YOU, YOUR SKIN AND MAKEUP

You don’t have to wear a Miss World Crown like Agbani Darego to know you are beautiful. Guess what, you can be short, tall, dark, fair and have a myriad of striking and not so striking features and still be beautiful. The secret is a good beauty routine that leaves you radiant and your skin supple.

A good beauty routine will include cleanser, toner, moisturizer with SPF for day (without SPF for night), eye cream, exfoliator, mask and makeup remover.  Always apply your makeup with well cleaned good quality brushes, beauty tools and of course clean hands.

1.       Your face and makeup

Achieve flawless facial skin by using some primer, foundation, concealer and translucent powder. The primer seals in your moisturizer and provides a smooth surface for the foundation. It prevents your cosmetic products from being absorbed into the skin, giving the makeup greater staying power.  A primer is a must if you are going to wear foundation. The foundation evens out your skin tone. The concealer is used under the eyes to cover dark circles, puffiness as well as blemishes and spots. Loose translucent powder sets the makeup, helps the foundation and concealer to stay in place and prepares the face for colored powder such as powder blush.

For a perfectly shaped brow, line a pencil vertically alongside your nose. This is where the brow should begin. It should end just a little past the outer corner of your eye. Look straight ahead, the arch of your brow should begin directly above your iris. Take a look at some celebrities whose face shape is similar to yours and copy their eyebrow shape. Halle Berry, Iman, Eva Mendes, Oprah Winfrey and Queen Latifah to name a few, have some truly inspirational eyebrows. Once you have established your ideal brow shape, begin tweezing underneath. Pluck the hair at the root and pull in the direction of hair growth. Do not tweeze above your brows. Do not over pluck. Use an eyebrow pencil to shape and fill your eyebrow. Always go for a shade lighter than your hair and use fine short strokes.

Use eye colour and technique to make the eyes more expressive and to give them mood and magic. A good quality eye shadow will look freshly applied for up to 12 hours. It should be crease-proof, fade-proof and smudge-proof. It should glide on smoothly without flaking and should blend effortlessly. A shimmering eye shadow instantly sexifies your eyes.  To apply, first brush on a small quantity of eye shadow base. Using an eye shadow palette with up to 4 tones of similar colours, apply using an eye shadow brush, one or two mid tones of the shadow on the lid, from the lower lash line to just above the crease and blend. Use the deepest shade to contour from the outer corner of the eye into the crease. Use the lightest shade to highlight the brow bone.

When it comes to the eyes, eyeliner and mascara are must-haves. Use the eyeliner to draw a line inside the rim of your lower lash line to add instant sultriness. Gently pull lid away from eye and draw a line with an eye pencil along the lower inner eye rim. Trace the top lash line with a liquid eyeliner that has a firm felt tip. This gives the illusion of larger eyes. Coat your top and bottom lashes with mascara, taking time to separate lashes. Brush on two to three coats, allowing drying time between each application, this prevents clumps. Mascaras with tapered brushes lift, amplify and separate lashes for fuller, curvier and longer results.

For the lips, first line the lips using your choice of lip pencil, keeping to the natural lipline. Fill the entire mouth with the same pencil. To apply the lipstick: With a lip brush, starting from the center of the lips, fill in the entire mouth with the lip stick working outwards, up to the same edge as the lip pencil. Blot the lips with tissue. Reapply the lipstick and blot again. Apply a touch of lip-gloss for added drama. If your lips are very big, use dark shades of lipstick inside the lip line.

Blush can bring a glow or the bloom of youth to your face. The modern way to wear blush, is right on the apples of your cheeks, blending well with a blush brush. If you have a round face, swipe the blush along your cheek bones and blend.

You can contour the face using a medium-size powder brush and matt bronzer. Contouring adds definition to the face. For special occasions or photographs, it can really make a difference. For example contouring can make a double chin disappear. Just apply the bronzer directly underneath the chin and blend. A bronzer gives a sun-kissed glow, evens out the skin tone and it is always sexy. For a special look, try a bit of glitter spray as your finishing touch on the neck and shoulders.

Now that you know all the beauty basics, it is time to divulge the number one makeup secret. Every look is based on one of four eye/lip combos; light eye/light lip, light eye/dark lip, dark eye/light lip and dark eye/dark lip. It is about balancing your features through  mixing and matching. Then it is up to you to experiment with different hues and shades to figure out which look works best for you.