I love makeup! I feel myself like an artist, whose makeup products are oil paint, and the face is a canvas. So, I really understand beginners who don’t know what to buy in their first cosmetic bag. There are a lot of interesting makeup products in the modern world.
I’m not a professional makeup artist. I haven’t completed makeup courses and don’t study anywhere. My makeup is a self-education and an experience that I have gained from of my mistakes. By the way, I’ve been doing creative makeup for about 5 years, so I know a lot of things and hacks.
1. Preparing the skin for makeup is a necessary thing!
I used to underestimate such an important aspect as the protective layer between our skin and foundation. As a result, I was haunted by allergies and rashes, the foundation cover badly. If it was a spring or winter period of winds and cold, then my skin was constantly peeling. I spent many hours retouching my photos. I’m already silent about how it looked in real life on macro mode.
The product that prepares the skin for applying makeup is a primer. It’s possible in the form of “milk”, cream, or spray. I advise you to buy a primer, and don’t save money and don’t try to apply foundation to your usual daily cream. The daily cream isn’t designed for this.
The effects and compositions of primers are very different. There are primer for leveling redness, moisturizing, giving radiance, smoothing pores. In my cosmetics chest there are a variety of primers for all occasions. There are radiance for glamorous makeup, to eliminate greasy shiny and smooth pores. The most versatile is moisturizing. You can apply the primer with both fingers and a brush.
2. Foundation and concealer
If you have perfect clean skin, it’s enough for you to have a BB or CC cream in your cosmetic bag. If you have problematic skin, I advise you to pay attention to thick foundation. Usually these are products, the color of which must be carefully selected. You will need a brush or sponge for application. In my experience, a wet sponge (beauty blender) is more convenient, because the coating isn’t so thick.
How to choose a foundation? Many people mistakenly pick up the cream by applying it to the back of the palm or wrist, but you need to pick it up on the face, on the cheekbone or jaw, closer to the neck. You’re not going to wear foundation on your hands, are you? And when applying a sponge, you need to gently put out the foundation also on the neck and ears, so that there are no differences in skin tone.
Concealer for 1–2 tones lighter than your (correctly selected!) foundation. It usually has paired with a built-in brush, as like lip gloss. We highlight the area under the eyes, the center of the forehead and the nose. You must look for additional instructions and schemes on the Internet, shade with a brush or sponge.
3. Special color imperfection correctors
To this point I will refer to corrector of redness, bruises under the eyes, yellowness and other things. Often they have a creamy texture and the appearance of a palette or single products of purple, yellow, green colors. They should be applied with a brush or sponge, shading well. For beginners, I don’t advise anything. It seems like an excessive action even for me. Concealer and foundation are frequently quite enough. In 2022, the trend for naturalness is gaining momentum and fewer makeup artists are bothering to align the skin tone as much as possible before applying foundation.
4. Sculptors and correctors of brown color for sculpting
They are used to drawing volume for face, creating clearer cheekbones, forehead reduction, chin narrowing. You can draw yourself a different face with the help of a sculptor! These tricks are used by many portrait makeup artists who draw something new on their face, for example, some celebrity.
As for me, this is very controversial and works only for photos. Personally, I rarely use contouring in my life, and if I do, it isn’t creamy, but compact shadow texture. It looks like powder and is easier to put on the face. A Kardashian-style face is already an outdated trend, isn’t popular for two years, or more.
5. Blush, highlighter, and powder
The powder is needed to fix the foundation (so that it doesn’t spread prematurely and doesn’t shine) and other creamy textures on the face. There is a loose and pressed powder, with color and transparent (colorless), matte and with shining particles.
Recently, I like to use a colorless powder, because it perfectly mattified, but doesn’t add extra gravity to the face and doesn’t tint the “fluff” on the face. When I’m too lazy, and I need a fresh look to go, I only apply primer, powder and paint my eyebrows. So, it’s an ideal option for easy daily makeup.
With a crumbly transparent powder, I even fix an oily theatrical makeup! Don’t apply powder with a foam sponge from case. It gives too dense a coating and accumulates bacteria in itself. Use a large, fluffy brush that easy will be washed after each makeup.
The blush is needed to add color to the cheeks. You can apply blush high to the temples and on the nose, following Korean and Japanese trends, or use European traditions. There are both cream, which can be applied with a brush, fingers or sponge, and in the form of sticks. But I like the classic pressed texture, which I apply with the same brush as the powder.
Highlighters are a pressed or creamy texture containing large sequins or small reflective particles. Yes, everything that we have painted over, leveled and matted before, we will turn into a Russian samovar!🌙
I like pressed highlighters with a delicate glow. Detailed application schemes can be found on the Internet, but I usually allocate space under the eyebrow, the bridge, and tip of the nose, cheekbone, upper lip for volume. The highlighter can be applied with your fingers, or you can buy a special highlighter brush. The alternative is a fan brush from an art store.
In addition to the highlighter, there is an illuminizer powder, which is something in between a powder and a highlighter. The illuminizer may have a color effect, unusual for classic cold silver and warm gold highlighters. For creative makeup it’s an unusual thing, but optional.
