skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Applying makeup seems to mystify many people, which is why I've decided to share my insider makeup tips and secrets with you.
You will be amazed at how easy it is to get picture perfect, flawless makeup every time.
Prepare, prepare, prepare
Want your makeup to go on flawless? Preparing the blank canvas is a crucial step in preparing your face for makeup. This means moisturising or using an under base. You will find your foundation glides on more easily and especially important for those with dry skin.
Buy the proper foundation
An off-color base will make every other cosmetic you apply look not quite right. Splurge on foundation and when trying to find the right shade, blend a little from your jaw line and down to the neck to make sure the colour blends with your neck. Don't listen to those who try to tell you that you need apply a test patch to your inside of wrists. Your skin colour here is totally different to your face.
Let's Cover Up
Want perfect coverage? Apply foundation first and then your concealer. Foundation will hide about 75% of all the discolorations you see on a bare face. Then just go in with concealers on the most obvious. You save time and product this way.
The eyes have it
Want eye shadow to be picture perfect all day? Before you apply shadow or liner, prime lids with a concealer on the lids and a little underneath the eye, blending with a sponge of foundation followed by powder. Not only will this even the tone of your eyelids, it will also make your shadows go on more smoothly and last longer.
Set makeup with loose powder
Loose powder is easier to control and more versatile than its pressed cousin. What's more, it sets every type of cosmetic, from foundation to eye shadow to even lipstick and helps to reduce shine. Choose a loose powder with a yellow undertone to ensure it works with your skin tone, and apply with a fluffy powder brush.
Use great brushes
Your makeup application is only as good as the brushes you use, because high-quality brushes allow you to apply and blend better than anything else. At a minimum, you need a fluffy powder brush, a flat eye shadow brush, a tapered blush brush, and a lip brush.
Blushing Beauty
Blush is a sure fire way to look 5 years younger, instantly. How? With the right color. Look for the most natural flush color you can find. Sweeping on cheek color in stripes in an effort to create cheekbones only succeeds in making you look dated and like you're trying too hard. For a more classic, attractive look, apply blush to the apples of your cheeks in a circular motion, and avoid swiping the blush out toward your hairline.
Eyebrows give expression
Even if you wear no other makeup, keeping your brows groomed perfectly gives you an instantly polished appearance.
If yours need filling use and eyebrow pencil which is 1-2 shades lighter than your hair color. The same color can look too overpowering on a face and darker than your hair color is just too severe.
Lash Curling - make it an essential
Nothing opens up eyes more than curling the eyelashes. Make it easy by curling at the base of the lashes, hold for 10 seconds, walk 1/2 way out, and then curl for 10 seconds more. Always curl on clean lashes.
Mascara Basics
Want model length lashes? Do what the pros do. Apply mascara to the tops of the lashes as well as the underneath. Look down into your mirror, and brush your mascara wand on the upper side of your lashes...then look up and brush through again on the bottom side.
Lip Tip's
Want a perfect lip line? Use your light brown eye 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.
With Summer gone and Autumn just on our doorstep we are probably all experiencing the excesses of Summer and the party season, such as over exposure to the sun, damaged locks and poor eating habits. With the days getting shorter and chillier and the demands of school and office increasing, stress is often nipping at our heels.
It is the perfect time of year to reassess and revitalize your make up, skin and hair to get your body and soul in great shape for Autumn!
Revitalise Your Skin
Now is the time to take care of your skin. Use a facial scrub, to exfoliate any dead skin cells, caused by the damaging effects of sun impurities from too much sun and sunscreen.
A moisture mask adds valuable moisture to your skin. Apply in the shower, just five minutes, and your skin will be softer.
Your skin is in desperate need of re-hydratration. Treat yourself to a daily rich hydrating moisturizer such as a repair cream.
This is also the perfect time of year for an all-over body scrub. I like to use sugar to exfoliate the skin and deep cleanse it. Sugar is gentle, less dehydrating and can be used by all skin types. When you use a body scrub you are deep cleansing your skin.
Clean skin will retain more moisture and look healthier - a definite benefit! I would suggest adding a monthly all over body scrub to your beauty regime.
Body Detox
The laziness and frivolity of summer have caused most of us to neglect our bodies.
Detoxification is the word for April. Doing an effective Detox Diet works wonders for your skin, hair and general energy levels. Avoiding sugar, wheat and dairy for a couple weeks and replacing this with a mainly raw diet is often quite revealing and helps us to feel better—lighter and more youthful with greater energy.
Exercise activity is crucial now as in any season. As the weather cools, stretching is even more important, as is adding indoor exercises to our routine.
Bring Your Hair back to Life
Your hair takes a beating all summer long from sun, salt, chlorine, and wind. Get a good hair cut or trim and deep condition your hair to replenish lost moisture.
