Stage two of Jenn's make-over was the make-up itself. She had instructed me that
she really wanted a natural look, so I planned my products carefully. I also wanted to
make sure that the products I used were commonly available, so I shopped my local
market and found the following:
After pulling Jenn's hair back from her face, I started by tackling her eyebrows.
I shaped them into a low arch and thinned them a bit. Next, I applied a light tinted
moisturizer to even the skin tone and used a light concealer on the trouble spots
(blemishes along the cheeks and jawline, the creases beginning to form between her
brows, and the darker areas above and below the eyes). The concealer was blended by
dabbing with a sponge using a little more of the tinted moisturizer. The new tinted
moisturizers are great for women who want to even their skin tone without the look and feel of heavier foundation make-up.
It's important to remember when choosing a foundation color that your foundation
should ALWAYS become invisible when applied to your skin. You shouldn't be able to
"clearly see" where you've applied the make-up. If you can, then the make-up is either
too light, or too-dark. For concealer, you should remember that it should be opaque,
but should blend smoothly and it, too, should disappear as you dab it with the
foundation-moistened sponge. You can always add a touch more concealer, but if you
start with too much, you may have to wash it away and start over.
I set the foundation and concealer with a translucent powder to reduce shine and
soften the features (see photo), then began work with Jenn's eyes. Using the soft brown
eye pencil, I lined the upper and lower lids of each eye and added a little color to fill-in
the brow line. The brows were then blended with an eyebrow brush. I followed this with a
one-coat application of mascara in a brown shade a little darker than the eyeliner color.
By keeping the application light, I avoided clumping the lashes and kept the look natural.
Many women make the mistake of thinking eyeliner and mascara colors have to
be black, when a softer, brown shade will give the eyes the definition they crave and
provide a very natural look. While most nighttime looks need darker eyeliner and
mascara colors, using these same colors for a daytime look leave you looking overly
made-up. Consider keeping two sets of mascara and eyeliner, one for day, and one for night.
