If you would like an explanation of makeup
I think I’ll go in phases. According to how the things are applied. Obviously some people’s experiences may vary, based on how they apply these things or in what order, but, they are all fairly standard.
Many people wash and apply a moisturizer before they apply makeup. A primer is supposed to fill in pores and cause the makeup to adhere to the skin. I personally skip this step as I’ve never noticed a difference. Some people with oily skin will wear what is called a “mattefying” primer that inhibits oil production, so that the makeup doesn’t separate and slide off the face throughout the day. To me this is the only type of priming that makes sense, but obviously…I have very different skin.
This means applying a color to the problem areas of the face that will “cancel out” the colors you’re trying to conceal. For example, most people have dark blue circles beneath the eyes. This can be canceled out with a salmon pink tone applied directly to the affected area. Red blemishes are canceled with green tones. Purple bruises cancel with yellow. These come in several forms. There are tinted concealers, which adhere to the skin firmly and must be covered with care, cream products that are easily blended, and powders. So if you see what looks like a “palette” or set of eye shadows that are pink, yellow, pale blue, green, and purple, they are usually for color correction, and a thing in a tube that is one of these colors is usually a concealer.
I do most of my color correction with an airbrush machine, using eyeshadow pigments. I find I get a far more even tonality with this and the foundation I apply over top is far superior. However…again, I go to the Nth degree to look unbearably human. Most humans do not need to utilize this step at all, beyond correcting truly terrible under-eye pigmentation, or covering the odd blemish on an important day.
Foundation is the step that evens out the skin and makes it look all one shade. It covers blemishes, birthmarks, pigmentation issues, and just general unevenness of tone. There are many types of foundation, and often the best way to figure out what will work is to know your skin type. But first let me give a bit of a list. There are tinted moisturizers, liquid foundations, mousse, creams, cushions, powders and all of them contain subcategories which achieve slightly different effects.
Tinted moisturizers like BB and CC cream are becoming more popular for common use and are essentially as they sound, containing many skin healthy medicines and additives also. Some even have finely milled pigments that catch the light to give the skin a healthy glow. Some people use these as primers and some as their foundation.
Liquid foundation is the most common and ranges from mattefying, or oil-controlling, to extremely moisturizing or “dewy”. They also range from “full coverage” to “light coverage”. A full coverage foundation is going to cover most everything and make the skin very even. Light coverage is going to allow some of the natural skin pigment to show through. Full coverage foundations are the ones that most often come along with the problem of “cakiness”. A foundation is considered “buildable” if it can be applied in layers that bring it from one level of coverage up to the next – “light to medium buildable coverage” for example.
Powder foundation is precisely as it sounds – a skin-colored powder that sits on top of the skin. I find it moves too easily, and therefore only use it if I am “touching up” which is to say, making certain my foundation remains matte or oil-free. Yes, I make facial oils.
Concealers are typically either a liquid in a tube with an applicator or a cream in a pan applied with a brush. They are designed to match the foundation or go a bit lighter. they are applied to a problem area, given a minute to set a bit, then are blended into the foundation color with a sponge or brush. They, as the name suggests, conceal things, but they can also be used to brighten or highlight an area, particularly under the eye. One “bakes” this under-eye area by applying a setting powder over it in copious amounts, for several minutes, and then brushing free the excess.
Now we are getting a bit more complicated. These pigments are designed to shape the face using optical illusions. These products come, most commonly in powder or cream form. Bronzers tend to be in the more warm tan, red, or golden range and are applied around the face to simply warm it up and make it look as if you’ve gotten a bit of sun, while contour shades are meant to create shadows. It is possible to use them vice versa, but it depends on your coloring and the product itself. Powdered products apply simply to the face using a brush while cream products have to be more carefully blended in.
This goes in line with contouring in that, as contouring creates shadows, highlighting creates lift. Most commonly, you will see these in photographs along the cheekbones, bridge of nose, and brow bone. They tend to shimmer. In truth a highlighter can range from the sort of glow one gets from a gentle light source, to the absolute blinding quality of a blacklight. Highlighters come in all forms and colors, from powders, to mousses, to liquid drops, cream sticks, and on and on. They are almost always iridescent, and in shades that are neon or extremely pearlescent or pale. Some people like to look as though they might be made of ethereal plastic, and some prefer just a hint of sun.
Most of these products are applied atop the foundation and all the above steps, but some, like the drops, can be applied beforehand.
Blushes come in powder or cream forms. They are typically pink, though now we are seeing lovely pigmentations from corals, to salmon, to deep plum, to burgundy. Place in between the highlight and contour, they make a face that much more alive and lightly flushed.
Brows can be sculpted and reshaped, filled or drawn on with a number of products – Pencils, powders, pomades, waxes, gels, and tinted, mascara-like products. Powders, mascaras, and pencils are designed to fill in. Gel, wax, and pomade are designed to sculpt and hold. Clear gel is also used.
These come in several forms – powder, cream, pencil, and liquid. These depend entirely on the look one wishes to achieve and many shades are layered over the eye in varying ways to change the shape of the eye, heighten certain aspects of the eye, like color, or to simply be fun or fashionable. Much depends on skill level and the desired effect, but commonly, one would want at least three shades: a “transition shade” for the “crease” or area sunken in between lid and brow. This shade should be the one in the “look” that is closest to your skin color in vibrancy or opacity. Then there is a darker shade to provide depth. This can go at the outer corner of the eye, in the crease, or along the lash line. And then typically, you’d want a lighter or more shimmering tone to go on the lid. Most “looks” however, contain at least five colors.