Autumn is also a great time to update your style. If you have a classic hairstyle, you can achieve a more contemporary look by adding layers or texturizing to break up the interior. To add fullness to your hair, try a Styling Mousse, or Straightening balm to smooth out unwanted curls.
Try a New Make up look
With the start of Autumn here, makeup colors reflect the cooler temperatures and warmer clothes. As clothes get heavier, so do makeup colors. This means it's time for a change in your makeup bag as well. Autumn makeup is defined by flushed cheeks, and emphasis on both eyes and lips.
The most dramatic focus of the season is on the eye. Using a colour mascara instead of jet black gives lashes lots of soft volume. Apply some concealer to your eyelids and dust with powder- this is a make-up trick used by the pros to ensure that shadow stays put and looks smooth.
Deep purples, plums, blues and neutrals adorn the classic smoky eye, while bright berries, burgundies, reds and fuchsias give the lips a dramatic sizzle.
Keep that summer glow around for just a little longer with a light bronzing powder. Remember to sweep towards your temple and apply to areas normally hit by the sun.
Open to the Creative Spirit
The New Year normally starts with many of us setting resolutions and goals for the coming year. Now that the holiday season is over it is time to open to the creative Spirit.
We need to focus on new ideas and actions necessary to fulfill our purpose and move us forward in our life. This can help to improve motivation with new energy and excitement for life. It's a good time to start the planning now so that feel motivated and satisfied in the colder, darker months.
Green tea is one of the most important anti-ageing superstars today.
If you're not drinking green tea daily or using green tea-based personal care products and cosmetics, you may be missing out on one of the most important healthy skin herbs available today.
And if you're not using green tea-based cosmetics and personal care products but choosing products with formaldehyde-based preservatives and other potentially dangerous ingredients, well, you may be placing yourself at a higher risk for allergies, irritation, and possibly even cancer. On the other hand, using the right cosmetics and personal care products can even help you to reduce your risk of cancer, particularly that of the skin, as well as ward off premature aging.
Topical Green Tea Reduces Skin Cancer Risk
One of the fastest growing cancers in the world today is skin cancer (melanoma), which is caused by exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays and sometimes from chemicals that come into contact with the skin. The mortality rate of malignant melanoma, a potentially fatal skin cancer associated with sun exposure, is rapidly increasing.
Malignant melanoma among men increased 50% between 1973 and 1988, from 2.2 to 3.3 per 100,000, according to the National Cancer Institute. The largest recorded increase was among men age 50 and older. Sharp increases are also occurring in women under 45.
Furthermore, although it was once thought that people with pale skin, light or red hair, and blue or gray eyes were the prime target, melanomas are now being found in Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Hawaiian, and other, darker skinned persons. If the protective ozone surrounding the planet continues to be destroyed, experts estimate that the number of skin cancer cases will continue to rise.
Green Tea to the Rescue
Clearly, our skin requires extra protection these days. That's where green tea becomes a valuable ally, one that we should want in our cosmetics and personal care products.
Green tea's potent phytochemicals, especially green tea polyphenols (catechins), have been shown to be highly effective protectors against skin cancer, as well as providing other beneficial effects. Green tea works both when consumed as a beverage and applied topically, according to a 1994 report.
According to the report, applying benzoyl peroxide (commonly used in acne medications) to skin has been shown to quickly promote tumors. Applying green tea topically to the same area prior to the application of benzoyl peroxide significantly protects against such skin tumours.
Green tea, according to the same report, also protects against the sun's ultraviolet rays when both applied topically and consumed as a beverage. The report concludes that "green tea may reduce the risk of some forms of human cancer induced by solar radiation." In a recent (2001) study, topical application of green tea polyphenols to the skin of human volunteers clearly reduced the ability of sunlight to cause sunburn and reduced the ability of sunlight to damage the DNA of skin cells.
Green tea may possibly be the most powerful plant-based antioxidant yet studied.
How Green Tea Works
How does green tea offer so much protection? Green tea's polyphenols increase the performance of a number of the body's most important detoxification enzymes, including catalase and glutathione peroxidase.
Not only do glutathione, peroxidase and catalase provide the body with cancer fighting protection, green tea's polyphenls are estimated to be twenty times more potent than even vitamin E, one of the body's most important antioxidants and cancer protectors.
Green tea offers other substantial benefits
It is a natural astringent and antibacterial agent that can help to detoxify and purify the skin at the same time that it helps to ward off the ravages of sun-related skin ageing.
The skin is an important first line of defence for the body's immune system - it has mechanisms to prevent infectious bacteria and viruses from gaining entry into the body from the outside environment. Green tea has been shown to protect the most important component of the immune system in the skin - cells named Langerhans cells - from the damage radiation damage.
