Nicole’s Make-Up Tips 101
One of my good friends and a make-up artist who I have worked with for years, Nicole Bryl gave me some of her makeup top tips!
Natural Foundation
To give your face a more natural coverage try mixing (in your hand) your favorite face cream together with your favorite liquid foundation and then apply it to your face and neck. You can add more or less cream to the liquid foundation depending on how much coverage you desire for that day. It sure beats purchasing several different products and bulking up your bag.
Smokey Eyes
The key to perfect smokey eyes is proper blending. You must make sure that the shadows you use are blended together flawlessly. If you blend to perfection there will always be a certain "subtle" quality attached to your smokey look and then no matter how intense you want to go with the color you will not have gone "too far".
Contouring
The whole premise of contouring is to add a darker color to an area in order to decrease or recede that area which might be too round or wide creating a more chiseled sculpted illusion. Then highlight the remaining surrounding areas with a lighter color to pull focus away from the contour. When contouring you need to choose a foundation or powder that is one to two shades darker than your foundation color.
Some places that usually need contouring are:
- Under your cheekbones
- Jawline
- The bottom of your chin
- Neck
- Along each side of your nose
- The crease of your eyes
- Temples
Remember that each area you contour must be very well blended so that a dark contouring stripe does not occur. Dusting a dual finish powder over the contoured areas softens the edges and gives it a more natural look!
Dry Lips
Use a good old fashioned hot wet wash cloth to exfoliate your lips if they are dry. The rubbing motion will also help to plump up your lips and make them fuller. Then add a thick lip conditioner to nourish the area.
Brows
Lets face it, eyebrow plucking can hurt and some of us are more sensitive to the pluck than others. For those gentle souls try using a little Ambesol on the intended area before you groom. It will numb your skin and make the whole experience a heck of a lot less painful.
Source: Nicole Bryl, Make-Up New York