You may be thinking, “WHY on earth wouldn’t I use foundation for a flawless look?!”. Let’s say you’re getting ready for a spontaneous night out and you’re at your friend’s house. You don’t have any foundation with you. Her skin tone doesn’t match yours. Or, you’ve run out of foundation and you’re broke until next payday. Here’s what you can do when these situations arise!
1) Gently cleanse with a warm flannel
Create a smooth, clean canvas by very gently buffing the skin with a warm flannel to remove any dry patches. If you’re bare-faced already, no need to use cleanser.
2) Apply a generous dose of moisturizer
Use a moisturizer to suit your skin type, (or as close as you can get with what’s on hand). For dry skin, massage the product into particularly dry patches and apply a second layer.
3) Wait
Leave the moisturizer to fully sink in for at least 10 minutes so you know what you’re working with! Freshly-moisturized skin has a different texture and finish than skin that has been left to absorb product.
4) Concealer time
Be sparing with concealer otherwise you’ll end up with a patchwork of different textures, tones, and coverage. In this case, the concealer is not to cancel out, but simply to even out the face. Warm the product between your fingers and dab it very carefully into the hollows under the eyes and directly onto any redness or blemishes. Take your finger or a small brush (if you have one) and blend the edges until they disappear seamlessly into the skin. Stand back, take a look, and keep blending out.
4) Dab
Take a tissue and press over the parts where you added concealer. This will remove any excess oils and tone down any overzealous application.
5) Reapply Concealer
Stand back again and reapply a small amount of concealer if any redness, darkness, or blemishes are still standing out. Dab again.
6) Add liquid highlight
If you don’t have a liquid highlight on hand, take a dab of vaseline or plain lip balm. Combine it with a little champagne, pearl, bronze, or amber shimmer eye shadow (to match your skin tone) and concentrate it onto the bridge of the nose, the high points of the cheeks, above the brows, and the brow bone. We do this to create dimension to the face and give the skin a dewy, natural finish. By catching the light, the highlight draws the eye to the most structured parts of the face we want to enhance.
7) Add cream color
If you don’t have a cream blush on hand, take a nude or rusty-red lipstick (or one that creates a natural flush on your skin tone) and very gently press it into the apples of the cheeks. Take the excess from your finger and dab it into the crease of the eye to tie the colors together and give life to the eye. If you already have a lot of redness in your cheeks, you could skip this step.
8) Add bronzer to the eyes
If you have a bronzer on hand, take a small dusting and apply to the lower lash line and crease of the eye. This enhances the color of your eyes as well as adding that all-important life and dimension! It creates the effect of a beachy, no-makeup look with naturally defined and contoured eyes.
I would be wary of applying a powder bronzer onto the face as you risk having it cling to your moisturizer creating a muddy look.
Lips, mascara, done: finish off with mascara and whatever lip product you can find…now pour a glass of bubbles, get chatting, and enjoy your natural glam!
Gin Mabey