Makeup Tricks

by Valerie Gladstone — November 28, 2007

We all discover tricks on our own such as covering a red patch of skin with concealer or finding a cosmetic designed for one use that works well for another, like lip stain as blush. Here are a few others. Please feel free to add to the list:

• To update your lipsticks to a cool blue-based tone, apply a navy blue eye pencil or eye shadow on lips and apply your regular lipstick on top. Just a little will create a new shade.
• A soft brown eye shadow applied on lips first will darken any too light shade.
• Make your own deep lipstick color by mixing blue eye shadow and red blush on your lips. Apply a lip balm on top. Every time you try this, you can experiment and get a different version.
• Use spring/summer shimmer highlighter sticks to highlight lipsticks. Apply on a clean mouth first and then your regular lipstick on top.
• For the bitten-lip look, apply rosy blush on dry lips. On top, apply vitamin E stick or gloss with a lip blush. You can also use gel cheek colors.
• You can go from a day to night look by applying a quick dusting of shimmering body powder or an iridescent eye shadow over the high points of the face--cheekbones, chin, top of nose, eyelids, and across forehead.
• Run a gold shimmer stick through blonde hair for instant shimmer and highlights, especially around the face.
• Fill in your lips with a concealer pencil and then apply a dark lipstick. The concealer lightens up the lipstick by about 3 to 4 shades.
• Warm brick eye shadow is perfect for all-over color for lips, cheeks, and eyes with a little lip-gloss on top.

Brush and Blush Tips

Find a blush brush that perfectly fits the size of the apple of your cheek when you smile. Anything bigger and you'll get blush where you don't want it. You really don't need a huge blush brush for color; those are meant for shimmery powders.

Pick up your blush by lightly tapping the blush with the tips of the bristles. If you are sweeping the brush across the color, you'll pick up about 10 x more color than you need, and you waste a lot of product. Just tap the ends of the bristles about 2 to 3 times onto the color. Shake off any excess. You should barely be able to see the color on the brush.

When applying blush, don't sweep or stroke the color across the cheeks. You'll usually end up streaking the color on, and then having to go back to correct and blend. Instead, smile, and tap on gently going across your cheeks. By tapping the color onto the brush, and then tapping it onto the cheeks, you'll avoid excess color and streaking. Tapping on blends the color and you can always add more if you want.

Always swipe your blush brush across a tissue to clean off any excess, or pick up your powder brush (with no extra powder on) and sweep over and blend your blush into your skin. You'll get a softer and more real look.