Let’s Start Easy … Makeup Wisdom 101

U watch “a lot” of shows, both from the US and from “abroad.” I don’t sit here and stare at a screen all day every day (I’d be in a loony bin somewhere if I were doing that!), I usually have something playing on in the background when I am home while I am doing other things (like right now, I do have “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” playing because I have been trying very hard to “get it” and 12 SEASONS IN I STILL DO NOT GET IT … IF ANYTHING I “GET IT” EVEN LESS!). At any rate, I do tend to watch a pretty fair assortment of shows from an assortment of countries and cultures and there is one bit of “makeup” wisdom I have picked up primarily from Korean and Japanese TV / dramas and films.

Regardless of what your skin tone and undertone is and are, those of us who have been on steroids long-term know that “moon face” SUCKS … and it’s CRAZY HARD even to  try to “camouflage” using contouring and highlighting – even for the most talented makeup artist. I do not want to get into how to pick the right “contour tone” right now (because that’s much more involved post than I have time to write right now and I want to get it right! But it is coming! And it’s more like toneS which is where a LOT of people get it wrong, in part!), but whatever you have and whatever works for you, try this one East Asian “beauty hack” – look in the mirror and jut your face out a little from your body (like a chin thrust;  in physical therapy for my broken spine I was taught the opposite so maybe that will help you here – the exercise I was taught was to bring your head straight back and the “sensation” is just like having a bug fly at your face and you throw your head back automatically – THIS movement, that is, moving your head forward, is just the opposite of that!). Make sure you are looking into a mirror when you are doing this! I want you to take whatever shade you are currently using for contouring (please, dear God, no shimmer!) and a tapered brush (it looks sort of like a cone, if that helps; I use one I got with a Christmas brush set from YEARS ago; it just tapers down to a smaller point but it is a large brush). Now look in the mirror at where the shadow naturally falls JUST UNDER YOUR CHIN AND JAWLINE. You want to use the brush and your contour shade (AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE! THAT’S ANOTHER MISTAKE PEOPLE MAKE – LESS IS MORE!) and you want JUST ENOUGH MAKEUP TO TRACE THAT NATURAL SHADOW LINE … YOU DO NOT WANT TO BLEND IT UP OR DOWN YOUR NECK (I really have no idea who came up with that one); you can blend it out a little bit just so it looks like there is no makeup on your face / neck, but you DO NOT WANT IT TO STAND OUT AT ALL FROM THAT NATURAL SHADOW LINE! Trust me, if you can “master” this, you are well on your way to “carving out” your face to look sculpted even with the worst “moon face!” I will definitely elaborate more on how to “fix” areas along the jawline / chin that have the “chubby” appearance from steroids, but for now, please just try this trick, and I do think you will be pleasantly surprised!

Please let me know and I will be back for more info and to write more in the near future! I hope you are all having a happy and healthy Friday or weekend wherever you are in the world and with all these germies out there, please stay healthy, everyone! Thanks for taking the time to read and I really do hope we can all stay healthy through this together!

❤ Always, Beth