Saturday 27 February 2016

Step 3. A 'How to' guide to becoming your own MUA

Step 1 & 2 done it's time to finish off your face. At this stage you should have applied your primer and foundation to the most part of your face. You are now ready for the concealer. I want to point out that this series of tutorials is all about perfecting your makeup to achieve a natural flawless daytime look, if you can master this look then the rest will follow. Many people think that a natural look is very simple but often it can be the hardest look to achieve. You need the right amount of product to cover and conceal any imperfections on your skin without leaving your skin looking caked and loaded with product. The balance can often be hard to achieve. 
Hopefully by the end of this series you'll have mastered this art.
Liquid Concealer: For use around the eye area and to highlight the face
You should always use a liquid concealer for these areas as a cream concealer is too thick and will settle into the fine skin around your eye area ageing you. As a rule of thumb you should use a liquid concealer for your eye area and highlight at least 2-3 times paler than your foundation. I often just go for the palest shade that I can find in whichever my chosen liquid concealer is. At the moment I am using and loving a Catrice concealer  (Liquid Camouflage in 010 Porcelain) I picked up in penny's for under a fiver.
Using either the wand provided or a concealer brush apply this under your eye area in a v-shape sweeping it along the higher part of your cheekbone too. This will create a v of light which will brighten your face instantly. Apply a small amount on your lids too. Using either a clean small fluffy brush or your beauty blender, gently blend the concealer right up under your lower lash line, along the lid up as far as your brow and into the foundation under the eye and along the cheekbone. Do this on both sides obviously. Depending on your face shape you will want to highlight certain parts of your face. Generally speaking an oval face is the most desired shape to have. By highlighting certain areas on your face you can bring forward facial features using the light from your concealer.

A quick guide to highlighting and contouring to achieve the "perfect" oval shape is as follows.
(We will get to shading or contouring in the next step just concentrate on the highlight for the moment).
Oval: Shade the cheeks
Square: Shade the temples and the jawline
Round: Highlight the chin, shade the cheeks
Diamond: Highlight the temples and jawline, shade the chin and top of the forehead
Long: Shade the forehead, cheekbones and the chin. Highlight the jawline.
Heart: Shade the temples, cheeks and chin. Highlight the jawline.
Pear: Highlight the temples and chin, shade the jaw.

To elongate, shorten or narrow the nose the following rules apply.
Long nose: Shade the tip
Short nose: Highlight down the bridge of the nose
Wide nose: Shade down the length of each side of the nose

If you are getting confused about where to apply the liquid concealer to highlight just think of how you can make your face more oval shaped. Do you have narrow temples, highlight these that will bring them forward. A small chin, highlight, thin jawline, highlight and so on. Remember light brings forward, shade pushes back.

Once you have placed the concealer in the correct positions for your face gently blend it in. You only want to use a small amount of product here. This is not being used to conceal imperfections rather to perfect your face shape. Loading product on will only result in a heavy unflattering finish to your makeup.

Cream concealer: For concealing blemishes and imperfections
Always use a cream concealer for any blemishes or imperfections in the exact shade of your foundation. You may need to have one or two different shades cream concealers in your bag to match your foundation depending on the time of the year or if you wear slightly darker foundation on a night out. The reason you use cream concealer rather than a liquid one is simple. Liquid concealers are lighter in consistency and will slide off your face more easily resulting in the blemish or imperfection you were looking to cover being exposed. Again you do not need to spend a lot of money on a cream concealer, most pharmacies or supermarkets stock a range of cream concealer palettes. In fact Essence do another great little palette with two shades which you can blend together to get the right colour match for your skin called Match to Cover. Be very light handed when using this type of concealer. If you load too much product on the area you want covered you will end up drawing more attention to it. Matching it to your foundation is key otherwise it will either look too dark on your face or too bright drawing the eye to it, which is exactly what you don't want.
Use a small concealer brush to apply and blend using patting motions either with your finger or beauty blender.

Once all your concealer has been applied it's time to lock in all that hard work. Use a large soft power brush to dust a small amount of translucent powder along the areas that need setting. Dip your brush into the powder but knock of the excess. The last thing you want to do is end up with too much powder sitting on top of your face. If you have dry skin just apply this to the areas you feel need setting, likewise if you have fine hairs on your face don't overload with powder as it will sit on top of the hairs. To set the eye area either use your translucent powder or a cream matte eyeshadow using a small clean fluffy brush, a powder brush is too big for this delicate area. Usually I would say you don't need to spend too much on products to achieve a great look, I will say though it's very hard to come across a decent colourless translucent powder unless you go for professional make up brands. Inglot, MAC and Makeup forever do a really good setting powder just ask the counter girls and they can advise you on the one to buy. Stay clear of powders with talc in them or with any kind of colour, you really want the be buying a pure white preferably loose finishing powder.


Contour, blush and illuminator:
We are getting there, slowly but surely! The finishing touches for the perfect face (eye and lips excluded here obviously).
Look back on the basics of achieving the perfect face shape above and apply these principles. If you are lucky enough to have an oval shaped face (think Kim Kardashian) then you will only really need to lightly contour the cheeks. You do not need to contour at all, infact ditching the contour and concentrating on just highlight and illuminating the face is becoming increasingly popular especially with the summer coming in. I do know however many people struggle with contouring and where to place it so I've included it here.
When choosing your contour shade always use a matte finish, anything with a shimmer in it will not look natural.  A great little 3 in 1 palette which includes your contour, blush and illuminator is the Naked Urban Decay Flushed one, Sleek do an excellent dupe of this which is available in Boots I think for about €12.00. Both come in a lighter and darker shade range. I use the lighter shade  as my skin is fair through the winter. Use a small angled blush brush to apply your contour as this will allow you to be more precise. When applying your shader to the cheek area first using your index finger find the nook under your cheekbone. You want to place your contour just under this area. Starting from the ear using light feathery strokes and minimal product sweep the matte bronzer under the cheekbone towards the nose just as far as the outer corner of your eye. If you use your index finger again place it on the outer corner of your eye finger pointing upwards you will see how far in your contour should be going. Its quite a small area, many people make the mistake of swiping it too far in their face resulting in a a very harsh contour which is unflattering. Apply the contour as per the guide above in the concealer section or if this is confusing you a good rule of thumb is the number 3. With light feather stories dust the matte bronzer in the 3 shape along each side of your face hitting the forehead/temple down  into the cheek area and then onto the outer jawline. This will add warmth and definition to your facial features. 
Blush. This is definitely a preference and some will not need to use it at all especially wis they have a natural rosiness to their cheeks already. Use a medium sized rounded fluffy brush with a very small amount of product on. Always knock off any excess, its better to start with minimal amounts and build up as desired. Smile. Where the roundest part of your cheek is is where you want to apply the blush. Us a tick or 7 motion when applying your blush. Do this once on each side and take a step back to check if you need more, the last thing you want is to end up looking like Aunt Sally or Madonna from the eighties. 

Illuminate. This is definitely my favourite part of the look. The difference a little bit of illuminator can make is shocking. Apply your illuminator along the tops of your cheekbones, cupids bow (your upper lip) although if you have any fine hairs along here it's probably best to not add any more powdered product. Dust it along your brow bone and anywhere else you think the sun would naturally hit your face. It's all about creating a glow. Fresh dewy skin looks beautiful and more youthful and illuminators help you achieve this.

 So there you have it, foundation, concealer, powder, contour, blush and illuminator done. The next step is your brows which I'll post up soon. I hope this is helping you become more confident around your makeup application. If you have any comments or questions you can find me on Facebook Kelliebbeautiful or Twitter  @KellieBillings1.

Till the next time.






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