Flawless Makeup Tips

No professional make up team on standby? No problem. Just a few simple techniques yield a fresh and flawless face to put forward. A good make up look radiates class, sophistication, and enhances the wearer's natural pleasing features. In addition to bringing out the best of the face, make up works double duty in disguising any blemishes or break outs. With so many brands, shades, and types of cosmetics flooding the market, it can be a Herculean task to correctly apply make up. Use the following tips to create a polished, practiced, and new make up look for any occasion.

Foundation
Foundation should only be applied to healthy, clean skin. Never test a color on the back of your hand to determine the right tone, a hand is typically a few shades darker than a jaw line. The perfect foundation shade will disappear when applied, and shouldn't be used to conceal blemishes. Instead, find a concealer one shade lighter than your skin tone and apply it in a blotting motion with a small make up brush. This technique ensures the concealer covers all three dimensions of a blemish, and doesn't just skim the surface like a sponge would.

Beauty Tools
Utilize make up brushes for application when possible. These can easily be washed, spritzed with disinfectant, and safely used over and over again. Sponge applicators quickly harbor a breeding ground for bacteria. Keep separate brushes for products to prevent dark color residue from destroying an intended lightening effect. Greater blending can be accomplished with a 100% cotton ball, swab, or pad. Poly blend cotton products will only smear. True blending requires the cotton to absorb the excess cosmetics which a synthetic fiber will not do.

Eyes
Branch out from black and brown eyeliner. Buying an eyeliner brush, a firm and narrowly angled bristle brush, will allow you to use your darker eye shadow as eyeliner. Simply dampen the tip of the brush and run it through the eye shadow. Try lining with a lighter shade for the inner corners of your eyes to open them up. Be sure to use at least three tones of shadow gradually blended from eye lid to brow. Using only one color is very unflattering and fake. To prevent bold colors like purples from appearing harsh or theatrical, try blending with a coppery brown to diminish the contrast.

Lips
Exfoliating lips of dead skin cells can bring a natural lush red only needing clear lip gloss coverage. Also, by removing the bumps and creases, lipstick applies more evenly and is less likely to seem blotchy. Full-bodied lips come from using a slightly darker lip liner around than the lipstick selected. Improve the richness of a shade and longevity of the color by filling in the entire lip area with liner before applying lipstick. Prevent lipstick from moving to areas it does not belong with a coat of lip moisturizer or lip gloss. A plumper pout can be simulated by only applying a high sheen gloss on the middle of your lips, directly where your finger crosses if you were to motion someone to be silent.

Finishing Touches
Blush should never be applied only to the cheeks. Brush it liberally along the cheek bones, upper forehead, the narrow of the nose, and lightly on chin to create a natural bloom. Follow with a loose powder to "set" the look. Loose powder is an imperative fighter against oil shine and keeps make up from wandering from your face to your clothing. Save mascara for your final step to prevent any powder or blush from becoming trapped on your lashes before it dries. Unless you are going out for the night, stick with brown or brown/black mascara for a more natural look. Try using mascara more heavily on the outer third of lashes for a flirty look, or on the bottom lash line to open eyes up.

Make Up Expiration
Before using and applying make up, check its condition for quality. Mascara that is constantly clumping the brush is trash, as it is only going to clump even worse on your eyelashes. Eye shadows with oil spots in the center from frequent use are likely ripe with bacteria growth. All make up should be kept out of direct light or heat higher than room temperature. These products are chemicals, and heat or light exposure can cause unwanted reactions or experiments with color you never intended! Any sign of ingredient separation such as watery layer on top, or stratifying pigmentation also indicates the product should be tossed out. Best rule of thumb is if you can't remember when you purchased a cosmetic product, then its shelf life is probably up.

Use these tips in addition to normal make up application techniques to make a drab look sparkle. Increase the ease of make up selection by remaining within one brand- you won't have to worry about interactions among products and complimenting color palettes are more likely to be offered in the same season. Experimenting with color, products, and designs can open up new make up looks. Just remember to concentrate on exclusively one or two features at a time. Even starlets follow this rule- as you glance at any red carpet photo immediately one feature will pop out screaming "Look at me!" Finally, keep your face looking simple and natural. Very few people think "My god, that person should wear more make up." But so often we are all guilty of privately urging a woman to go wash the make up off her face.