Beauty How-to: Full-Coverage Routine

I n t r o d u c t i o n

With the help of Michelle Phan and her novel; Make Up: Your Life Guide to Beauty, Style, and Success -- Online and Off, We can create a rejuvenated and refreshed, medium-to-full coverage look!

S t e p  O n e :

To begin, you should always start off with a good layer of primer to prepare your skin for the layers of makeup that follow. There are many different primers that benefit different skin types. Dewy primers, make you look more refreshed and full of glow, they are usually very hydrating too. On the other hand, there are primers that make your skin look matte, and usually oily people have enlarged pores, so most matte primers are multitasking, in which they minimize them. Those for oily skin, such as myself, steer towards primers that are not oil-based, for the obvious reason of not layering the amount of oiliness your skin already produces enough of. Sometimes I do mix or layer my primer, and people even use one type of primer for some areas of the skin, and a different primer for the rest of your face. Personally, I use the oil-free Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer that not only make my skin feel so silky, but it has a matte-effect on the skin, and I also use the Benefit Cosmetics POREfessional Face Primer , that gives a natural finish, minimizing pores and taking away the shine on the face. Then, according to the book, you should let your primer set for at least ten seconds (Phan 57).

S t e p  T w o :

The next step would be to color correct any blemishes. Your goal is to have a canvas that will create an even, medium to full coverage finish, and prepping your skin goes a long way. The whole technique of color correcting comes from the idea of the color-wheel. To color correct, you would choose the color on the color-wheel and the direct opposite color. A common example would be to cancel out any redness or irritation with a green concealer. Other ways color correctors are beneficial are that peach/orange concealers cancel out blue and purple undertones, which could mean under-eye circles or veins. Lavenders or purple concealers fight against yellow dullness, meaning that the concealer brightens sallow skin. On the contrary, yellow concealer battles purple and other redness irritations. To determine what tone to use, the lighter your skin, the more pastel your concealer should be, and for darker skin tones, use deeper colored color correctors.

S t e p  T h r e e :

Now that your skin is all prepped, you're now able to paint on your canvas. Your foundation should match your skin almost flawlessly, with the correct undertone, either yellow or pink. As you apply, you could either blend with a brush or a beauty-sponge, personally, I use the sponge because it feels much softer and gives me a natural finish while containing the coverage I want. Whilst you blend in the foundation to your face, make sure to also blend into your ears and neck so you don't look like you're wearing a mask. I use the Fenty Beauty Pro Filt'r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation by Rihanna. I love this brand because of how big the color selection is, and it makes it easier for beauticians to find the right shade for them. Another trick you can use is mixing foundations. You could mix two or three foundations for multiple reasons, whether it be because of the color shade it creates, or the finish or coverage that is created. Foundations can come in different forms, whether it be liquid, which allows the most coverage, powder, for a matte and lightweight feel and coverage, stick for high-opacity, and tinted moisturizers for light-to-medium coverage. 

S t e p  F o u r :

Before you begin applying your concealer, make sure you allowed your foundation to dry and set into your skin, which could take more or less 5 minutes. Then, there are various techniques to use for concealing. Spot concealing is using a concealer closer to your skin tone to cover any extra marks or blemishes on the skin, if you are lighter it would be better to use a light concealer, and for darker skins, the lighter the concealer, the greater the risk of emphasizing the imperfection. You could also use your own foundation to conceal the small areas. The next technique you could use is brightening your face with a shade or two lighter than your actual foundation. The places to apply this would be under your eyes as a triangle-like shape, the center of your forehead, down your nose, and even your chin. Illuminating the center points of your face helps give a youthful glow. With darker concealers or stick foundations, you can contour. This would be to slim down your face, so key areas would be the sides of your forehead (near your hairline), around the hollows of your cheeks, you could slim down your nose or even your jawline to create more of a defined complexion.

S t e p  F i v e :

After concealing, highlighting, contouring, whatever it may be, it is time to powder up. You want to set your cream or liquid concealers and foundation to keep them in place and give you a matte-natural finish too. Loose setting powders are good to use overall to keep the final touch light weight, or you can also add pressed-powder foundation on top to add not only more coverage, but to create the matte finish also. Loose powders come in different colors for different reasons and skin tones, ones with no color just add the setting-effect, ones that are more of a yellow or pink bases are to match your undertones of your concealer to set them. There is a technique used by many makeup gurus that is called baking. Baking is when you take a heaping load of powder and set your highlighted areas of your face to make them last longer as it sits there. Then, after a few minutes, you would brush off any excess powder and then you'll be good to go!

S t e p  S i x :

Now we have completed our medium-to-full coverage foundation routine. You can now add different accents to amp up your look, for example blush, highlight/illuminators, bronzer or contour. But, if not, your final step would be to spritz some setting spray. Setting spray locks in all of your makeup and takes away any cakey-ness that has built up throughout the process or that will in the future. There are setting sprays to help keep you matte or dewy. Personally, as a very oily gal, I love having makeup that makes my complexion less shiny then I already am naturally, so I use the KatVonD Lock-It Makeup Setting Mist. Setting sprays also aid in making your skin look more natural rather than powdery.

F i n i s h e d

With the whole routine complete, you are now photo-finish ready. Tell me about your makeup routine! Do you cut any steps? Add on? What sort of finish or products do you use? Let me know in the comments down below!

Phan, Michelle. Make up: Your Life Guide to Beauty, Style, and Success--Online and Off. Harmony Books, 2014.