How To Make Cheap Make Up Work For You

Sometimes, a personal budget just won’t stretch far enough to buy premium brands of make up. In these circumstances, unless you’re willing to go make up free – and who is ever willing to go make up free?! – you’re going to have to look in to cheap make up.

First and foremost, the phrase ‘cheap make up’ does not exactly inspire confidence, does it? Such wording brings to mind the kind of make up that comes free with magazines; sticky lipsticks, bright pink blushers and mascara that glues eyelashes together rather than neatly separating them. However, despite the connotations, cheap make up can actually look good if used in the right way.

Applying make up is all about technique and learning what works for you. You may need to mix and match different palettes of cheap make up to find a shade of lipstick or eyeshadow that suits your colouring, but that’s part of the fun, and the creativity helps you put together something you really love.

To allow cheap make up to work for you, you need to have a good surface for the make up to work on. It’s essential that you prepare your face; that is, ensuring it’s clean and kept well moisturised, and if possible zit and pimple free. Use Vaseline at night to extend, separate and soften your eyelashes, as well as on your lips for maximum softness that lipstick will smooth on to.

When you’re sure your base is right, experiment with your cheap make up selections; blend, smooth and mix until you’ve got exactly what you want, and you’ll look fabulous without the price tag!

How To ‘Balance’ Make Up To Create A Flawless Look

Although there is no right and wrong way to apply make up in the strictest sense, there are certain ‘rules’ that most make up artists follow to create that picture perfect look. If you are looking to create a similar look of flawless beauty at home, you don’t need to have intense make up training to do it; just some common sense, and a helping hand on the tricks of the trade.

One thing that all make up artists understand is the need to ‘balance’ make up on a face. This is done to prevent a person from looking overly made up, which can result in unfortunate similarities to clowns in costume. Balancing make up is not difficult, but it is sadly neglected by the average woman, when in reality it could improve many people’s techniques endlessly.

A make up artist will choose a facial feature to focus on when making up a face. Ideally, this should be your best feature; if you have full luscious lips, then focus on that area (or wherever applies to you, be it your eyes, nose, wherever). The focal point should receive the most make up during application; for example, if you’re focusing on your lips, choose a powerful and deep shade to draw attention to them.

Make up should be sparingly applied to every area apart from the focus point you have chosen. Again using the example of lips as the focus, use only a small amount of eyeshadow, mascara, eyeliner and blusher – but go to town on the lips. This approach creates a look that draws attention to one’s best assets, while avoiding looking overly made up.

How To Avoid Make Up Disasters

Most of us have probably seen our fair share of make up disasters, and it’s never pretty. The usual suspects tend to be involved in creating such an unpleasant look: tide marks of foundation, over-applied blusher that makes the wear look uncomfortably hot no matter what the weather outside is doing, lipstick that misses the edge of the lips and, of course, the dreaded ‘panda eyes’ of mascara and eyeliner.

When it comes to wearing and using make up, there is an eternal truism of the beauty and fashion industry: less is more. The more make up you layer on, the more likely you are to look like a clown. Make up is about enhancing your natural assets, not repainting an entirely new face over your existing features. If you try and do the latter, there’s no way it can look decent.

The trick to getting make up right is a good mirror and good lighting in the room you apply it in. Many women make the mistake of applying make up in dimly lit rooms, where they can’t get a full look at their handiwork. You need to be able to see all the angles of your face (there are specialist mirrors that show different angles at the same time, if you feel like splashing out) clearly, so you can judge exactly what is going where and how it looks.

Many of us fall in to bad habits with make up and products, so keep things fresh by emptying out your make up bag and studying the products within carefully. If something hasn’t been used in six months, throw it away. By keeping things up-to-date and making the occasional new purchase, you can avoid wearing the same ‘look’ for years on end.

Three Essential Make Up Tips: Blusher

Blusher is the make up product that allows you to recreate a healthy, natural glow all-year round, and is the perfect finishing touch to any well made up face. Here, we give three helpful hints that will allow you to create a perfectly well done face using blusher:

Tip One: Smile and Apply

Knowing where to apply blusher on the face is an essential, and incorrectly applied blusher is one of the most common mistakes. This is all the more surprising when one considers that getting it right is so very easy. To apply blusher correctly, smile as hard as you can so your cheeks inflate over your skin. You should apply blusher on these extended ‘apples’ of your cheeks, and literally nowhere else. Apply in a circular motion using a large round brush, and when you relax your face from its extreme smile, the blusher will be perfectly placed.

Tip Two: Be Subtle

One of the worst make up sins is when women use too much blusher, giving themselves the impression of being constantly flushed. When applying blusher, it’s important to use the product sparingly; a light dusting of powder, applied as directed in Tip One, is all you need to create a natural, rosy glow.

Tip Three: Colour Match

A bright red blusher is flattering on absolutely no one, so try and choose a more subtle shade with pink overtones. When buying blusher, keep in mind the colour of your skin; as a general rule, the darker your skin is, the darker your blusher can be. If you are very pale, a simple light pink is all you – anything more will look overdone.

Three Essential Make Up Tips: Mascara

Mascara allows you to darken and extend your eyelashes to true movie starlet glamour, and forms the central piece of many women’s make up bags. Get the most from this essential bit of make up kit with these three essential mascara tips.

Tip One: Apply Mascara In A ‘Zig Zag’ Movement

Rather than simply sweeping your mascara brush from the roots of your eyelashes to the tip in one downward (or upward) motion, agitate the brush back and forth in a ‘zig zag’ motion. This motion helps reduce the likelihood of mascara clumps, as only the necessary amount of product is applied thanks to the short time the brush spends on the lashes. It may take a couple of goes to get this right, so practice before doing it for real.

Tip Two: Always Use A Clean Mascara Brush To Finish

If you want to avoid panda eyes – and let’s face it, who doesn’t? – then it’s important you remove all excess mascara from your lashes once the application is complete. One method of ensuring the amount used is appropriate is mentioned above, but it’s best to check after the application also. The best way to do this is to use a clean mascara brush, perhaps one previously used in a mascara that has been washed clean, to sweep over the eyelashes and collect any unnecessary product.

Tip Three: Emphasize The Corners of Your Eyes

For truly glamourous lashes without looking like you’re caked in mascara, just apply the product to the corners of your eyes. This opens your eyes out without making your lashes look thick with mascara.