Makeup Application: A Step-by-Step Guide!

Many of us were taught how to apply our makeup by a parent or older sibling. If neither were available, we were left to step-by-step tutorials we found in magazines. It isn’t surprising that so many of us are still in the dark when it comes to makeup application. 

While there are about a million different techniques, styles, and “looks” you can create, knowing just the basics of makeup application can dramatically change the way you leave your house each day. 

Let’s cover those basics, as well as a few bonus steps that can easily and effortlessly create the illusion of more makeup know-how than you actually have. 

How Do I Apply My Face Makeup?

If your foundation ends sharply at your jawline and creates an unnatural skin tone on your face, it’s time to step away from the liquid foundation you picked up at the drugstore, toss those wedge-shaped sponges, and update your technique (and your products). 

Proper foundation begins with excellent skincare. The better you take care of your skin, the less time you’ll need to spend correcting uneven skin tone, covering blemishes, or making up for dark circles or areas of irritation. 

Step 1: Do Your Skincare Routine

The best skincare routines involve cleansing, hydrating, and moisturizing. Natural, plant-based ingredients provide the best benefit for keeping skin healthy and nourished and provide the ultimate in natural moisture balance. 

• Cleansing. Organic, raw, coconut cream is a wonderful skin cleanser and makeup remover. Smooth it over the skin and lashes and gently remove with lukewarm water and/or a cloth. 

• Hydrating and moisturizing. Using plant-based oils to deeply hydrate and moisturize the skin keeps your skin protected and nourished and prepares your skin for makeup application. 

Whether you have dry skin, blemishes, or oily skin, your skincare routine should include a product to moisturize and hydrate your skin. Oily skin can be the result of skin that is actually dehydrated. Plant botanicals offer hydration that help balance your skin’s natural moisture level, improving your complexion. 

If you use an eye cream, you’ll also want to apply it prior to beginning your makeup routine. Make sure your products are completely absorbed before applying your makeup products. 

Step 2: Use Primer

Beauty oil is the best hydrating primer option for virtually any skin type, but it’s especially important for aging skin. As we age, the skin becomes drier and thinner. Applying a standard primer can dehydrate the skin and cause your makeup to settle into fine lines and wrinkles. 

RMS Beauty’s Beauty Oil instead hydrates skin and plumps skin cells so lines and wrinkles are less noticeable. Our Beauty Oil smoothes rough patches of skin to create the perfect surface for makeup application. 

Step 3: Apply Foundation and Concealer

You’ll apply foundation and concealer before any other products. You’ll apply foundation first, but instead of approaching it from a “full coverage” standpoint, focus on concealing imperfections and leaving your natural skin exposed where there are none. 

For instance, you may have excellent skin tone on your cheeks, forehead, and chin, but have redness and irritation on the corners of your nose and dark hollows under your eyes. Apply your foundation to the nose and eye areas and blend it carefully outward to create a natural, real-skin look. 

RMS Beauty’s “Un” Cover Up Cream Foundation is buildable and can work double duty as a concealer. Our foundation is made with natural, living ingredients to create a living and luminous finish. 

Step 4: Put On Bronzer and Blush

Applying bronzer is completely optional, but if it’s mid-summer and you’ve been taking good care to stay out of the sun, a bit of bronzer on the high parts of your face (cheekbones, bridge of the nose, a dab on the lids) can give you a sun-kissed look that’s completely believable. 

Don’t attempt to use your bronzer to contour your face; you’ll end up looking orange and ruddy. 

Apply blush to the apples of your cheeks and blend in for a natural finish. If you’re over 40, apply your blush to the tops of the apples of your cheeks, as this will create lift. 

Pro Tip: Avoid extending your blush to your temples — this won’t make your cheekbones look any higher and it’s a really dated way to apply color.

Step 5: Apply Luminizer and Contour

If there’s one product everyone needs in their cosmetics bag, it’s a luminizer. A luminizer is a hybrid product that’s both a highlighter and an illuminator. 

Created to bring a living look to your skin that provides just the right amount of light-reflecting shimmer, a luminizer helps keep your skin believably radiant. 

