10 Valuable Beauty Tips I Learnt in 2013
2013 was the biggest learning curve when it came to my knowledge of beauty, cosmetics and makeup application. I watched more youtube videos, read more beauty blogs and took part in more training courses than I ever have done before - throwing myself into the world of beauty face-on. I'm hoping to learn even more in 2014 but until then these are my top 10 tips that I learnt this year that were valuable to me all this year and probably the rest of my life. They're really super simple, I don't know why I hadn't really thought of them before or what I was doing before I did them…but hopefully they will give someone else a lightbulb moment like they did with me!
AVOID LINER TRANSFERRING FROM YOUR UPPER TO LOWER LASHLINE I love to tight line my upper lash line because it makes my eyes look wider up top and finishes off any eye looks I'm creating. I used to tight line using a freshly sharpened kohl pencil drawn straight along the upper lash line, an hour or so later all that pencil had transferred onto my lower lash line as well which I normally leave bare otherwise my eyes look smaller. So annoying! To avoid this, I never go straight in with the liner onto my lash line. Instead I sharpen my liner and grab a small angled brush, I sweep the brush over the edge of my eyeliner so it's visibly loaded with product, pull up the hood of my lid to expose my upper lash line (trust me this is easy and not as uncomfortable as it sounds!) and then press the loaded brush along the lash line. Whenever I do this, I never get any transference and the liner stays in place all day. Another quick liner tip: store your liquid liners tip-down in a pot so that the tip always stays filled with product - no more dry ends until the product is actually all used up. Works perfectly for felt tip liners that you think have run out but actually haven't!
FIX ANY BROKEN COSMETIC Dropped your favourite blush and smashed it? No problem. Apply a small drop of surgical spirit, mix together with your product, leave it out with the lid off and within hours your product will be like (almost) new again and fully useable. Unsaveable? No rubbing alcohol to hand? Scoop up your powder and mix it into a clear nail varnish - you'll have yourself a new nail lacquer to play with.
CREATE YOUR OWN EYESHADOW PRIMER Mix a penny sized amount of creamy concealer with half a penny sized drawing of pencil eyeliner on your hand and apply to your eyelid before applying shadow. The wax of the kohl bonds with the concealer to hold your eyeshadow in place all day, and I mean all day - with no creasing!
POWDER APPLICATION - THE RIGHT WAY I used to tap my brush into my powder and then sweep it all over my skin, I was never happy with the finish because it always moved the base I had created around and highlighted dry areas. I was applying powder so wrong, there's only one way I apply powders whether they're pressed or loose now and it is this method. Tap your powder brush into your powder, tap off excess, place edge of powder brush against your face and roll it over the skin - don't sweep! By doing this you are pressing the powder on to set your makeup, not sweeping around the work you've already done, lifting up dead skin cells and getting powder everywhere other than your face. If you have any excess left on your skin then using a very large powder brush sweep off excess in one smooth, very light single stroke in each area of the face.
USE CELLOTAPE TO GET PERFECT WINGED EYESHADOW Stick cellotape from the outer corner of your eye up to where your brow tails off, this is where you must not go beyond with your shadow. You want to make sure it's nice and flat so you don't get any rippling or uneven edges, so look straight forward and smooth it right down really firmly. When you peel away the tape, you will have perfectly winged, angled shadow. You can leave it as it is or blend the edge with a small brush.
NEVER APPLY EYE CREAM DIRECTLY UNDER YOUR EYE I did this for so long and kept wondering what was causing this odd, rather predominant puffiness under my lash line. Stop, stop, stop. Your eye cream should be applied along your orbital bone (the bone you feel underneath your eye, aka the lower part of your eye socket) and no higher. The product will seep up to where it's needed as the skin becomes thinner from this point onwards. If you apply your eye cream above this area, it's going to clog up the thin layers of skin and increase puffiness. As soon as I stopped applying my eye creams right under my eyes and along the bone, I not only noticed visible benefits from the eye cream but also lost my eye bags in a matter of days. Of course this tip doesn't apply to cosmetics that state they can be used directly under the eye, but not many do for this reason!
