How To Choose A Concealer ~ Beauty Tip Of The Week #39

Concealer is one of those fantastic makeup products that can make a huge difference in your beauty game.

By making our dark circles disappear and brightening our under eyes we not only look like we've had a good night's sleep, but we also make our eyes look brighter and whiter, and along the way make ourselves look younger.

When it's done correctly that is.

The information out there can be super confusing though. Using the wrong shade of concealer can make your under-eyes look grey and heavy, making you look tired or making you look white around the eyes.
The wrong weight of concealer can be really aging.
So let's see how to choose a concealer:

Get The Color Right

The first big mistake girls make is getting the color all wrong.
Ideally you want to look the same color from the hairline to your chest. If your concealer is too pale you wind up having that weird, 2 toned look where your under eyes flare white and your face looks tanned.
As we lose some of the volume from under our eyes the area hollows out and sucks in shadows, making the under eye look darker than it is. By making the under eye area just a little lighter you can create the illusion that the shadow isn't there, and that the face is all one color.

Color Correct It

Putting an ivory or porcelain toned concealer over dark circles won't make them disappear, it will make them look a flat, sickly grey. A yellow based concealer placed over dark circles will make them look a sickly green grey, like the tail end of a bad bruise.
Think of mixing paint colors together. if you take a deep blue/grey and add a pale creamy white you just get a paler version of grey.
If you take that same deep blue/grey tone and mix in yellow you get a paler version of a greenish grey.
Neither are flattering.

If you have dark circles that need erasing, instead of reaching for an ivory hued concealer, neutralize them with a color corrector. Pink and peach tones will cancel out the blue/grey under your eyes.

Get The Weight Right

If you get your makeup tips from Instagram and YouTube you probably are hearing about baking your concealer. This is an old drag queen trick to lighten and lift, and it's great. For Drag Queens.
Extreme contouring and baking the makeup are great drag makeup tricks to take a man's stronger, heavier face and refine and reshape it into more classically feminine looking features. But its really intense and really heavy makeup.
Much drag makeup is done for nighttime viewing - in clubs and reviews where the lighting is low, which seems to escape the IG/YT makeup crowd. Getting heavy handed with weighty concealers never looks good in daylight, and for most of us it doesn't look good at night either.
The skin around your eyes is some of the finest, thinnest skin on your body. If it gets too dry the effect is super aging. If you weigh it down with makeup that is too thick it makes the under eye look heavy, and you look tired. And old.

Choose the weight of your concealer based on how much correction you need in the area, how dark your under eye circles really are.

Light Weight Concealers

YSL Touche Eclat is really lightweight. Essentially it is a combination of moisturizer, color corrector and luminizer. The Touch Eclat pen is ideally suited to throw in your handbag and use as a touch up product as the day wears on. 
It is the perfect pick-me-up when you are going out after work, as the moisturizers breathe life back into the skin under your eyes, the color corrector picks up where your morning concealer is wearing off, and the luminizers brighten the under eye area.
Unless you only have very pale under eye circles Touch Eclat is perhaps a little too sheer to be your only concealing product.

Medium Weight Concealers

Makeup Forever Lift Concealer has been around forever. It combines a lifting action with color correction that you can blend so that it doesn't get cakey. Designed for professional makeup artists it has incredible lasting power and a really beautiful finish.

Heavy Weight Concealers 

If you have really dark circles that keep showing through the color correctors and concealers that you've been using, you may need to go for a full coverage concealer.
The Amazing Concealer combines intense pigment with a very blendable texture, so that you can get coverage but not have to deal with thick product under the eye. It's super concentrated so a little bit goes a long way.

Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer is a full cover concealer and foundation and is much heavier, but can be sheered out with a little moisturizer if needed.

The Red Carpet Ready Handbag

I'm on my way back to L.A for the greatest red carpet of them all. 

I think this is my 10th time, but it may be the 11th. 
If I'm not going to be backstage with her keeping her makeup maintained I pack a little bag of goodies for my actress to touch up with throughout the night.

She will be in makeup hours before she hits the red carpet, and then probably until at least 3 or 4 in the morning at the Oscar's after parties, so she needs some good items to keep her fabulous makeup maintained and photo immaculate until she gets back home again.

Some of the items I pack her are perfect for you too to keep in your handbag on a big night out. Let's have a look at a few so that you too can keep your handbag red carpet ready.

1. I'm crazy about these super color saturated Temptu lipsticks at the moment. They give you rich color that holds.

2 and 3. When makeup is starting to feel a bit worn in you can add an instant refresh by lightening and brightening under the eyes with YSL's Touche Elcat and the patting a little life back into your cheeks with The Multiple by Nars. (I slice a piece off and put it in a little plastic container)

4. I don't like a powdery look - I prefer the skin to glow, so instead of pressed powder I pack Tatcha blotting papers. They are fabulous and being Tatcha they make everything feel more luxurious!

5. Even seasoned A listers get nervous on the red carpet, and get a dry mouth, which in turn means raunchy breath. I tell my ladies to pop in a Listerine breath strip every so often just for good measure.

6. Even if a matte lip is the biggest thing in fashion I still pack a Chanel lipgloss in her handbag. Matte lips can look dry and cracked after a while, and even if it's just placed in the center of the lip a little gloss can keep the lips looking supple and kissable.

5 Tips To Keep Valentine's Date Makeup Looking Gorgeous Til Sunrise

It's only a couple of weeks until Valentine's Day.
Maybe your Valentine's Day date will last well into the wee hours.
Maybe you will watch the sunrise together.

It sounds super romantic and lovely, but if your makeup is all smeared and worn off, or worse - looking chewed up and nasty, it

can feel like a romance buzzkill.

So how do you make your makeup last and look gorgeous until dawn?

Here are 5 tips to keep your Valentine's makeup looking gorgeous all night long:

Prep your skin well.
Exfoliate first and get your complexion nice and smooth, then hydrate your skin so that its not parched and dry. Give yourself 10 minutes for your moisturizer to really soak in, and then use a good primer.
Try Smashbox Photo Finish Color Correcting Primer

Go Easy On Your Foundation.
"Less is more" should be your motto. Use foundation sparingly, keep it sheer, and only use enough to even out your complexion.
Thick foundation is unflattering anyway, but looks hideous as the evening turns into the early hours.

Don't Over-Powder.
The more powder you add the dustier and more deathly your skin looks. 
If you are getting too glowy, opt for a good blotting powder instead. I use Tatcha Original Aburatorigami Blotting Papers both on myself, and on my red carpet ladies.

Tatcha Blotting Papers

Touch Up With Touche Eclat 

When the makeup under your eyes starts looking seedy your whole look crashes. YSL's amazing Touche Eclat basically mixes a little luminzer with color correcting concealer and eye cream. So it repairs your under eye makeup, disguises the dark circles under your eyes and then pops a little light off the area, making you look fresh and bright and awake.

Change Up Your Lip Game

Julie Hewett Camellia lip Balm

That fierce red lip that looked so stunning and on point at 9pm looks vampiric after the witching hour. A huge red lip at sunrise looks like you're trying too hard, and a chewed off red lip doesn't exactly look invitingly kissable. (Not wearing red? The same applies to any color.)
Once the night is waning start softening your lip with a good lip balm. As your color starts to disappear use a warm, nude toned lip liner for color and top it off with Julie hewett Camellia Lip Balm to keep your lips hydrated and soft. This way you subtley transition your look and will not only look lovely but totally kissable when the sun comes up.