Personal Makeup Tutorial - Face Tips

Ok, so I thought I would share with you some of the tips that I learnt last weekend while having my Personal Makeup Tutorial. Some of these may be very basic to some of you but if there is anyone reading this blog who was like me and just knew enough of the basics to get by then hopefully you may also find some of these tips useful.

To make sure these posts don't end up too long I've decided to break them up into sections. Today will be about the face and tips to laying a good foundation for the rest of your makeup.

Step 1 - Primer
Starting off with a good primer is essential to creating a smooth surface for your makeup to adhere to. The job of a primer is to smooth out your pores and any other rough areas to ensure your foundation has a primed and ready base to cover. Think of it like an artist's canvas. Adding a primer ensures your foundation doesn't disappear into your skin, become patchy and uneven and it also helps to make it last longer throughout the day.

Step 2 - Foundation
Depending on whether you are a liquid, mousse, cream or powder kind of girl, the best way to apply foundation is usually with a foundation brush. I personally prefer to use a sponge but was told that sponges can create blotchy areas and also absorb a lot of your foundation which can become wasteful.
The makeup artist applied a liquid foundation on my face using a brush and told me that the best way is to apply your brush strokes in the general direction of the hair growth, ie, downwards on the cheeks, nose and chin and semi-sideways for the forehead. This keeps the application looking smooth and even and the same goes for whether you are a sponge or finger application lover as well.
To achieve a lovely subtle glow she mixed a small amount of liquid illuminator in with the foundation prior to applying it.
She told me that if your skin is fairly blemish free, it's best to apply your foundation as light as possible to start and then build up coverage on any areas that need a bit of extra help. This stops your foundation from having that heavy 'cakey' look. It's always easier to add more coverage if needed but not so easy to remove any if too much is used without having to start over again.
After using the foundation brush to cover my entire face, she then used a flat topped highlighting brush to lightly buff over my face in circular motions. She said she likes to do this to ensure the foundation is blended into the skin flawlessly and that no visibly brush strokes can be seen.

Step 3 - Concealer
One thing I was not aware of was that normal concealer is usually way too drying for use under the eye area and that a specific hydrating concealer is the best product to use for this delicate area. A hydrating concealer also won't highlight any fine lines you may have in this area as much as a regular concealer would.
The makeup artist told me that she prefers to apply concealer after foundation because it means that you won't wipe off all your hard work at concealing a certain area.
The main spots where most people need a bit more coverage is usually around the nose, the centre of the chin, the centre of the forehead and sometimes over any visible red areas that may be on the cheeks.
She used a small concealer brush (I never even knew these existed!) and just patted regular concealer onto the areas that I needed more help.
Using a hydrating concealer she covered the area under my eyes and pushed the brush virtually all the way up underneath my lashes.
After using the concealer, she then got the foundation brush that was previously used and without adding any more foundation, just lightly patted over the concealed areas to kind of blend and melt the concealer into the skin and ensure no visible concealed areas could be seen. This was a trick that I thought was genius and I've never had such a smooth and even looking face before.

Step 4 - Powder
Using a light dusting of powder over your foundation helps to set your base. She recommended a translucent powder which contains no pigment (it looks virtually white) to ensure you don't add any further unwanted colour onto your face once you've gotten your foundation how you want it.
She also recommended using a powder puff to apply the translucent powder because it gives you more control and helps the powder to melt onto the skin rather than just sitting on top of it. Using the powder puff she applied a very light coating of the powder in a kind of sideways rolling motion so there was no dragging on the skin and this also stops you from having a 'powdered' look.

The first three brushes in the picture below are what was used to create the perfect foundation base.  


(Foundation brush, Highlighting brush, Concealer Brush, Slanted Blush Brush, Kabuki Brush, Blush Brush)

So, hopefully I haven't bored all of you with this post and it gave you a new idea or two to use for yourself at home.

Next I will be going over bronzer and blush application.

Hope everyone is having a lovely week :-)

Michelle xx