Apparently coffee beans make you hot. Seems legit.When you apply makeup to your face you’re not just putting colors on your skin. That’s sort of where you begin, and lord knows that’s all I was doing till I was about 15. But we seasoned makeup crusaders know the real truth:
The true purpose of makeup is to play up natural shape and beauty of your face
The way you achieve this is not by slapping colors onto your skin, but rather sort of painting your face through shading. Different products are meant to be shaded in different ways to create depth and structure on your face that may or may not be there.
(Quick note, please don’t use any of the colors in the example pictures unless they look really good on your skin. The colors were picked for clarity, not style!)
Foundation
We’ve all seen actors and actresses with cheekbones to die for, Angelina Jolie among them… Well your makeup can help you to right some of that genetic disparity. If you want to highlight your cheekbones and make them look a little higher than they really are you need to replicate the look of a shadow beneath them. You do that with a contour powder over your normal foundation. There are some products that are specifically called ‘contour’ however, I find that using a powder foundation a few shades darker than your actual skin tone works just fine for me.
Using a slightly smaller brush than you might use for your all over foundation, or a slightly angled contour brush, draw a light line from the corner of your mouth to your ear. Use the handle of your brush to check that your line is straight before you apply any makeup!
Blush
Another way to draw more attention to your high cheekbones is with a blush that compliments your complexion (not the same color in the example picture…never that color). Using a large, fluffy blush brush, blend your blush from behind the apples of your cheeks to your temples.
A lot of magazines will say to apply your blush directly on the apples of your cheeks. That leaves you with a little circle of pink on the front of your face, and makes you look like a clown. I don’t know if that’s just bad taste or poor communication but don’t do it or I will find you!
Lips
When trying to get a Megan Fox worthy pout, line your lips with a lip liner a shade or two darker than the lipstick you intend to wear. Don’t go too dark! It leaves you with a really hard line that looks very fake and overdone.
Lip liner goes on the very top of your cupid’s bow and at the bottom of your bottom lip. Watch our video on how to apply lip liner properly.
Eyes
While you can still stick to a single color in your eyeshadow it tends to give your eyes a very one-dimensional look. It’s okay every once in a while, or when you’re younger, but when you get the hang of makeup its time to step it up a notch!
Using three shades of the same color (or more!) can really help to change the shape, depth, and sometimes even the color of your eyes.
Start at the outer corner of your eyes and apply a dark shade of your favorite color to the outer V, this brings your eye back creating a sense of depth. Next put on a mid-tone or the same shade to the inner corner of your eyes. Lastly apply a bright pop of color to the middle of your eye. This brings your eye forward and makes your iris really bright.
To get a better hold on this look check out our article on how to apply eyeshadow.