For anyone who uses alpha hydroxy acid products, green tea also helps to prevent irritation of the skin caused by glycolic acid and other irritating chemicals used in alpha-hydroxy acid products. According to some experts, green tea may even have anti-cellulite properties.
As you can see, a lot of good reasons can be found for using green tea-based cosmetics and personal care products. It's smart and healthy.
The Take-Home Message
Using topical green tea skin products can reduce some aspects of skin ageing, sunlight-induced damage and helps to prevent sunburn and skin cancer.
Topical green tea products should be applied to the skin prior to exposure to sunlight.
Oral supplementation with green tea polyphenols can further increase the protective effects of topical green tea skin products. A suggested dosage is 240 - 320 mg of green tea polyphenols per day. This is equivalent to five to ten cups of green tea per day.
They speak volumes about you. Your lips can whisper or woo. Best of all, they can smile and brighten a room. With proper care, color and some simple tips, your lips will say precisely what you want. I would like to share, a few tricks and tips of the trade for fuller, poutier, sexier and longer lasting lipstick.
Lip Care
Moist, smooth lips hold color best. Stay pucker-pretty by following these basic tips for healthy lips.
Give dry, flaky lips the brush-off; add "brushing your lips" to your morning ritual using a soft toothbrush or terry washcloth. Now add some lip balm to smooth the way for lipstick-worthy lips!
How to get Sexier Looking Lips
To make your lips look fuller and sexier, especially if you have thin lips, line lips first with lipliner then use light-coloured or neutral-shade lipsticks. Pale shades make lips look fuller.
Finish with a shimmer-gloss for Party-wear. To enhance a pout, dab a silver/shiny lip-gloss onto the centre of your lower lip.
How to Alter Lip Contours
Want lips that pout? Apply lipstick except in the centre of the mouth. Apply a lighter shade in the centre of the mouth and touch it up with lip gloss.
* For thinner lips apply foundation on the lips and outline lips with lip pencil (within the natural lip line). Fill in lipstick with a lip brush.
* To make thin lips look fuller, apply foundation on mouth area. Use a lip pencil to outline the lips just beyond the natural lip line and fill in with desired colour
Longer Lasting Lipstick
Here is a Hollywood trade secret used by myself and many celebrity make up artists:
* Apply foundation over lips first
* Apply lip liner to lips and fill in lipstick with a lip brush
* Bite onto a piece of tissue and blot lips
* Dust lips lightly with translucent powder
* Apply final coat of lipstick
Eyebrows are a natural frame for the eyes and should be in proportion to the face. Perfectly shaped eyebrows will enhance the look of your eyes, your face and will accentuate your makeup while un kept, unruly eyebrows will hide the beauty of your eyes.
Tips for Perfect Eyebrows
* Pluck only from the underside of the brow in the direction that the hair grows. Do not pluck from the top of the brow and chance plucking too much and losing the shape of the brow. You can also pluck any stray hairs between the brows. If you find it too painful apply a little lubricant prior to you pluck, preferably one that had a dulling effect like oral gel, or baby's teething gel.
* If you find your eyebrows are starting to thin utilise a brow color to fill them in feather strokes, don't draw on lines in place of eyebrows.
* Brows should be the equivalent color as your hair or even a shade lighter.
* Your brow should begin right above the inner corner of your eye. To determine where the eyebrow should begin place a pencil against the nostril and line it higher with the inner corner of your eye. Your eyebrow should end at a diagonal with the outer corner of your eye. To determine this, place a pencil at the side of your nose ending at the outer corner of your eye. The eyebrow should arch above the outer rim of the iris.
* Be careful when you tweeze and if you happen to be unsure go to a professional. Incorrect tweezing can ruin the look of your eyebrows and after a certain time the eyebrow will not expand back. If you do employ a professional, keep regular appointments and do not let your eyebrows get too unruly between appointments. Or even, after you are bound to get a professional do your eyebrows keep them in shape by plucking the stray hairs as they expand.
Have you always wondered what is the best way to apply eyeliner? Would you like some of the celebrites hints and tips on how to apply eyeliner so it looks fantastic everytime? Well read on for lots of hints and tips and soon you will be achieving these great effects yourself.
One stunning effect that can be achieved easily and a favorite of such well-known actresses from Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe to Gwyneth Paltrow, is rimming the eyes with a white eye pencil.
This has the effect of enlarging the white of the eye to create a seductive, alluring look.
To apply the eye pencil, pull your lid away from the eye very gently using one or two fingers and draw a line along the inner eye rims. Do the same with both the upper and lower lids. To make a sharpened pencil softer and easier to apply, you can draw a few lines first on the back of your hand. This will soften the tip and get the color flowing.