Powdered shades come in either “single pans” or “palettes” (palettes are usually a collection of colors meant to be used together to achieve different looks) Types of powders are: matte, pearl, shimmer, glitter, foiled. Matte shadows are simply the color in a flat pigment with no sheen to it. Pearl shadows tend to have that milky opalescent quality of the surface of a pearl. Shimmers have little light catching particles finely milled within and reflect the light. Foiled shades often look like liquid metal and have an unbroken shine to them. Glitters usually require a setting spray or glue to adhere and have larger glimmering particles that can be “chunky” or flake off.
Creams, liquids, and glitters are typically layered over top of traditional powder shades. Some are used like liners.
If you’re curious about eye shadows, what to buy and how to use them, watch tutorials on Youtube. It is simple and often helps with understanding new products for me. Many of the people giving these tutorials will also review products as well. Pay attention to terminology and learn the language same as any other.
Some shadows are discussed as being “pigmented” which means that when applied to the skin, their colors are opaque and vibrant. Some are described as “chalky” which means powdery and faint. Some are “creamy”, which means they apply like a liquid. Some are “blendable” which means they can be worked at until the pigmentation either fades or is worked into another color. “Hitting pan” means you have used the shade so often that you have reached the bottom of the metal container. “Depotting” is removing a single pan of shadow from a palette so that you can transport it separately.
Eyeliners come in several forms: liquid, gel, pencil, gel pencil. Seems confusing, but isn’t. Liquid is applied using a fine tipped brush or a felt tip. gel is applied with a flat angled brush, pencil is a waxier substance in pencil form and honestly my least favorite to work with, and gel pencils are self-sharpening, smooth and softer. these come in all colors, though the traditional black and brown create the illusion of eyelashes where the real thing may be thin or non-existent.
Mascaras come in a variety of colors and only one type. That typical wand-in-a-tube shape. Formulations vary and they all claim to do different things. Personally, I never really use them, as I only ever have on false lashes, but I do have one I like, and it is a rather smooth, creamy formula that applies easily and dries down swiftly, remaining water proof. When given the choice between water proof and not, humans should choose water proof, as this was an innovation worth the money. With normal mascara even the tiniest bit of moisture in the eye, along that lash line, turns you into racoons.
12. Lip Liners and Lipsticks
This is a horrible maze of meanings. Liner is fairly simple. Usually you want a liner that is either the same shade as the lipstick or slightly darker or of a slightly different, but blending hue.
Lipsticks come in countless forms. You have liquids - in tubes with little wands, tend to look just like the ones applied in the “customary way”. Liquid Mattes, which apply with a wand but dry to a velvet like, matte, unshiny finish. Sticks which range from shiny, to glossy, to matte. Glosses which are usually pigmented balms. Lip toppers which layer pigments in thin-textured drying liquids. And on and on. Some are supposed to dry and stay all day. Some are just like chapstick and wipe off if you smudge them.
Some other products you might like to use: Setting sprays which are made to cause the makeup to set in place. Translucent powders, which do much the same, but can also do things like “bake” and under-eye as discussed in the “concealer” portion. A good makeup remover – I find mycellar water to be the best, hands down.
Tools: Most people know about brushes and sponges. I will name a few that I view as being somewhat essential here.
The “beauty blender” sponge. BeautyBlender is a brand name and to me superior in softness and use, but there are other brands people swear by. The sponge is meant to be used wet. You wring it out beneath water and it swells, remaining a bit damp throughout. This makes it easier to blend foundations and concealers and cream products, as they do not dry out. The moisture also presses and stamps the product into the skin. If using a powder, the blender can pick up a great deal of powder at once.
Brushes I use vary, but I will give you a small list, each tailored to the task it does.
Fluffy Kabuki brush - this has densely packed fibers and is ideal for blending all facial powders or applying bronzers
Blush brush - usually looser in the way the bristles are put together allowing the product to disperse. This brush is also ideal for brushing off other powders.
Tapered fluffy brush - works well for highlighting or a bit more precision
Flat tapered concealer brush - again, helps with precision
Small angled blending brush - does wonders for blending out eye shadows
Flat, rounded shadow brush
Small tapered blending brush - works well to apply things in small areas like the inner corner of the eye or deep crease
Flat angled brush - ideal for brows, lining the eyes, etcetera.
Several tapered blending brushes
“Pencil” or narrow tapered brush - ideal for tiny details
Contouring brush - usually a thing edged brush or angled fluffy brush ideal for getting into the areas that need shadows.
I use an airbrush machine. These use a few drops of water-based foundations and pigments and coat the skin in layers like painting a car or house. I find them to be very good for many purposes, but I’m not sure I could or would want to do my eyes with them.
If you apply synthetic eyelashes, they must be done after the eyes are made up, usually as one of the final steps. One trims the lashes to size and then applies the glue, waiting to allow the glue to become tacky. then the lashes are applied and stuck in place using fingers or tweezers. The more flexible the “band” of the lash, the more easily it will fit into place. It is not the best idea to apply mascara to them, as they tend not to last as long. They can be re-worn in most cases.
This is any and everything you need to know about makeup. You should know that cosmetic brands will often either attempt to innovate (like MAC’s failure of an eyeliner that was in a rolling wheel form) or they will create “collections” around a theme, color story, personal collaboration, or trend. Most recently, everyone went mad for unicorns and everybody and their mother had a unicorn collection with stupid names, neon colors, too much shimmer for any one being to wear, and a plethora of failure products that now line clearance shelves. Some of the products were lovely, but most utter garbage.
Most cosmetic chain stores will allow you to see the materials and “swatch” or sample them. Do. Too many companies charge far too much.
I wonder if I’m forgetting anything.
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