Skin Prep: Skincare Before Makeup

Here’s how to prepare your skin to achieve the best makeup look ever!

Skin prep tips

How to make your base makeup look airbrushed, smooth and flawless and feel like a second skin? The answer is not in the foundation nor in the primer, but in the skincare. The number one reason why your makeup may look cakey is because we have texture, dryness and bumps on the surface of the skin. The only way to remove them is to use suitable skincare tools and products, starting from the first step of cleansing the face.

After cleansing, apply your serum, preferably hyaluronic acid, since it plumps the skin and gives it a beautiful glow. After that, apply a moisturising under eye cream, and don’t forget a hydrating lip balm or lip oil. The last step should be moisturiser, the more emollient the better: avoid gel moisturisers because they are not that rich in texture, when you use something more hydrating all the makeup products will have something to get absorbed into because your skin is softer. If your skin is more on the dry side, the next and final step should be face oil: take a few drops and tap it into the skin, this will ensure that your foundation will look just like second skin. And if it’s daytime, don’t forget SPF.

After this routine, wait 5 to 10 minutes before applying makeup to let all the products get absorbed into the skin, otherwise the skin will be too slippery. Primer is not mandatory (the moisturiser itself is a primer), unless you want to apply a blurring primer on your T-zone to blur your pores.

Pilling: what is it and why it happens

One of the biggest nightmares when it comes to skin prep is pilling. “Skin pilling is when a product — such as a moisturiser or serum — doesn’t soak into your skin but instead, collects on the surface as tiny particles that stubbornly hang around or transfer onto your fingertips,” explains Dr Derrick Phillips, consultant dermatologist. There are many reasons why your skincare or makeup products are pilling:

1. You’re layering too many products with a high amount of silicone, specifically dimethicone. Look at the ingredients list and check if there are any ingredients ending in “ethicone”.
2. Your products don’t match. For example, a water-based primer with a silicone-based foundation: water and oil don’t mix.
3. You don’t give your products enough time to sink in. Try to wait 30 to 60 seconds between each step, or, if you’re in a rush, just set your face with a face mist in between layers.
4. You’re applying your products in the wrong order. You need to go from the thinnest to the thickest product in consistency.
5. You’re using too many products. If you’re a 10+ steps skincare person, this is your sign to reconsider. The more skincare steps you have, the more products you’re using, the more likely you are to pill.
6. You’re applying too much product: try applying a little bit less of each step. For instance, sunscreen is important, but you don’t need to wear tons of it! When it comes to sunscreen pilling in particular, a trick is to apply half of your sunscreen fast, wait for it to absorb and then apply the second half.
7. Your skin may be peeling, maybe because of over exfoliation (too much salicylic acid, glycolic acid or retinoids).
8. You’re using rubbish products, and it’s time to throw them out.

If you’ve tried all these things and none of them has fixed your pilling, you need to break your products down one by one, put them on one at a time and see when the pilling occurs.