6 Secrets Learned At Make-Up Artist School

You could say that some of us girls have a  love/hate relationship with make-up. Some days we enjoy playing with all the different colours and get excited when something you’re experimenting with turns out to be pretty perfect. Then there are those times when your eye liner refuses to go on straight, bronzer makes you look like Snookie, or lashes refuse to curl. Here are 6 secrets learned at make-up artist school, so you’ll never have a bad day again when it comes to your make-up bag.

Lesson No. 1: The Make-Up Tools

At Napoleon Perdis’ Make-Up Academy in Hollywood, Rebecca Prior, NP’s National Educator, begins the first lesson by introducing us to our tools. “To me, tools and products are equally as important as the make-up skills that you have,” she says. For example, let’s say you were using mediocre brushes, mediocre products, and had average skill. Just by improving the quality of your brushes and using richer pigmented products, the application would immediately be better, even without improving your technique. So if you really want to apply your make-up like a pro, Los Angeles-based educator Felicia Alva says, “Do what the professionals do: Use the proper brushes for application.”

Here are the eight basic brushes you need:

1. Foundation brush
2. Concealer brush
3. Fluffy powder brush
4. Blush brush
5. Small blending brush
6. Flat eyeshadow brush
7. Precision angle brush
8. Lip brush

Once you have your tools, you need to know how to hold them. Make Up For Ever educator Lijha Stewart says, “Where you hold a brush on the handle affects your control. The closer your fingers are to the barrel (the silver section beneath the brush head), the more pressure you put on the brush head and vice versa.” In general, if you want to apply colour evenly, place your fingers on the centre of the brush handle. Another tip: You can easily turn a fluffy brush into a flat, angled brush by wrapping your hand around the bristles and flattening them.

Lesson No. 2: Mix Primer With Your Foundation

“You can wear cream foundation as is for opaque, full coverage, or you can break it down to be more translucent by mixing it with some primer,” What? Isn’t primer only supposed to go on before foundation? This is a surefire way to retain the foundation’s coverage without looking caked on. Plus, you get to reap the long-lasting durability that cream foundation has over liquids and powders. This also helps the make-up blend seamlessly with the first layer of primer on your skin.

Everyone can use cream foundation, but those with oily skin should use a damp sponge to apply it. Most foundations have oil in its formula to give the coverage blend-ability. Using the sponge will “pick up the pigment, but not the oil in the foundation.” You’ll still get great coverage, but not the shine. For dry or combination skin types, “use your foundation brush and buff the foundation onto the skin, concentrating on the centre of your face, which is typically where your skin has the most discolouration”.

Lesson No. 3: Love Your Flaws — Then Conceal Them

“The key to being a successful make-up artist is being able to identify someone’s undertones and know how to manipulate the colour wheel to get rid of unwanted colour,” says make-up artist Gina Sandler. She says opposite colours cancel each other out, so green-pigmented concealer covers redness, and orangey concealer removes blue. “If you use your beige concealer, it’ll only make those areas look muddy”. Practicing on yourself and friends is key because you quickly learn how to deal with all types of skin tones and facial features, which you will have to become comfortable with if you want to be a professional.

Lesson No. 4: Fix Your Face Shape

Contouring is the art of highlighting and shading. Anything that is lighter than the skin tone will make an area more prominent, anything darker will make that area recede. Here’s how you can easily alter your face. If you have a round face and want to make it look more oval: Apply a bronzer a shade or two darker than your skin tone in a “3” shape alongside your face: on your temples, the hollow of your cheeks, and your chin.

If you have a prominent forehead: Shade around the outer edge of your forehead along your hairline to minimise the area with bronzer.  If you have a flat or wide nose: Shade alongside your bridge starting from your inner brows. Then highlight right on the centre of your nose. If gravity is taking a toll and your cheeks are sagging: Apply a highlighter just above your cheekbone all the way to your temple.

Use a blush directly on the cheekbone, then use a bronzer in the hollow of the cheek, underneath your bone. If you really want to make your contouring stand out, use a sparkly highlighter, which will reflect the most light. Then for your bronzer, go for a matte finish, which will absorb light and create a stark contrast.

Lesson No. 5: Make Your Eyes Pop By Changing Their Shape

Whether you have drooping lids, narrow-set eyes, or they’re simply too small, you can use your knowledge of light and shadow to change them. If you want to add definition: Sweep a light bronzer through the crease of the eye, which is halfway between the lashline and the eyebrow. As you age, the eye area loses elasticity, and things aren’t as shapely as they used to be. This technique is great for mature skin, to give the face more definition.

A tip for you blue-eyed girls: An orange-y bronzer in your crease will make your eyes even bluer. If you have narrow-set eyes: To elongate your eye width, apply a black liner to the outer half of both your upper and lower lashlines, connecting at the outer corner.

If you have drooping, heavy lids: Use what you just learned about highlights and shadows to lift your eye. Apply highlighter above your crease, from the inner to outer lid. Then blend a shadow to the area that you want to push back, which would be the heavy fold. Make sure to blend the edges from the shadow to the highlight.

If you have small eyes: Apply a beige-coloured eyeliner to your lower inner rim, which will help make eyes look more open. Then use a black pencil liner along your entire upper and lower lashlines, connecting the lines at the outer corner. The key is to blend the liner with shadow, going outwards. Wherever you place the darkness is where your eye will go, so by smudging the lines, it gives the allusion that your eyes are taking up more real estate on your face.

For natural definition: Apply a black pencil to your upper inner rim. It lengthens the eye and it also sharpens the appearance of the eye, giving more fullness to the natural lashline without seeing the hard edge of a liner.

Lesson No. 6: Think Opposites When It Comes To Colour

For blue eyes: Since orange is the opposite colour of blue, anything with orange in it will make blue eyes stand out more. It doesn’t have to be a blazing sun colour — it just has to have orangey undertones like gold, apricot, or peach.

For green eyes: Red is the opposite colour of green, which isn’t to say you should apply a cherry red-coloured eyeshadow to your lids. But you’ll help your green eyes pop if you use colours that have red undertones, like deep plums and wine.

For brown eyes: Brown is a neutral colour, so any colour will work well, but the most stand-out colours are blue and purple.

Alicia Joy