Let me tell you a little secret. I know absolutely nothing (ok, hardly anything maybe) about make-up. I do the same thing to my face every day, all I do is apply a little foundation and a LOT of eyeliner and mascara. That’s it. I just wouldn’t know what to do with all those make up products out there and every time I get in touch with blush, I look like an apple.
Now I’m sure all of you know a lot more about make up than I do, but I recently had a few lessions from Meghan Nguy, very talented make up artist from LA who has worked for MAC, Chanel Cosmetics but has also done amazing editorial and celebrity jobs (check out her website here).
We met up and she asked me, what is the first thing you’d like to know?
Well, for people who know me quite well, this might not be a surprise, but since I’m quite tired lately AND have been partying a lot, there was no doubt about it that the first thing I wanted te know was how to look less tired. I know make up can do so much to your face, I just don’t know how. Meghan thought me a few good tips and tricks and I thought it would be fun to share it with you guys, so here we go:
Meghan started with a primer on my eyes, which smoothens the surface of your eyes. It actually worked really well so I might start looking for one. She also advised me to use a special under eye cream to hydrate my eyes, as apposed to normal day cream. Now after that, she started with concealer, a more concentrated version of foundation. A mistake often made (also by me) is that people use lighter foundation or concealer under their eyes, but that will actually make puffy and tired eyes look much worse, so make sure your concealer is the same color as your foundation! Another great tip Meghan had: use a brush to apply your concealer (and even foundation). Somehow it works way better and you can better reach places around your eyes. I use a brush every time now!
If concealer and foundation are the same color, they will also blend in much better, completely concealing the bags under my eyes that were definitely there that morning. A bit of powder locks it in, as you can see above. I love how there wasn’t even that much make up needed to create a good looking skin like this. Of course it depends on your skin but I always thought using more products than I used to would make my face look ‘fake’ or feel heavy, but it didn’t at all.
Third thing Meghan did was magic. She got a pencil, and gave me eyebrows. Now of course I know there’s such a thing as an eyebrow pencil, but I had a mean fear of those because I see way too many people walking around looking like they’re surprised all the time (you know what I mean right?). But Meghan thought me that if you have dark hair, you should take an eyebrow pencil that is 2 shades lighter than your hair color and if you have light hair, take no more than 2 shades darker. It felt a little unnatural at first to suddenly have eyebrows that are actually ‘there’, but it did look natural and I think having eyebrows might be something I want more often! :)
That was pretty much the base of my face which I had to say, only took about 10 minutes and made my face and skin look amazing.
How to make that last all day? Meghans secret is a fixing spray from MAC, that both fixes but also soothes and calms the skin. Want!
Now back to looking less tired. The steps above already made my face look a lot less tired but there was one thing I totally didn’t see coming. Meghan used an eyeliner and made the inside of my upper eyelid (under the upper eyelashes) black (or dark brown, whatever you prefer). I was expecting that to do either nothing or make my eyes look smaller, but they actually made my eyes look bigger and more open! Such a small thing to do, such a big effect. Love it.
Another thing that really helped: applying a light shimmery eyeshadow on the inner corner of your eye.
Now the next thing to add a little more life to my tired, slightly pale face was blush and bronzer. To be honest, I didn’t even really know the difference, but blush makes you look more natural and alive, and bronzer is more to warm up the face and for contouring and shadows. Anyway, blush on your cheekbones and bronzer slightly below your cheekbones makes you look both more alive and a little more warm. As does a little warm eyeshadow on the crease of your eyes.
Now, of course I had my make up done professionally before and knew what make up could do but I wasn’t so sure about doing all that myself. But in the future, you’ll definitely see me cheating my way out of a hangover with make-up, have eyebrows and healthy looking cheekbones.
Now I’m really curious if after reading this article you’re laughing me straight in the face for being such a make up dummy (because I always feel I am the only one, especially within the industry I work in) or if you found some useful tips in this story.
I’d love to hear some feedback because I’ll be doing more Make Up Files with Meghan, the next one will be about eyeliner but if you have any requests, do let me know!
Special thanks to Meghan Nguy (who is on Tumblr and on instagram as well)
