Photo by Isaac bailey, makeup by Corinna Cooke
Every girl who wears makeup wants tips on how to make it last longer or look better. Here are 12 essential tips you need to know.
12 Essential Makeup Tips
Timing
1.Allow a minute or two between applying your moisturizer and your sunscreen to let your moisturizer soak in, and then another couple of minutes between your sunscreen and your primer. This will help your makeup to glide on more seamlessly and last all day.
Foundation
2.Foundation is supposed to make your skin look flawless and perfect, but still actually look like skin. A thick layer of opaque, full cover foundation doesn’t look like skin, and generally looks awful. Choose the sheerest formula of foundation you can, and apply it sparingly.
3. Your foundation color choice should be based on your skin’s undertone. Warm toned girls need warm based foundations, cool toned girls need cool based foundations. Nothing will look right if you don’t get this most basic principal right!
Read more about choosing the right foundation here.
Powder
4. Powder sets foundation. If you want your foundation to stay on all day you need to set it.
Photo by Isaac Bailey, makeup by Corinna Cooke
Eyebrows
5. Nothing changes your face more than your eyebrows! If you have a small space between your brow and your lash-line, accent the upper edge of your brow to open the eye space. If you have a large gap between lash-line and brow you can soften it by accenting the lower edge of your brow. Too much color in the inner third of the brow can make you look angry and make your eyes look too close set.
Lifting through the arch and creating a slight extra tail to the brow can make the eyes look more alert and further spaced apart.
*Heavy eyebrow makeup can collapse a face.
**There is no place in the world for Instagram eyebrows.
Learn how to get the perfect eyebrow shape for your face here
Contour
6. Contour on the cheeks should be subtle. It should create a slight shadow under the cheekbone, making the bone look a little more pronounced and lifted. If the person standing next to you can see a brown contour line it is an epic makeup fail!
Bronzer
7. Bronzer is to make you look like you have been outside in the sunshine. It is not a contour product, and it is not to correct a foundation that is too pale. Bronzer is one of the greatest makeup products ever created, and also the most abused. Keep your bronzer subtle, apply it to the high planes of the face – forehead, cheekbones, chin, and also apply to your collarbones if they will be exposed.
Liquid and gel bronzers help you look glowy instead of shimmery.
Primer
8. Eye shadow primer will make your eye shadow last longer (hopefully all day) and will boost the color.
Related Post: Makeup Tips For Girls Who Wear Glasses
Mascara
9. Waterproof mascara should only be worn when you are planning on swimming or crying! Daily use of waterproof can lead to lash breakage and thinning. (not based on science, but based on years of doing makeup and seeing broken lashes on girls who wear waterproof all the time!)
10. Waterproof mascara should be removed with an eye-makeup remover that is designed to dissolve waterproof makeup. This helps to minimize breakage.
Lipstick
11. Dark lipstick is incredibly aging. It also makes lips look thinner, more compressed, and angry. If you are older or have thin lips, dark lipstick is your enemy. Matte lipstick is not a great choice for an older woman. It makes the lip look deflated and dry.
Photo by Isaac Bailey, makeup by Corinna Cooke
12. Red lips can be daunting, but there is a red for everyone! You just need the right undertone and the right texture.
Read more about choosing the right red lipstick here.