FIX EVERY CLUMPY MASCARA YOU OWN Mascara clumping? Too thick? Pull the wand out the tube and wipe it over a tissue - seriously. Then apply it to your lashes without dipping it back into the tube; you'll notice the formula is instantly much less clumpy and thick. You just don't need all that product on the brush, so wipe it off and go in with what's left for the best results. (I don't do this on all my mascaras, just ones that clump or are too thick and it really works!)
AVOID FAKE TAN SMEARS ON EVERYTHING The simplest solution to stop your bed covers going orange - wear a onesie during the developing stage of tanning and on nights where you're wearing fake tan in bed. This will also help your tan develop evenly.
WINDSCREEN WIPER BLENDING The key to avoiding harsh lines on any look when it comes to eyeshadow is blending, this is a basic tip but it really helped me get better at blending out harsh edges and lines. The best blending brush I own (out of many) is my MAC 217 Blending Brush which I recommend to everyone. To blend your eyeshadow perfectly pick up a tiny amount of colour and anchor the end of the brush into your crease - look down, put the brush into where you feel the crease then look back up and straight ahead, keep the brush anchored here and move it side to side in a wind-screen wiper motion until the colour softens and fades gradually.
PAINTER STYLE FOUNDATION BRUSHES ARE GREAT FOR APPLYING FOUNDATION Call me lazy but I used to think that nothing could beat applying foundation with a kabuki brush, I hated those classic painters style foundation brushes for ages because I didn't really know how to use them to get the perfect finish and every time I did use one I got streaks all over my face. Well let me share how to make these brushes your new favourite way to apply foundation! Put foundation on your hand then dip the brush in, apply over the skin in sweeping motions. Then, anywhere that you see 'lines' or brush strokes, use the flat edge of the brush to pat the foundation into place. I much prefer my flat foundation brush now because it doesn't seep up as much product and is much easier to clean, and now I actually get a perfect, full finish from using one. Admittedly on super lazy days, I'll still use my buffing brush.
One final bonus tip, I saved the best until last…
PUT LIPGLOSS ON YOUR EYEBROWS TO KEEP THEM IN PLACE Okay, joking! But who remembers this blog post I made earlier in the year about beauty tips gone mad? Just don't do it.
What are some of the best beauty tips you learnt in 2013?
AVOID LINER TRANSFERRING FROM YOUR UPPER TO LOWER LASHLINE I love to tight line my upper lash line because it makes my eyes look wider up top and finishes off any eye looks I'm creating. I used to tight line using a freshly sharpened kohl pencil drawn straight along the upper lash line, an hour or so later all that pencil had transferred onto my lower lash line as well which I normally leave bare otherwise my eyes look smaller. So annoying! To avoid this, I never go straight in with the liner onto my lash line. Instead I sharpen my liner and grab a small angled brush, I sweep the brush over the edge of my eyeliner so it's visibly loaded with product, pull up the hood of my lid to expose my upper lash line (trust me this is easy and not as uncomfortable as it sounds!) and then press the loaded brush along the lash line. Whenever I do this, I never get any transference and the liner stays in place all day. Another quick liner tip: store your liquid liners tip-down in a pot so that the tip always stays filled with product - no more dry ends until the product is actually all used up. Works perfectly for felt tip liners that you think have run out but actually haven't!
FIX ANY BROKEN COSMETIC Dropped your favourite blush and smashed it? No problem. Apply a small drop of surgical spirit, mix together with your product, leave it out with the lid off and within hours your product will be like (almost) new again and fully useable. Unsaveable? No rubbing alcohol to hand? Scoop up your powder and mix it into a clear nail varnish - you'll have yourself a new nail lacquer to play with.
CREATE YOUR OWN EYESHADOW PRIMER Mix a penny sized amount of creamy concealer with half a penny sized drawing of pencil eyeliner on your hand and apply to your eyelid before applying shadow. The wax of the kohl bonds with the concealer to hold your eyeshadow in place all day, and I mean all day - with no creasing!
