How to Apply Makeup: Makeup Application Tips

When girls are young, we often play with putting on our big sister's or mother's makeup, or else we mimic the things we see on television or in magazines. I used to read Seventeen Magazine to learn new tips on how to apply makeup, because my mother didn't wear makeup, so she never showed me how to apply makeup.

If you are new to wearing makeup, or if you're not confident in how to apply makeup, this article can help you with some basic makeup application tips I've learned over the years from practice and from reading and watching others.

Let's starts with the bottom layer and work our way up:

Makeup Tip: Use a Moisturizer and/or Toner

Keeping your skin and even tone and complexion and keeping skin supple and moisturized is the most important aspect of how any foundation makeup will look on you once it's applied.

Makeup Tip: Use Concealer Only When you MUST

Concealer will help you with things such as covering a small blemish or zit or for covering dark circles under the eyes. Do not use a ton of concealer or you'll get a washed out look. Instead, gentle tap the concealer onto the area to cover, and then lightly with your finger or a sponge blend the concealer into your natural skin so it's not quite so obvious. Let the concealor set and dry before adding foundation.

Makeup Tip: Easy on the Foundation

You don't need to apply as much foundation as you probably think you do, and most women wear way too much. This makes your face look cakey or cracked and fake, or even orangey. The goal with foundation is to provide a light cover to smooth out the skin. It's not going to cover every little imperfection most people probably don't see anyway.

The main thing is, if you're starting with a liquid or 'wet' foundation and not a powder or mineral foundation, to keep a wet line and continue spreading the foundation evenly and thinly across the face and neck. One of the mistakes I made as a teen when learning to apply makeup was that I thought foundation had to be rubbed in like lotion, but it doesn't! Foundation is made to lightly cover the skin of the face and neck.

Makeup Tip: Don't Use Liquid Eyeliner

The day of the popularity of liquid eyeliner are over, and it's very hard to draw a perfect line with those liquid brushes. If you're going to be out during the daylight hours, avoid applying liquid eyeliner. If you want to learn to apply makeup pencil eyeliner, simply practice outlining the eye gently and subtly with the liner. Eyeliner can be applied both before or after applying eye shadow or coloring.

Makeup Tip: Lip Liner Shouldn't Be Dark

I know for awhile, dark almost black lip liner was all the rage, while wearing normal colored lipstick. If you want to look good, remember, lip liner will stay longer than lipstick, and you want the lip liner to be similar in color to either the shade of lipstick you are wearing or the shade of your natural lips. Liner is to help keep your lipstick from smudging or bleeding into the lines around your mouth,

Makeup Tip: Lipstick Should Complement Tone

Learning to apply makeup means learning to pick the right shade of lipstick for your skin tone and coloring. Bright red lipstick doesn't look good on very many people during the day. Stay away from odd colors, until your have a handle on learning how to apply makeup. For beginners, find a shade that most closely resembles your natural lip color, and then go just one shade darker.

Makeup Tip: Blusher and Bronzers

Most blushers and bronzers come with instructions on how to apply them. Look at your cheek bones and you want to accentuate your face with color, not streak it or make artificial coloring. Use bronzers and blushers to add natural, healthy coloring to your face where it would normally be found without makeup, and then extend it out away from the face.

When you're first learning how to apply makeup, it's best to leave makeup tips at the basics until you get the hang of them. Later, you can learn some of the fancier tricks about how to apply eye shadow and eye shadow design tips, and even learn other tricks about how to apply mascara and eyeliner and lip liners to change the shape of your features and face.

Until then, these basic how to apply makeup tips should get you started practicing with wearing makeup and feeling as glamorous and beautiful on the outside as you already are on the inside!