How To Apply Makeup

Learning how to apply makeup takes a little bit of time and a whole lot of practice. Little girls usually start teaching themselves to this well before they're old enough to actually wear makeup. When they're first learning to put on makeup, they tend to look more like clowns than the glamorous movie stars they're trying to look like.

As the girls get older, they start to learn that when makeup is involved, more isn't always better. Though learning it does take a lot of practice, there are some things you can do to help even out your makeup learning curve.

Makeup Application Tips

Before you learn how to apply makeup, you need to know what kind of makeup you're applying. There's makeup for the face, eyes, eyebrows and lips. You certainly don't have to use makeup on all of your facial features, but you can. If you decide to use facial makeup, or concealer, make sure to get a concealer shade that matches your face. If you're concealer is too dark or too pale, it will stand out. If you have nice skin, you can bypass concealer or, you can apply it to areas that contain blemishes.

After you've applied facial makeup, you need to move onto your eyes. You should always apply your eye make in this order: eye shadow, eyeliner, mascara. When you apply your makeup, relax your eyelids and look down. This technique will smooth out your eyelids, which will help you apply your makeup more evenly. Move your eye shadow brush from the inside of your eye to the outside of your eye. This will help even out your eye shade color.

Eyeliner will help your eyes standout. However, if you apply too much, you'll look like a raccoon. When you apply eyeliner, use your pointer finger to pull the skin around your eye taught. This will make your eye smooth and allow you to evenly apply the liner.

When you apply makeup, especially when you're just learning this, you should have plenty of Q-tips nearby. The Q-tips will help you wash away or even out any mistakes you may make while learning how to apply makeup.

1. Clean, exfoliate and moisturize your skin. Makeup will not look good no matter what if you have dry, flakey skin. It is incredibly important to prepare the skin prior to any makeup application. Moisturizing is key. I prefer all natural moisturizers that do not have parabens, artificial colors, fragrances or preservatives.

2. Less is More! It's always better looking and easier to apply if you are light handed with your makeup. I always say, it's easy to have to add more, and it's difficult to take it off when too much has been applied.

3. Foundation Matching: Don't go too dark. Many women think it's better to go darker with foundation. This is not true. Darker foundation will age you, and will not make your skin look healthy. If you are trying to decide between which color to get, go with the lighter color (this is not true for African American women. With dark skin, if you go lighter, it looks horrible!). If you need to warm up the complexion, use a bronzer. This will give you color that looks natural and radiant.

4. Don't Overdo Eyeliner. Especially for daytime makeup, heavy eyeliner ages the eyes, pulls them down, and darkens them. This means that generally too much liner looks really really bad. By focusing eyeliner on the top lid, you will keep the eye bright and awake looking. If you MUST add liner on the bottom, apply a dark brown powder right at the lashes, and blend it in well with a smudger brush. This sill adds volume to the lashes without adding too much weight to the bottom of the eyes.

5. Blush is Great--When Applied Correctly. Follow my golden rule with blush, too: "Less is More"! It's always better to add too little, and have to add more. Apply an apricot colored blush (NOT RED OR PINK) to Caucasian skin, and for African Americans, you can get more daring and red-toned with blush. Dark skin naturally has more depth to it, so you can add colors like rich amethyst or ruby colors without looking like a clown.