POWDER APPLICATION - THE RIGHT WAY I used to tap my brush into my powder and then sweep it all over my skin, I was never happy with the finish because it always moved the base I had created around and highlighted dry areas. I was applying powder so wrong, there's only one way I apply powders whether they're pressed or loose now and it is this method. Tap your powder brush into your powder, tap off excess, place edge of powder brush against your face and roll it over the skin - don't sweep! By doing this you are pressing the powder on to set your makeup, not sweeping around the work you've already done, lifting up dead skin cells and getting powder everywhere other than your face. If you have any excess left on your skin then using a very large powder brush sweep off excess in one smooth, very light single stroke in each area of the face.
USE CELLOTAPE TO GET PERFECT WINGED EYESHADOW Stick cellotape from the outer corner of your eye up to where your brow tails off, this is where you must not go beyond with your shadow. You want to make sure it's nice and flat so you don't get any rippling or uneven edges, so look straight forward and smooth it right down really firmly. When you peel away the tape, you will have perfectly winged, angled shadow. You can leave it as it is or blend the edge with a small brush.
NEVER APPLY EYE CREAM DIRECTLY UNDER YOUR EYE I did this for so long and kept wondering what was causing this odd, rather predominant puffiness under my lash line. Stop, stop, stop. Your eye cream should be applied along your orbital bone (the bone you feel underneath your eye, aka the lower part of your eye socket) and no higher. The product will seep up to where it's needed as the skin becomes thinner from this point onwards. If you apply your eye cream above this area, it's going to clog up the thin layers of skin and increase puffiness. As soon as I stopped applying my eye creams right under my eyes and along the bone, I not only noticed visible benefits from the eye cream but also lost my eye bags in a matter of days. Of course this tip doesn't apply to cosmetics that state they can be used directly under the eye, but not many do for this reason!
FIX EVERY CLUMPY MASCARA YOU OWN Mascara clumping? Too thick? Pull the wand out the tube and wipe it over a tissue - seriously. Then apply it to your lashes without dipping it back into the tube; you'll notice the formula is instantly much less clumpy and thick. You just don't need all that product on the brush, so wipe it off and go in with what's left for the best results. (I don't do this on all my mascaras, just ones that clump or are too thick and it really works!)
AVOID FAKE TAN SMEARS ON EVERYTHING The simplest solution to stop your bed covers going orange - wear a onesie during the developing stage of tanning and on nights where you're wearing fake tan in bed. This will also help your tan develop evenly.
WINDSCREEN WIPER BLENDING The key to avoiding harsh lines on any look when it comes to eyeshadow is blending, this is a basic tip but it really helped me get better at blending out harsh edges and lines. The best blending brush I own (out of many) is my MAC 217 Blending Brush which I recommend to everyone. To blend your eyeshadow perfectly pick up a tiny amount of colour and anchor the end of the brush into your crease - look down, put the brush into where you feel the crease then look back up and straight ahead, keep the brush anchored here and move it side to side in a wind-screen wiper motion until the colour softens and fades gradually.
PAINTER STYLE FOUNDATION BRUSHES ARE GREAT FOR APPLYING FOUNDATION Call me lazy but I used to think that nothing could beat applying foundation with a kabuki brush, I hated those classic painters style foundation brushes for ages because I didn't really know how to use them to get the perfect finish and every time I did use one I got streaks all over my face. Well let me share how to make these brushes your new favourite way to apply foundation! Put foundation on your hand then dip the brush in, apply over the skin in sweeping motions. Then, anywhere that you see 'lines' or brush strokes, use the flat edge of the brush to pat the foundation into place. I much prefer my flat foundation brush now because it doesn't seep up as much product and is much easier to clean, and now I actually get a perfect, full finish from using one. Admittedly on super lazy days, I'll still use my buffing brush.
One final bonus tip, I saved the best until last…
PUT LIPGLOSS ON YOUR EYEBROWS TO KEEP THEM IN PLACE Okay, joking! But who remembers this blog post I made earlier in the year about beauty tips gone mad? Just don't do it.
What are some of the best beauty tips you learnt in 2013?
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