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I've been doing some research on make-up. I have so many beauty problems: red, flaky skin, blood shot eyes, terrible eyebrows that I don't know how to shape. (That's not to say I'm not naturally pretty, cuz I have nice features, hehe. I just need to make more of an effort to emphasize them!)

So, here's some tips I want to try out, listed so I don't forget about them.


This trick is nice. Whenever I put on makeup and have photos taken, it looks like I'm not wearing ANYTHING. =( So, I'm looking forward to trying this one out. It seems neat.

Apply foundation a bit more than you think you need. A foundation brush is perfect for this. Then take a kleenex and fold it into a square. Lightly press into your skin over the whole face. The kleenex picks up the excess oils of the foundation, leaving on your skin, pure pigment. When lighting for a headshot or beauty shot, light has the ability to go through makeup, which is why some shots look like you have nothing on. The light went right through your foundation, showing every little blemish, pore, etc. Trick? Apply more than you need, but press it down so it looks more like skin. The foundation blocks the light, making your skin look perfect.


A clever way to put on eyeliner. I always have SO much trouble. I can't draw straight to save my life (honest!), so I'm thinking of giving this method a shot.

The easiest by far to get a straight line, but even they can smear and melt, making your perfect eyes look smeary and smudgy. Try this trick: Take your pencil in question and run a thin line going between your thumb and forefinger, you know in that little v shape between your fingers? Does the pencil draw on smooth? Does it melt on? Does it draw on hard or hardley at all? You want the pencil that draws on smooth and doesn't melt into the skin right away.

Next, sharpen your pencil. The sharper the pencil, the smoother and cleaner the line. Then, right above the lashes, lightly trace a thin line. Don't press and don't try to draw the line perfect. Just lightly trace. Does it look right? Then do a few more passes with the pencil. You'll be able to build up and get the line exactly how you want it. As long as you don't try to do it in one line, you'll have much better results.



I like color on my lips, but I have trouble because it looks sloppy. My lips just have a strange texture/lining. I want to give this trick a shot, except I don't even have brown eyeliner.

Want a perfect lip line? Use your light brown eyebrow pencil to line lips. Apply a bit more on the inside corners of the lip on both top and bottom to create a depth on the outside of the lips. Apply your lipstick or gloss over. You've just created a 3-d effect lip. Larger, brighter, fuller, without doing the dreaded 'clown' mouth.


This seems like a smart way to put on eyeshadow.

Want eye shadow to be picture perfect all day? Get in the habit of applying foundation on your eyelids only first. Then apply your eye shadows. When done, lightly mist water or your Evian bottle mister over eyes to set. Let dry. Then apply the rest of your foundation and makeup as usual. By doing eyes first, you save precious minutes by not having to clean up your fly away eye shadow powders. Or any clean up that you have to do is easy. A Q-tip in moisturizer and fallen eye shadows sweep away.


I tried this tip today! I bought some Clinique moisturizer (because it's yellow. I had been using my redness relief night creme as my base before makeup during the day, but I suspect it had grey in it, cuz it made my skin all weird looking. Better keep that just for the night. But I adore my Eucerin redness relief night creme! It's fantastic for people who get ruddy red cheeks like I do.) I also bought 1 makeup sponge (and got a free makeup back with samples! whee!). I tried putting on the lotion with the sponge, and I like it. Feels very smooth!

Want your makeup to go on flawless? Well, the canvas has to be prepared then. And that means moisturizer. The easiest way to get just the right amount on, is by applying it with a makeup sponge. The perfect amount will be evenly applied over the entire face.


And in general, for picking colors:

All colors are either warm or cool. A warm chestnut brown is warm, a dark, grayish brown is cool. A cool ice white is cool, a soft ivory is warm. All colors are either warm or cool, and the best one for you is whatever YOU are. Look at your hair and skin. Are you warm or cool?


And lastly, a great reference for plucking my eyebrows, which I will hopefully try tonight!

http://beautynews.blogspot.com/2006/11/how-to-get-model-eyebrows-from-eyebrow.html

I got all of these tips from that site! I will post more entries when I find new beauty tips. =)