Beauty 101: Face Makeup

All of my products and tools

The face is the third thing I do in my makeup routine. This is to ensure that I can easily conceal any mistakes I made while doing my eye makeup and eyebrows. The basic routine I use for my face makeup is primer, foundation, concealer, powder, contour, blush then finally, highlight. These steps are one of the only things in my beauty routine that stays consistent. The very first thing you need to do before anything is knowing the undertone of your skin. There are three undertones, warm, cool and neutral. If you have warm undertones your kin is typically yellow or olive while with cool undertones your skin will lean towards blues and pinks. Another thing to look for when applying face makeup is your skin type. Like I said in my first post, I have combination skin which consists of oiliness in the T-zone and dry patches on my cheeks. The areas you have more oil you may have to powder more than if you have no oil and dry skin.
Like I said, the first step in face makeup is primer. Use a primer to help protect your skin from makeup and lengthen the time worn of the makeup. I use the Smashbox Photo Finish Primer to smooth out my skin and help my makeup apply easier to the skin. This primer is good for most skin types as it hydrates but doesn't make the skin create excess oil in doing so. Once primed, foundation is the next thing you use. For every day, I don't normally wear a full coverage foundation because I find that they can be heavy so instead I use a BB Cream. The BB Cream I use is from Maybelline Dream Pure BB Cream in Light Medium with a dense blending brush to apply this. In her book, Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual, Bobbi Brown says "The reason we wear foundation is to even out our skin tone and texture.When applied correctly, the result is skin that looks clear and smooth. But, what is most important is that the skin looks better than it did without foundation." (Brown, 56). If I am going to choose foundation over a BB cream, I use the Fenty Beauty Foundation in 200. After foundation is applied, I go in with concealer. I apply concealer to the high points of my face to highlight and anywhere I have blemishes. The Nyx Hi Definition Photo Concealer Wand in the color beige. I blend my concealer out with a beauty blender that gives an airbrushed look to my face. The next step is to apply powder to the face to set down the liquid products. I like to use the Maybelline Fit Me! Pressed Powder and a fluffy all over powder brush. This is not a crucial step and can be skipped if you do not feel the need to set your foundation however I like to set the places I am going to use other powder products since it makes them easier to blend out.

The final result

The next step is contour. You do not need to do anything after powder but my face looks flat if I don't do anything to add definition. I use the Anastasia contour kit in light to contour my cheeks and forehead with a pointed contour brush to carve out my cheekbone and apply product to my forehead then I use the same fluffy brush from when I applied powder. An alternative would be bronzer. Brown describes bronzer as a way to imitate the look of the sun and to warm up the complexion (Brown, 70). This is adds color to the face without carving out your face. Once my bronzer or contour is done, I like to add blush. I use a flat fluffy brush and the tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in unstoppable. I apply to the apples of my cheeks then blend back. Finally I apply highlighter. Highlighter exaggerates the high points of your face by using a shimmery color glow the high points of your face. This includes the cheekbones, nose and browbone. That concludes my face routine!

Thank you for reading! What are your favorite face products and how do you use them?


Brown, Bobbi, et al. Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual: for Everyone from Beginner to Pro.
Springboard Press, 2011.