Our founder, Rose-Marie Swift, created luminizer while working with models on set. She needed a product that kept the models’ skin looking hydrated and glamorous without looking frosty or glittery. RMS Beauty’s luminizer is the original, and was formulated to keep your skin hydrated and beautifully luminous.

Apply luminizer with your fingertips to areas like your cheekbones, brow bones, the bridge of your nose, your cupid’s bow, the center of your chin, and the middle of your eyelids. You can even use it on your shoulders, collarbones, and knuckles to create dimension and reflect light as you move. 

How Should I Do My Eye Makeup?

Your eye makeup may change depending on where you’re going or if there’s a special occasion, but for a basic everyday look, you need only a little color on your lids, a bit of eyeliner, and a sweep of mascara. 

Step 1: Apply Eyeshadow

Unless you’re attempting to capture a particular trend you’ve seen online, or are dressing up for an event, a single sweep of color or dab of luminizer on the center of your lids will give you a hint of color and keep you looking natural. 

Eye shadows can be layered and blended from the outer corners of your eye inward (so you don’t accidentally drag the color too far away from your lid). You can use a highlighter in the inner corners of your eyes to reflect light and create a larger-looking eye area. 

For a more thorough eye makeup tutorial, click here. Our eye makeup tutorial also has tips and tricks for perfecting your brows and selecting the perfect brushes for your shadows. 

Step 2: Put On Eyeliner

Using an eye pencil (don’t attempt the liquid just yet unless you’re well-practiced), draw a thin line along your lower and upper lashes. You’ll want to get the line as close to your natural lash line as possible, and avoid outlining your entire eye. 

Begin the line about a third of the way from the inner corner of your eye and extend it to the outside corner on both the bottom and top lashes. 

Step 3: Apply Mascara

Mascara can get messy and can create tarantula lashes if you attempt to use too many coats or if you use a rancid, chemical-laden formula. Using a clean mascara, apply two coats to your top lashes and one to the bottom. 

RMS Beauty’s Straight Up Volumizing Peptide Mascara contains propeptides to help build your lashes and keep them healthy, without any harsh chemicals or strange ingredients that could harm your eyes or the delicate skin of your eyelid. 

How Do I Craft the Perfect Pout?

The perfect pout involves hydrated lips and a little lip product creativity. It’s an absolute must that your lips be properly exfoliated and hydrated before you begin, or you’ll end up with bits of lipstick stuck in dry, cracked crevices of your lips.

Step 1: Use Lip Liner

Select a shade that’s the same as your normal lip color. This color will allow you to change the shape of your lips without it appearing obvious. 

Line your lips, drawing slightly outside your natural lip line to enhance them and create a realistic, fuller look.

Step 2: Apply Lipstick and Gloss

You can, of course, apply both lipstick and lip gloss if you want, but you don’t have to wear them both. Lipstick generally wears longer than gloss, but gloss can be more comfortable for some users. 

If you’re looking for a super natural, everyday lip color (that will also pinch-hit as a blush) check out RMS Beauty’s Lip2Cheek. A blend of wildcrafted buriti oil, shea butter, and organic cocoa seed butter make for easy application and ultimate hydration. 

You can use Lip2Cheek for a pop of color on your cheeks, apply it all over your lips for a natural look, or apply it to your cupid’s bow for a freshly bitten lip look.

Do I Need Setting Powder?

You don’t have to use a setting powder, but some people like the matte, finished look that powder provides. To make sure that powder doesn’t make you look artificial, try using a translucent powder to absorb excess oil and ensure your makeup is long-lasting. 

RMS Beauty’s translucent “Un” Powder is the perfect, talc-free loose powder that can give you a semi-matte look without packing on an extra layer of thick powder to your skin. When applying, make sure to use the powder puff that comes with the “Un” Powder, and focus your efforts on your T-zone, under-eyes, the corners of your nose, and your upper lip. You never need to go in with powder all over your face. 

Conclusion

Applying your makeup isn’t very hard once you know a few quick application techniques and understand how to make your products work on your skin. 

With RMS Beauty, you get products that out-perform traditional beauty counterparts with the safety and care of the cleanest and greenest products in the industry. 

Sources:

Structure and function of the epidermal barrier|Science Direct 

Dry Skin | A Moment of Science|Indiana Public Media.org