Happy Monday Everyone!
I've decided to start posting some more beauty related things on my blog! I decided to start my first make-up related post with my actual make-up routine. This is something I would do when I decide to do my make-up (for school, going out with friends, hitting up the clubs, etc.). I'm not really a fan of the "no make-up, make-up" because if I'm going to do it... I'm going to do it fully. Go hard or go home. So hopefully you guys enjoy this, if you have any requests or want to see anything, let me know and I'll do my best to get it to you. So without any further ado, here are all the steps I take to do my make-up.... (brace yourself, there's a lot)
1. Cleanse.
Whenever I put on make-up, I always want to make sure that I have a clean face to work with. With a wet face, I cleanse my face with one full pump of the Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser. After about a minute of me massaging it into my skin, I wash it off with cold water and pat dry with a towel.
2. Tone.
Immediately after I pat my skin dry, I go in with a toner on a cotton pad. The one I am currently using is the Dickinson's Original Witch Hazel Pore Perfecting Toner. A Toner helps to balance the pH in your skin so that you don't produce excess oil.
3. Moisturize.
Once my skin is toned, I go in with my Cetaphil Moisturizing Lotion. This helps to moisturize the skin if the toner left it feeling a little dry. Also works as a great base for underneath your make-up. Mixed in with this, I also like to add in some SPF (yes, even in the winter months) and for that I use the Neutrogena Clear Face Sunscreen. It is important to always use an SPF even if you don't think the sun is out, the rays are very harmful. It can help prevent premature aging and skin cancer! And, for acne scar sufferers like me, we don't want those damn scars to get darker, so WEAR YOUR SPF. Just a side note, I like to let my mositurizer sink into the skin for about 10 minutes. Then move onto step #4.
This is for all my oily baby's out there, if you notice your foundation not lasting all day on you, I recommend a primer. There are so many options out there for you from high-end all the way to your local drug stores. Dry folks can benefit from priming the skin too, because it will help your foundation glide on smoother and look better. So many stores carry many different primers (hydrating primers, pore filling primers, mattifying primers, colour correcting primers, etc.) so get whatever caters to your skins needs. Three of my favourite primers (in no particular order) are the e.l.f. Studio Mineral Infused Primer in Clear, the Benefit POREfessional Primer, and the Rimmel London Fix & Perfect Pro Primer. All three work equally well, the e.l.f. and Benefit primers do a great job at blurring the skin and filling in any pores and/or lines, whereas the Rimmel primer is a little bit more hydrating but still provides the same results. Just like my moisturizer, I like to let the primer sink into the skin for about 10 minutes.
This is an important step for us acne scar sufferers because sometimes the foundation we use does not cover them up. In order to ensure that they are covered as best as I can, I apply concealer over any areas where I have a lot of scarring. This would be areas like my chin/jawline area and my cheeks. The two concealers I use for this step are the MAC Prolongwear Concealer in NC15 mixed with the Maybelline Fit Me Concealer in 10 Light. The MAC concealer provides medium to full coverage but is a little light for me, whereas the Maybelline concealer provides a light to medium coverage but is too dark for me. I mix the two to get my perfect shade.
Once I finished concealing my acne scars and let that sink in for a couple minutes, I move onto my foundation. The Foundation that I use is the MAC Studio Fix Fluid SPF 15 Foundation in the shade NC15. This foundation gives a great medium to full coverage, natural matte finish to the skin. And with the added SPF it's great for if you're going to be outside. The smell is a little funky but you get used to it after a couple wears. It is a long-lasting comfortable foundation and looks great in photos! My preferred way to apply foundation is with a Beauty Blender-like sponge (the dupes are just as good!). And so I bounce this all over my face, neck, and ears (crucial! You don't want to look like you have red ears and a pale face hehe).7. Conceal those dark circles!
Hey, I told you it was a lot of steps! So once I'm done with my foundation application, I move onto concealing any dark circles under my eyes that may have been missed out from the foundation. For this step, I use the same concealers as mentioned in step #5! Nine times out of ten I will just use my ring fingers for this step, but the pointy end of the Beauty Blender-like sponge works great as well.
8. Powder
For me, this step is c r u c i a l . If I do not set my foundation and concealer with powder, good riddance to all that hard work! I'm an oily babe, so I need my powders! To set my foundation, I have two favourites which I will use back and fourth (depending on my mood that day) and they are the Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder in Translucent and the e.l.f. Studio High Definition Powder in Sheer. Both do not add any extra colour to the skin, rather they provide a matte look to the skin and help the foundation to stay in place. As for setting my concealer, I use the e.l.f. Studio High Definition Under-eye Setting Powder (that was a mouth-full) in Sheer. This works great at locking in that concealer and helping to pro-long the creasing under there because ain't nobody like creasing under there! It also adds a night highlight to the under-eye area!
Now I know a lot of people have been taking over the whole contouring thing, but I mean I really don't have any crazy techniques. Just bronze around the perimeter of your face to add a sun-kissed warmth to the skin, then contour the areas that you want to recede (sides of the forehead, nose, cheeks, jawline, etc.). I just recently discovered the Kat Von D Shade & Light Contour Palette and I absolutely love it! I use the Sombre shade to contour and the Shadowplay shade to bronze.
