You don’t need to be a professional makeup artist to be able to apply perfectly natural looking, beautiful makeup; you just need to know a few of the tricks of the trade that the makeup artists like to keep to themselves. Here are ten amazing makeup secrets that no one has told you about before.
1. Use Scotch Tape as a stencil
You can use a credit card as stencil for applying eyeshadow and eyeliner, but you have to keep perfectly still and, sometimes, makeup can get underneath a credit card and ruin the effect. A small strip of Scotch Tape is a much better solution. It will stay put when you are applying your makeup and it will make getting both eyes even really easy. It’s perfect for when you are creating looks like “cat eyes”.
2. De-clump mascara
Mascara should be replaced after about three months at the most, but it can still dry out and go clumpy within that time. If that happens to you, don’t waste your money throwing out perfectly good mascara; just add a few drops of Visine or any other brand of eye drop. Don’t pump the wand in and out of the tube, because that will cause air bubbles, just gently move the wand around inside the tube and the eye drops will make the mascara as good as new again.
3. Tightlining
Never heard of it? Well, tightlining is great way to enhance your lashes and make them look fuller, while it still looking like you are wearing no makeup at all. Instead of lining your waterline, which achieves a similar effect, try taking a very fine eyeliner brush and applying eyeliner in between your lashes at the base. It’s a bit fiddly and it takes a bit of practice, but it’s a great way of enhancing your lashes on days when don’t want to wear a lot of makeup.
3. Lush lip trick
Not everyone has been blessed with lips like Angelina Jolie, but there are ways that you can make your lips look bigger without having to resort to Botox or surgery. Simply using a lip gloss will make lips look larger, but you could also line your lips beyond your natural lip line. You will need to follow the natural shape of your lips and not go too far, but it doesn’t take a lot for this to have quite a dramatic effect on the appearance of your lips.
4. Apply foundation with downward strokes
It is recommended that you use upward strokes when you cleanse your face and apply moisturiser, because that helps keep your skin firm and it prevents staging, but you should always apply foundation with downward strokes. Why? Because we all have fine hairs on our skin and, if you use upward strokes, it will make those hairs stand up on end, so they will be much more visible, especially if you are in a bright light.
5. Raise your eyes
You will have no doubt heard that you can open up your eyes with a touch of white eyeliner in the inner corners of your eyes, but here’s another little trick that will lift your eyes and make them more noticeable. If you draw an arch over the top of your eyebrows with highlighter, it will make it look like your arch is raised and your eyes are wide awake.
6. Make eyeshadow pop
If you are finding that eyeshadow never looks as vibrant as it does on the packaging, here’s a simple trick that will really make your eyeshadow pop. All you need to do is to apply a cream coloured base to your eyelids first and that will make the real colour of the eyeshadow come through.
7. Mix and match lipstick shades
If you use a slightly darker shade of the same colour of lipstick on your bottom lip, it will make your pout look a lot fuller. Alternatively, if you want to take a more subtle approach to this trick, just apply the darker shade to the very centre of your bottom lip and blend it well in with the lighter shade.
8. Use primer
If you don’t currently use primer, then this is one tip you need to take away with you from this post. Primer makes makeup more vibrant, it reduces the appearance of the pores on the skin, it covers up redness, and it makes makeup stay in place for much longer. It’s easy to apply and it creates the perfect base for your makeup, so give it a try and you will see how much of a difference it makes.
9. Heat up your eyelash curlers
Eyelash curlers work a lot better if you warm them up before you use them. You will get better curls and the curl will last a longer too. Just warm up your curlers with a hair dryer or run them under some hot water. Test them with your finger before you use them, though, just to make sure that they are not too hot.
10. Move a mascara wand from side to side for thicker lashes
When you apply mascara, don’t just move the wand upwards from the base of your lashes to the tips, move it from side to side as you go as well and that will ensure that your lashes are fully covered. Also, leave about five minutes between the application of the first coat and the second, and that will make your lashes look much thicker.
Stay beautiful!
