Makeup is a powerful tool when it’s about expressing yourself, accentuating your best features, or simply feeling more confident. With the right makeup techniques, you can bring out your natural beauty while creating a bold and striking look. But to achieve such results, you need to know a few tricks of the trade. This article aims to provide you with modern makeup techniques that will enable you to enhance your features and command attention with a stunning, bold appearance.
Prepping Your Skin for Makeup
Before getting started with your makeup, it’s essential to remember that healthy and well-prepared skin will set the groundwork for a flawless, lasting look. The first step is to clean and moisturize your skin. Make sure to pick the right moisturizer for your skin type to prevent unnecessary oiliness or dryness.
For a more seamless application and to ensure your makeup lasts longer, the subsequent step is to apply a face primer. Beyond offering a smoother surface for your makeup, primers also help to minimize any visible pores and fine lines.
Perfect Your Canvas with Foundation
Foundation is like the canvas for your masterpiece. Choosing the right shade of foundation is key to achieving a natural, striking look. Make sure the color matches your skin tone in natural light. Professional makeup artists recommend using a foundation brush for an even application. Once you’ve covered your face, take a sponge or beauty blender and gently tap across your face to ensure an overall seamless look.
Add Volume with Contouring
Contouring is the ultimate makeup technique to add depth and dimension to your face. Start with a contouring product that’s two shades darker than your natural skin tone. Once you’ve applied it to the areas that you’d like to recede – such as your cheekbones, jawline, and sides of your nose – blend it well. The key to successful contouring is blending – it’s what will make the look natural and not overdone.
Accentuate Your Eyes
The eyes can be the most impactful part of a striking look. Whether you opt for a classic winged eyeliner or an edgy smokey eye, make sure you know your eye shape and what best complements it. To make your eyes pop, consider applying a white or nude pencil on your waterline. This technique has the dual effect of making your eyes look bigger and brighter.
Make a Bold Statement with Lips
To cap off your bold look, choose a lip color that suits your complexion and captures the expression you aim for. For a striking appearance, dark, bold lipsticks like rich reds and deep plums work great. If you’re new to the world of bold lip shades, start by dabbing the color on the center of your lips and diffuse it outwards. Gradually, as you become comfortable, you can go in for a full application.
Setting Your Makeup
No matter how well you’ve applied your makeup, it can smudge, crease, and fade without proper setting techniques. A finishing or setting powder is crucial in ensuring that your makeup stays intact and delivers a natural, matte finish. Additionally, a good setting spray can add hours to your makeup’s lifespan and prevent unflattering shininess.
Compiling all the techniques together, it’s clear that creating a bold, striking look is more than just applying layers of makeup. It’s about understanding your unique features and using targeted techniques to express and enhance them powerfully. By incorporating these various techniques – skillful skin preparation, precise foundation application, expert contouring, strategic eye makeup, bold lip color application, and effective setting – you’re well on your way to achieving a stunning, eye-catching look.
Images from Greek Islands by Bennet Cobliner – see full article here.
