
Thanks for looking and if you have any questions or requests then please feel free to comment or email me.
Suzy xx