6. Bronzers
Tint products that give the skin a light glow and a shade of tan. Not the most necessary thing, and not everyone will like it. Personally, I like being Snow White!
7. Eyebrows
There are just dozens of different tools for styling and painting eyebrows! These are gels, fudges, eyebrow soap, tints, paints, shadows, pencils, waxes. For a beginner, I will advise just shadows in the color of your hair or a thin pencil of any company and a colorless gel for fixing.
In fact, eyebrows can be painting with any colored shadows and pencils for eyes! In addition to shadows, you will need a brush for application (usually flat beveled) and a brush for combing hairs and shading (you can simply wash the brush from the bottle of old mascara).
8. Eyelashes
Naturally it is mascara! I found for myself the perfect budget mascara, coloring without lumps, which separates the eyelashes well. Alas, I don’t see the point in buying expensive mascara to throw it away in six months (and some makeup artists advise throwing away mascara every 3 months!). If I buy expensive branded carcasses, then only miniatures for traveling, because they are much cheaper. In addition to black, mascara can be both colored and white, but this story is already for creative bloggers and makeup artists.
Eyelash curler are a terrifying thing for me! I had a comical situation with them. The silicone part into which the eyelashes were pressed during curling, cut through. And I literally trimmed my eyelashes on hard metal pieces every time! Oh, the reason for my balding eyes, I searched extremely long and painfully!😅 Since then, I have been carefully monitoring the serviceability of the tool, and lately I have been gluing natural false eyelashes for Instagram photos or applying mascara tightly.
9. Eye cosmetics
Eyes shadows can be pressed and creamy, matte and shining. They are applied to a specially prepared eyelid (a base for shadows or concealer). Choose the colors for yourself. Creatives will need a “rainbow” set, and more conservative people will need a nude palette with a predominance of calm and natural shades. I have both colored and “natural” palettes, but I don’t use the latter often.
Kohl (kajal or kajol) is a soft pencil created specifically for the mucous membrane eye, as a rule, waterproof. In my experience, black and brown are a must-have. They literally make your eyelashes more voluminous, and your look will be deeper. With only one black or brown pencil, you can achieve the effect of “makeup without makeup”, if, for example, mascara is prohibited at your school or workplace. Naturally, kohl can be in all colors of the rainbow!
Eyeliners also come in different formats and different colors in the form of mousse in jars, in the form of felt-tip markers, bottles with a brush and others. For a beginner, I recommend markers, it’s easiest for them to learn how to hold and guide a hand from my personal experience.
Pigments and glitters must be glued to a special sticky base, but for beginners they are quite difficult to use, because they crumble heavily under the eyes or roll down. It is better to do such makeup BEFORE applying foundation. It can be a little difficult for a beginner.
Eyeliner pencils are coarser, than pencils for the mucous membrane of the eye. These pencils can be used as substrates for dense makeup or for drawing shapes and arrows. Not the most important thing for a beginner, in my experience.
Scotch tape (paper tape!) this isn’t a joke, an indispensable thing in a beginner’s makeup bag! I usually glue a short piece to my hand two times to remove the excess sticky layer, and only then glue it under the eye, as if continuing the lower eyelid. This is ideal for building a beautiful shape of future makeup when you are just starting to learn how to draw.
10. Lips
We are completing our short educational program and I will list the main lip products:
- Glosses and balms. They are not fixed, have a strong “glamorous” shine, may have a light shade or glitter in the composition.
- Satin lipsticks and classic lipsticks have a dense color, are not fixed, have a lacquer shine.
- Matte lipsticks. They are partially fixed, have no gloss, the color is dense. The anti-trend of recent years, but who cares?
- Lip pencils are very easy to draw a shape. They come with different effects, both matte and satin, with a strong color and a weak shade.
- Tints are liquid lipsticks that are then washed off or removed with a film, but your lips have a light shade. The trend of Asian makeup, can last for several days.
- Lip plumpers are balms or lipsticks containing special substances that cause blood flow to the lips, which become more plump.
In the photo below, it’s satin red lipstick. It is most convenient to apply such lipsticks, of course, with a beveled brush. If you need the effect of “kissed lips” you can also use your fingers.
Glosses, as a rule, don’t need an exact border and that’s why I especially like to apply them for my photos. But walking down the street with your hair down is not very convenient.
10. Makeup fixers
Absolutely not a mandatory item, but I will still say that makeup fixers usually look like a spray bottle and complete our makeup. They have a different finishing effect, matting or adding radiance. I don’t know how much they prolong the life of our makeup, but fixers can be used as a means to dilute eye shadows. With the fixator mixed with eye shadows, you can get a semblance of aquarelle body paints or colored eyeliner from your favorite shade color. Here is such a life hack!🔥
Hey! English isn’t my native language. So there may be small mistakes here. Please notify me on social media if you have the time and desire to help. Peace to all, thanks!
With best wishes, your Loliminti💜