Kohl can be applied in the same way with sensational effect. The use of kohl goes back to ancient Egyptian times and is characteristic of eye makeup in the Middle and Far East. Apply your kohl pencil as described above to both the upper and lower rims, from corner to corner. Then, using either a sponge-tipped applicator, eyeshadow brush, or even your fingertip, blend the color by smudging it to create a smoky effect.
Once you are satisfied with the appearance, you will need to set it by using a light application of loose powder. For an even stronger, more intense effect, apply your preferred color around the eyes in either cream, liquid or powder form.
If you want to use liquid eyeliner, once you’ve mastered the technique of applying it, this can be a quick method of achieving a stunning and sophisticated look. But applying liquid eyeliner can take a little practice.
To begin, it’s best to be in front of a good magnifying mirror, so that your eyes are magnified sufficiently to see very clearly what you are about to do and ensure a smooth application of the liquid eyeliner. Then, using your free hand, start by pulling the eyelid taut. If you’re right-handed it’s probably easiest for you to start applying the liquid from left-to-right, as if you are writing, and vice versa if you are left-handed. Draw across in a single continuous fine line. If you want a thicker line then, at the end of the run, simply retrace.
A tip when applying liquid eyeliner is to apply it as close as possible to the eyelashes, even running into the eyelashes. This will avoid you getting that annoying white line effect between the lashes and the liner when the two don’t meet.
Applying liquid eyeliner does take some practice, so have a bottle of makeup remover to hand until you are confident in the technique. As they say: “practice makes perfect”, and with a little perseverance and a steady hand you’ll soon be achieving some great effects.
Giving a warm, natural color of blood rushing to your cheeks - this is what blush does. Blush gives depth and contour to your cheeks and accentuates your inner glow. Unfortunately, blush comes in a wide variety of hues, shades and tones that can get you confused on which shade is just right for your skin.
A guide for beginners and experts alike, read on to get the full story on one of the cosmetic industry's best effects.
1. Choosing the Appropriate Shade of Blush for your skin tone.
This is similar to picking the right shade for your foundation, concealer or eye shadow. It is hard to pick out the right one - doing this would require comprehension of color theory. But, you don’t need to worry. Blushers today are very flexible, which will blend onto your skin tone easily. Getting off at the wrong track, however, will make your face drained or looking like a clown.
2. What to Consider
There are two simple things to take into consideration - skin and the context.
Skin Tone
* Know whether your skin is a warm or cool tone.
* If you have a yellow undertone, you will settle in better with cool colors like mauve, rose and pinkish plum.
* Orange, copper, almond or peach is appropriate for olive-skinned while blue skin tones (very dark-skinned) can opt for dark red or auburn.
* Those with a neutral look can have any color while those with pink tones can get away without a blush at all.
Skin Intensity
* The darker the skin, the stronger the color of the blush. So it follows that the lighter the skin, the lighter the blush.
* The intensity of the blusher will make or break your look. Having a blusher that is too weak for your skin will not even be seen.
* Fair-skinned women may use a shade from a pale pinkish red to beige - you can also apply powder blush on top to have that transluscent effect.
* Medium tones call for warm pinks, brown-based pinks or soft beige. For the olive-skinned, brown-red, soft berry, honey beige or plum pink is recommended.
* Those with a darker skin color can use deep bronze, soft mahogany or cocoa.
Context
* Consider the color of your hair and eyes. Dark or black hair tends to make the skin look paler, so a stronger blush than the recommended shade might be needed.
* Neutral shades like a bronzer should complement blonde hair and tanned skin.
* Peach is a safer color for red heads or those with loud hair colors, since it competes with your blush.
* Daytime or nighttime? Soft, natural colors like warm pinks, beige, peach, and mauve is more appropriate for evening affairs. A bronzer can also be a substitute to blushers if you want a sun-kissed look.
3. Sure-fire Blush Selection, made easy!
Do physical activity for about two to three minutes until your cheeks become pink. If you’re still having a hard time knowing what the right shade is best for you, ask someone from the make-up counter. Since they have charts and color wheels, it is best that you ask them for advice on color.
4. Applying the Blush
If you’re thinking on buying a blush, remember that you won’t find out the real shade until you try it out. Apply on the inside of your forearm to find out the color. If it doesn’t stand out, then you have chosen the right color.
Experimenting with the right shade and color would require a face in full make-up. This will let you know if your blush is balanced with your make-up. Make sure that your blush will match the color of your lipstick. Applying a little blush to the tip of your nose and chin will balance your look.
To ensure that your blush will blend with your make-up, apply blusher first or else it will compete with your eyeshadow and lip color. If you find out that you have too much blush, don’t fret. Just get a dry and clean sponge to soften the colors. Remember, this will all be in vain if you don’t know how to apply blush properly.
