The moment I told my boyfriend I was going to try and learn proper make up application, he raised his hands up in the air and said, "At long last, that's the single greatest decision you've made in your entire life." (I think he forgot to count the time I agreed to be his girlfriend.)
Why the sudden interest in prettying myself up? To be honest, I don't know - with money to spend, I believe it's my way of learning, experiencing and experimenting as much as I can, while I still can.
I asked our local hairdresser, Ester Garcia, to help me out and she agreed. Ms. Garcia is one of the trainers in the Ricky Reyes institute and has served as a judge in many local and even international hair and make up competitions. She even conducts seminars, training people to do their hair and make up. Her salon is in our barangay, which makes her parlor very accessible to me, in addition to the fact that we've been her customers since even before I was born - so the relationship is already there.
(Click here for an article of one of her latest endeavors - she is the judge wearing the orange top and khaki mini skirt)
So this is how our course went.
She started the session by instructing me to wash my face - it is vital to wash one's face before applying make up. After that, she began teaching me the basics. She painted half my face and instructed me to copy what she had done for the other half. Of course with different hands, I have strokes of my own - not to mention I'm not as adept to the art as she is. She consoled me by telling me that with daily practice I can refine my skills. Once I've completed doing my half, she let me rest for a while before asking me to wash my face again and do my whole face all by myself. I think I did pretty well, though I don't have pictures to prove it.
------------------------------------------------------------
Let me share some of the basic pointers she taught me.
1. First and foremost, wash your face before applying your make up. You want to start with a clean face.
2. Put on your sunblock and let it dry before applying foundation on your face. The good thing about make up is that is shields your face from the unwanted effects of the sun and your environment, just make sure that the brand you're using works well with you. You can apply your concealer at this point too.
3. Put on your foundation. I used a cake foundation today, so a wet sponge is needed. Whenever using this type, you'd have to bear in mind that the rest of the make up you'll be applying has to be wet so that it would stick to your face. There are other kinds of foundations out in the market though, like the creamy foundation, with this kind, you don't need to dampen your other make-up to paint your face.
4. Foundation is applied using an upward stroke, taking note of facial crevices like the nose and under the eyes.
5. Lightly powder your face a brush, also with upward strokes to "lift" the face. One of the strokes I notice Ms. Garcia used starts from the nose bridge then swoops towards the temple then follows the contours of the chin going down on both sides of the face.
6. Using eyebrow shadow, begin outlining your eyebrows. Brown is more youthful, black makes one look more mature. Make sure your eyebrows are plucked clean so that you'd just have to follow the curve of the eyebrow, emphasizing the height of the brow and ending it with a fading tail.
7. With regards to application of the eye shadow, paint the arc of the eyeball first (from out going in), then with rainbow strokes pull the color out until it fades and blends with the skin tone. Don't forget to clean excesses with the sponge.
8. Apply black lining below and above the eye.
9. Powder the face again lightly with an L stroke from the top side of the nose making an L as it goes under the eye area. (The stroke is in going out)
10. Putting on the blush, keep in mind that once you've started with earth tones, stick with earth tones - once you've gone with violets, stick with colors playing along that line. In putting on blush, start with the cheeks, going up the temple. The emphasis has to be more on the temple side of the face, not on the cheeks.
11. Apply lipstick, lip gloss then lip liner. In putting on lip liner, make a big Joker smile to spread out the lips and make it easier for you to outline.
12. Curl your eyelashes, then put on mascara. Mascara just needs to be on the tips, giving your eyelashes more volume and emphasis.
13. Check your face for any corrections, then lightly powder your face again with a brush and you're good to go.
No comments:
Post a Comment