Light Up Your Face!

It’s amazing the difference that highlighters can have on your make up if you find the right color and apply them correctly! It gives you that extra glow that will have people wondering if you have just fallen in love or met the most amazing facialist! So today I will share with you what I have learned on the subject so you can show off your most beautiful, healthy and luminous skin! 

To start, you need to find the perfect color for you! There is no one shade that fits all skin tones so you need to try out a few and see which one works best for you. If you can actually see the contrast of color in the places where you have applied the highlighter, the shade is probably not ideal for you (sometimes you get a strip that looks pinkish or whitish, not very flattering). It should blend seamlessly with your skin. One simple way to test the colors is to put a small amount in the back of your hand and blend it. When you do that, the product should “disappear” in your skin tone leaving only a healthy glow behind (no traces of color). It’s best to test your products in natural daylight.  Here is an example:

I applied highlighter to my left hand. Here you can really see the difference. The skin just looks much more moisturized and healthy!

Now that you have figured out the right shade for you, let’s apply the highlighter. First, apply your foundation because once you apply your highlighter it should blend seamlessly with your foundation. I have two all-time favorite highlighters, one liquid and one powder. They are Make Up for Ever Uplight #12 and MAC Belightful Pressed Powder. I also have the famous MAC Silver Dusk but I find it a bit too glittery, so it's not very practical to wear on a daily basis.

So, let’s start! To demonstrate I will use the liquid Uplight. I first put a small amount in the back of my hand and use a foundation brush to get the product (don’t put too much at once. Just build it up as you wish). Then you should apply it to the higher points of your face such as:

(1) Cheek bones (forming a C letter on the sides of your eyes)

(2) Brow bone

(3) Center of your nose (avoid the tip of your nose. This way you create the illusion of a thinner nose)

(4) Cupid’s bow (on top of your upper lip, it gives you that Angelina mouth! Hahahahaah! Ok, it’s just makeup, not plastic surgery!)   

(5) Inner corner of your eyes (just a little dot in your inner corner will dramatically open up your eyes!)

 Here is how it goes:

And here is how it will look:

There you go! This is pretty much how I apply highlighter. Make sure you blend the edges really well so you can’t see where it begins and ends. This way you can use it during the day and evening beautifully!

Hope you receive lots of compliments on your amazing skin!

The Quickest Smokey Eye

Some of my friends have asked me to post some makeup tutorials here. Back in high school, we used to all get together in my house before going out and I would apply makeup on everyone! It was so much fun! I still do it up to this day (right Pri?!).

Today I want to show you how to do the quickest and easiest smokey eye for an evening night out. Really, it’s fool-proof and anyone can do it!

I used cream eye shadow because I think it's much easier to use, they last longer and they look more modern and effortless that the usual powder eye shadow which you need to really mix the colors well in order for it to work. Also, unlike powder eye shadows they don’t drop down from your eyelids since they dry really fast.

So here is a really simple and fast smokey eye step-by-step:

1)   To start off, I had already applied my foundation (Make Up for Ever HD Foundation # 120) and concealer (Chanel Lift Lumière Concealer # 30). Also, in my eyelids, I used an eyelid primer (MAC Prep + Primer in Medium) just to help the color pop and stay on longer, but that’s really not necessary and you can just skip this step if you wish.

2)   I started by using MAC Eye Kohl in Black by lining first the lower inner rim of my eye (water line) and then I just did a couple of dots all along the lower lash line. Nothing has to be really well done at this stage because you will smudge it in afterwards. Then you do the same in the upper lashes, making sure that you apply the “dots” in between the lashes, really aiming at the roots. You should spend just about a minute doing this. The messier it looks the better. Once you finish, this is how it’s going to look like:  

3)   So for my eye shadow I chose a beautiful cream graphite color from Make up for Ever (Aqua Cream Waterproof Cream Color #1). First, I used a brush by Sonia Kashuk (it doesn’t have a number in it! It looks the same as the MAC Tapered Blending Brush # 224) which is quite a big brush and the bigger the brush the better. Then I swirled the brush into the eye shadow and took the excess off in the back of my hand in circles so when you apply it, the color looks more natural.

4)   Then you start dabbing the cream shadow in your eyelids in small circular motions. At the same time, you are also smudging and blending in the eye pencil as well. Then look straight ahead in the mirror, find you socket line and just start buffing in. This way you get a really nice haze from applying it right into your socket line (where you eye crease is).

 5)  You can use a cotton bud to take off any excess or rough edges. Keep in mind that cream shadows do dry really fast so you can’t really mess around with it for too long.

6)   For underneath the eyes I used a smaller eye brush (MAC Pencil Brush #219). Then I got a tiny bit of eye shadow in the brush and started smoothing it along the lower lashes just to blend in the shadow with the eye kohl. Be quite generous and go a bit further down then you usually do because once you apply your mascara you want to look as if you have that sort of cloud of color coming down.

7)   Next step is to put plenty of black mascara in your top and bottom lashes! But before I curled my top lashes with Shu Uemura Eye Lash Curler and then I used my beloved Maybelline Colossal Volum’ Express.

8) So this is your ending result!

  

9)   You can be done with just this one cream shadow because the color looks great by itself. But if you’re feeling like it and you’ll have a big night out ahead of you, go ahead and add a bit of shimmery/glittery eye shadow in the inner corner of your eyes. It will also look amazing! Here is a picture of when I added a bit of Stila Jewel Eye Shadow in Golden Topaz.  

9)   Now, when you finish up your eyes, I recommend applying a bit of color to your cheeks otherwise you may look a bit washed out. So I chose the liquid blush Make Up for Ever HD # 8 and applied it in small dots in the apples of my cheeks. These blushes have lots of pigment so just apply a tiny bit of it.

So that’s it!!! For your mouth you can get away with just chapstick or you can add a little bit of color. I strongly recommend MAC lipstick in Blankety + MAC lipgloss in Fashion Scoop (more about them here). Also, if you can't easily buy Make Up for Ever (I don't know if they sell it in Brazil), other great cream eye shadows are MAC Paint Pots and Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Cream Shadows.

I know it’s a very long post but the entire process should take you about five minutes!

If you liked it, I can do more makeup tutorials like this. Just let me know!