To bring a little bit more life and freshness to the skin, I always gotta add some blush and my oldie-but-a-goodie favourite is the Milani Baked Blush in Luminoso. This was all the rave a couple years back because everyone claimed that it was a dupe for the ever so popular Nars Orgasm blush. I, however, have never tried that blush but this one works perfectly fine for me. Gives a wonderful peachy-pink flush to the face and adds some gold shimmer. You can skip out on the highlighters if you want, but you know me... I love my glow! The blush, though, really is eye-catching and works great with all skin tones. 11. Highlight
One of my faaaavourite steps when doing my make-up is highlighting. Since contouring recedes the features that you want hidden, highlighting is going to do the opposite. So it is going to really bring out those areas such as your cheek bones, down the bride of the nose, on the cupid's bow, etc. Three of my all-time favourite highlighters are (in no particular order) NARS Albatross, MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Lightscapade, and Hard Candy's So Baked Bronzer in Tiki. All of which give a looovely glow/sheen/sparkle/whatever you wanna call it, to the skin. Another favourite of mine that actually just squeaked by around the holidays in 2014 are the Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector Spotlights in Pearl, Opal, and Champagne Gold. These are great to actually put underneath one of the powder highlighters mentioned above.
Now, I don't know about you guys but I HAVE to get my eyebrows in check before I start playin' around with shadows and liners, anyone else? I know this may sound a little weird but I have tried a lot of products specifically for eyebrows, but none of them compare to these two shadows in the NYX Be Fierce Palette. You may be thinking, Glynn how the hell do you use NYX eyeshadows to fill in your brows? WELL, I wet my angled brush with some eye drops, then place my brush in the two shadows (the dark brown and black colours squared off in yellow), mix it in the eye drops on the back of my hand (to get rid of any excess product) and then go to town! This way I have control over how dark and defined I want my brows to look for the day.
Similar to our face, we want to also prime our eyelids for a number of reasons. One, they get oily too you know, so we gotta make sure we keep those babies under control. Two, a primer will help to cancel out any darkness/veins/etc. so that you have a clean surface to work with. Three, primers will also help to amp up the pigmentation in your eyeshadows, etc. etc. etc. You know the drill. Prime those bad boys. My favourite primers are (in no particular order) the Lorac Pro Behind the Scenes Eye Primer (which comes with the Lorac Pro Palette), the Mac Pro Longwear Paintpot in Painterly, and the Milani Eyeshadow Primer. Now here comes the tricky part.... my eyeshadow looks obviously change from day to night, school to a club, etc., so the look that I will be showing you today is just my average day eyeshadow look. Super simple, super easy.
1. Cream shadow all over eye lid space.
2. White shadow on brow bone and inner corner.
3. Cool-toned brown blended in the crease.
4. Two darker browns to deepen up the crease/outer-v.
Of course the same sort of look can be created using the Lorac Pro Palette, but since I already have the NYX palette out to do my brows, I just use that one instead. I like to save my Lorac palette for nights out or special occasions. You know, to make me feel extra fancy ;)
14. Eyeliner
Personally, my favourite step! I've been doing winged eyeliner for about 5-6 years now so you can imagine all the practice I've had. I hate to toot my own horn but *beep beep* I'm pretty good at my winged liner. And it's all thanks to L'Oreal's Lineur Intense Felt Tip Liquid Eyeliner in Black Mica. This was my very first liquid eyeliner I ever bought and since then I haven't found the need to try anything else. This literally is the easiest way to apply liquid liner like a pro. The felt tip isn't super flimsy nor is it super hard on the skin; it is perfect. Glides on so smooth with no skips. Give it a good shake before you use it and you'll be golden.
First was eyeliner, and in for a close second is mascara. The difference that mascara alone makes is absolutely incredible. I love putting on mascara mostly because I already have great lashes to work with. I was blessed with some decent lashes if I do say so myself, BUT I do have a secret home remedy that has helped my lashes to grow longer, fuller, and thicker! (keep an eye out for it coming soon!). My dream team for mascara is the tried and true Covergirl Lash Blast Volume Mascara in Very Black and L'Oreal's Telescopic Mascara in Black. I also curl my lashes prior to mascara application with my e.l.f. Eyelash Curler but it isn't the one that you can buy separately. It was offered in a kit a little while back and they don't seem to have it on their website but I'll insert a picture of it. If you can get your hands on it, it really is a great curler (PS: I've heard horror stories of the $3.00 one cutting people's lashes off that you can buy separately on their website, so I'd stay clear of that one!)
16. Lipstick
Usually I don't wear any lipstick, I'll just wipe off whatever foundation is on my lips, chuck on some Vaseline Cocoa Butter Lip Therapy and head out the door. However, every now and then I looove to rock a bold and daring lip. My favourite lipsticks have to be the Wet N' Wild Mega Last Colour Lipsticks and here I decided to put on Cinnamon Spice since it's Winter here in Canada!
I really hope you all are still there :( I know, I know.. It's a lot BUT to be fair I did warn you so........
Alright I'm going to wrap this up as fast as I can.
Set your make-up so it doesn't move. Lock it in place. Urban Decay All Nighter Setting Spray. Amazing. Done.
Step-by-step Pictures
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| Steps 1, 2, and 3: Cleanse, Tone, Moisturize |
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| Step #4: Prime |
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| Step #5: Conceal Acne Scarring |
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| Step #6: Foundation |
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| Step #7: Concealing Dark Circles |
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| Step #8: Powder |
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| Step #9: Bronze & Contour |
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| Step #10: Blush |
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| Step #11: Highlight |
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| Step #12: Eyebrows |
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| Step #13: Prime & Eyeshadow |
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| Step #14: Eyeliner |
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| Step #15: Curl Eyelashes & Apply Mascara |
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| Step #16: Lipstick |
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| Step #17: Lock it all in place! |
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♥ THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR GETTING THROUGH THIS WITH ME! ♥
Stay tuned for my next blog post and take care,
Glynn
Glynn
“I'm not saying that putting on makeup will change the world or even your
life, but it can be a first step in learning things about yourself you
may never have discovered otherwise. At worst, you could make a big mess
and have a good laugh."
Kevyn Aucoin
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