Makeup 102: A visual guide

This is a supplementary guide to makeup for novices and beginners. Please check out this page for Makeup 101, an excellent step by step guide that helps you piece together the tips in this guide.

First and foremost, you have to try~! The way you become better at makeup (really anything) is to go for it and try it! I will give you different techniques for different makeup product, and try to give you direction as to what *may* work best for you, but ultimately it will come down to you trying it out!

So let's start this journey~!

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Tip #1: Know your skin type + primer

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The biggest thing you want to have on lock is your skin type. There are five general categories: Dry, Oily, Normal, Combination, and Sensitive. However, you can be sensitive + any of the other categories, so do keep that in mind. There is a chance you already know this~! If you don't a general rule for each category is as follows:

After washing with a gentle cleanser, wait about an hour and then press a separate tissue on each part of your face. Compare your results below:

Normal: No oil, feels smooth

Combination: oil on some tissues, mostly on "T-zone" (forehead and nose)

Dry: No oil, flaky skin, skin feels tight

Oily- "oil" on tissue, skin has shine 

Here's a video about skin types, has a test, and tips for maintaining

Primers

Once you know your skin type, its good to think about primers. What is primer? Primers are generally silicone based creams or gels that you apply after moisturizing and before your makeup to accomplish different things. Just about all primers help to make your makeup last longer and create a barrier between your makeup and skin. Some primers help fill in large pores and smooth the skin, some help control oil, some hydrate, and others help to illuminate the skin and give you a slight glow! 

If you are oily/combination, I highly recommend going for a Shine-free/Oil control primer. My personal favorite is Rimmel London's Stay Matte Primer ($5~) its a good cheap primer (not many cheap primers out there~) and controls my oil fairly well. Other options are: No.7 Beautifully Matte ($9.79~), Neutrogena Shine Control ($11.99~)

To fill in pores and smooth skin, the elf Mineral Infused Primer ($6) is a good starting place with many people liking it. 

There are plenty more out there, so please feel free to explore!

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Tip #2: The Wonderful World of Foundations

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So you've figured out your skin type and whether you will use a primer or not. Now you're standing in the makeup aisle, overwhelmed at all of the different types of foundation. Which one do you get? Cream, Cream to powder, powder, liquid. mouse, etc.?  This amazing 2 1/2 minute video discusses the different types and how to choose what type of foundation!

  

Once you have decided on what type of formula, now you have to color match. 

Here's another quick video about color matching

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Tip #3: Concealers + Color Correction

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The first thing to note is that if you have any type of color that is different from your face tone, aka acne scars, redness, under eye circles, foundation alone will not cover it. 

Concealers are good for covering up mild discoloration. You want to follow the same process for finding your foundation color. 

Here's a great video on a basic way to use concealers

 If you have serious redness, or dark spots/under eye circles, you want to look for color correctors to use with concealers. 

Here's a video on picking color correctors

and here's one on applying them

With both Concealers and Correctors you really want to do your best to blend the product out into your skin

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Tip #4: Powders

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There are different types of powder out there that function differently. This article does a way better job of giving anyone a solid introduction into powders, if you need one, the differences, and how to apply..

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Tip #5: Eye products- Eyeliner + Eye shadow+ Mascara 

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From here on out choosing items is much easier and takes less thought~!

Eyeliner

The biggest thing with eyeliner is that you have to keep trying and putting it on. While there are some types of eyeliner easier to start with than others, the first time you put it on will be a mess. I recommend taking some time like 5 or so minutes and just apply eyeliner a few times figuring out what works best for you!

When choosing an eyeliner, my recommendation for beginners is a felt tip liquid liner pen.

What a typical felt tip eyeliner looks like

 The felt tip allows you to get sharp lines, while the pen design makes it easy to control. Some good pens are: Jordana Fabuliner ($1.99~), Rimmel London Scandaleyes ($5.79~), Maybelline Master Precise ($9.79),NYC HD Eyeliner ($3.99~) 

Here's a video showing how to use the pen and create a wing~

Eye Shadow

For novices, I usually don't recommend getting into eye shadow just yet. There's a world of looks you can do with eye liner and different color lipsticks! If you really want, I suggest getting a single color that you can apply all over your lid for a cute look. These will typically be colors that don't stand out too much on your skin and more in the neutral/gold/silver range. Wet n' Wild/Black Radiance have cheap ($1-3~) small eye shadow compacts that have good pigmentation (meaning they will show up on your skin as they do in the packaging) 

Mascara

Here comes the fun part (at least for me) I love Mascara, and finding a good one really can be life changing! When looking for one, you want to think about what you want the mascara to do: do you want longer lashes? or are you looking for more volume? maybe both? 

With this in mind, just go for it~ There a tons of reviews on mascaras online, so if you are in the store looking at the wall of mascara, don't be afraid to look it up! 

I will say, keep in mind that eye lashes are hair and function as such. This means that one person's favorite mascara may do absolutely nothing for you. 

If you get super overwhelmed, here are a few of my favorites:

Maybelline Mascaras are generally really good, my current favorite is the Rocket mascara (comes in a blue and pink tube) which is a lengthening mascara (meaning long lashes but not very full). 

L'Oreal mascaras are in my opinion the best drugstore mascaras, but they also are the most expensive ranging from $7-$9. My favorites from L'Oreal are the Voluminous Butterfly Midnight Black (volume and length), Miss Manga (great for length and volume), Telescopic Shocking Extensions (length, length, length), and the classic voluminous mascara in carbon black (volume and a bit of length).

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Optional Tip #6: Lip color and Blushes

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If you've reached this point, you should have just about everything you need to start wearing makeup! So feel free to stop reading here.

 Beyond this is really down to you exploring different colors, formulas and application styles to figure out what works for you! Below I listed a few cheap,but good quality brand to look at if you're interesting in exploring more color!

Lip Colors:

NYX- has cheap lip products in a wide range of formulations, colors, and finishes (glossy, matte, satin) easily my favorite brand for anything lip related

elf- Not as wide of a color selection but does have different formulation to try out and a low price point

Wet n' Wild/Black Radiance- two lines by the same company (same formulation, just different colors) that have great lip products. Black Radiance has a lot of $1.99 lipsticks that are absolutely amazing, and Wet n' Wild offers a line of matte lipsticks for only $2.99!

Blushes:

Now, for my darker people, you have to be a bit more carefully when picking a blush, because if they are not pigmented enough, it will show up grey/white-ish on your skin and that's just not cool. These brand generally are dark skin friendly~

elf- as generally rule of thumb, I would stick more with their blush compact that is just amazing and works for all skin types. They do have individual blushes, however, these range in pigmentation and some have large glitter pieces in them making you look more like Edward Cullen than anything else.

Black Radiance- their baked blushes are the absolute best. Super pigmented (so if you are light, be light-handed in your application or you'll be more clown like) and blend nicely

Wet'n Wild -  also has great blushes that are pretty pigmented.