Lipsticks & Highlighters

Applying lipstick or lip gloss can definitely add to a makeup look. It can make it look more dramatic, or just add some more detail to your face. When it comes to choosing what to put on your lips, there are many different choices. Lip liners, lip glosses, and lipsticks are a few to start with. When wearing lipstick, it is always best to apply lip liner first to ensure the lipstick will stay on longer. You can also use a different color of lip liner to change the color of the lipstick to make it darker or lighter. After using a lip liner on your lips to outline them, you can either apply a lipstick or lip gloss to the middle of them, or just leave them like they are. If you choose to apply lipstick, you need to decide what kind to get. Most lipsticks come in matte, metallic, and satin finishes. Matte lipsticks usually last the longest and look dry on your lips, while satin lipsticks look more wet and move around more. Metallic lipsticks have tiny shimmers in them to reflect light and they look beautiful in the light. If you would rather use a gloss, they also come in glossy and metallic finishes. Lip glosses look shiny on your lips and  definitely need to be reapplied during the day. While lipsticks, lip liners, and lip glosses all come in different finishes, they also come in a variety of different colors. You can pick from a light dusty pink, to a bright turquoise blue. Picking a color depends on what look you’re going for and how brave you can be with a bold color.

After you get everything else done with your makeup, you can move on to using highlighter. Highlighters are usually very shimmery and make certain features of your face stand out more than others. Using a highlighter may be intimidating at first, but you can definitely get the hang of it in no time. To start, you want to either choose a peachy pink color, or a color that is slightly lighter than your skin tone. Then you need to find the places you want to highlight and lightly place highlighter in those areas. The most common areas are the top of the cheekbones above where you apply your contour and blush, the tip of the nose, cupid’s bow, and underneath the brows. You can choose between liquid and powder highlighters to apply shimmer to your face. The most important thing to remember with highlighter and most other makeup products is that a little goes a long way. You don’t want to apply too much highlighter and end up looking sweaty.

Like I mentioned in my last blog, there are several different ways and body parts to contour. As the most common and trending part of the face to contour is the cheekbones, the nose is also a popular body part to contour among makeup artists and beauty gurus. Nose contouring is very popular in order to make the nose slimmer and give it a different shape. Many celebrities get their noses contoured in order to make them look different. When contouring your nose, you take a shade of foundation or power that is a few shades darker than your skin tone in order to create a shadow effect where you want to contour. To begin the contour, you go down the bridge of your nose on both sides to slim the middle down. Then you round off the tip of your nose to give it a “button nose” effect. Using a light shade of concealer, you then place the down the middle of your nose in between the dark shades to highlight this area and brighten it up. This can slim down your nose and give your face a new structure.

The other very popular facial structure to contour is the lips. Many celebrities do this in order to make their lips bigger and more full. Many beauty gurus have began this trend after seeing Kylie Jenner’s lips. To contour your lips, you can either overline your natural lip line with a lip pencil, or you can use concealer and a dark lip pencil to make them look more full. In order to make them bigger with a lip pencil, you simply draw out a shape bigger than your actual lip line. You have to make sure to blend out where you overline or else it will be very easy to tell. That is something you always want to avoid. Using a concealer and dark lip pencil to contour your lips is usually more time consuming, but also more effective. You begin by outlining where you want it to go, then you have to shade the lips to give them depth and definition. You then apply a light shade of concealer to the middle of the lips and blend that out. After that, highlight the cupid’s bow and you’re finished! Contouring is a very popular trend that has been known for changing facial structures and making people look different. It may not always work for everyone, but it may work for you. You always need to make sure you blend everything out and do not overdo it.