Have you ever looked in the mirror and thought, “Wow, this makeup just doesn’t look good,” but you couldn’t quite solve the puzzle of what was wrong? Sometimes it feels like we’re looking in the mirror at a good serviceable Chevy when we’d rather be looking at a gorgeous Lexus.
Well, the difference between a good makeup look and a flawless, professional look may be just one makeup hack away! And that hack is exactly what we’ll be focusing on today.
How This Hack Works
This makeup hack relates to the phrase “less is more.” There have been interesting examples of this concept in the fields of business and fashion as well as makeup. For instance, Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, allegedly had over 100 black turtleneck sweaters and blue jeans. Karl Lagerfeld, who was Chanel’s Creative Director for many years, always sported black suits and white shirts but would add a touch of glamour each day with jewelry or gloves.
So, you may be wondering how does this concept specifically relate to makeup? Well, to answer that question, let’s jump right in so I can demonstrate in today’s video just how important this concept is to our makeup application.
The Necessary Tools
First, here are the tools we’ll need:
- an unused eye brow spoolie
- a clean synthetic eyeshadow brush
- a clean fluffy blending brush
- a clean larger size soft, dense synthetic brush, and
- a makeup sponge.
It’s very important that all of these brushes and the sponge are completely clean.
We always talk about how helpful it can be to have the right brushes to apply makeup – but, if we want a truly flawless, polished makeup look, it’s equally important for us to have several absolutely clean brushes in various sizes to remove makeup. That’s because removing excess makeup will help us create a more seamless look since we’ll us using each of these brushes to soften the edges of our makeup application and blend and buff the makeup in so it looks more natural.
What This Hack Does for Our Eyebrows
In the video, I’ve already used my NYX micro eyebrow pencil and my ABH Brow powder, but my brows are a little too heavy and unnatural looking. So I’ll take my first tool – my spoolie – and run it through only my left brow, which will help remove any excess brow product so my brow will look more natural.
As I apply eyeshadow, foundation, contour and blush, you’ll be able to see even more clearly the effect of using clean makeup brushes to remove some of our excess makeup.
The Beauty of This Hack for Eyeshadow
For eye makeup, I’m using one of my favorite drugstore palettes from NYX. It’s their Ultimate Vintage Jean Baby palette, and I’m only going to be using the neutral shades from this palette today. After applying the eye makeup, I will use a brush to remove some of the eyeshadow and blend it out on my left eye only.
In the video, you can definitely see how much better the eyeshadow looks on the left eye where I’ve used a clean brush to blend it out.
How This Hack Helps Foundation
My foundation is the Nars Light Reflecting Foundation in the shade Yukon. On just my left side, I’ll use my clean Doll 10 Perfecting Foundation Brush and blend the foundation out even more along the edges, down the neck and also in the center of my face.
In the video, I’m not sure if you’ll see a difference on the two sides of my face – due to the lighting I need to use – but when I look in the monitor I can definitely see that on the left side of my face where I used my clean brush to further blend out my foundation, my foundation is looking like it’s more one with my skin rather than looking like it’s just sitting on top of my skin.
Corrector and Concealer
Next, I’ll use this same technique after I apply my Elf Camo Concealer in Light Peach as my corrector over my under eye dark circles and my Kosas Concealer over the corrector and in a larger area of my under eye space. After using my finger to help melt the corrector and concealer into the skin, I’ll use my clean Real Techniques Setting Brush to blend the edges of the concealer down and out.
This Hack Is Crucial for Contour and Blush
My contour is Westman Atelier’s Face Trace Contour in the shade Biscuit and I’ll apply the initial application as I normally do on both sides of my face. However, on the left side only, I’ll take the clean brush I used to blend out my foundation and go around the edges of my contour to blend it out. It’s O.K. that this brush has a small amount of foundation on it since that will actually help the contour blend into the foundation even more seamlessly. In the video you’ll really see the difference this makeup hack makes with this contour, and you’ll also see a real difference when I apply my blush in the next step.
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My blush is Elf’s Camo Liquid Blush which is an amazing bargain at $7.00. I’m using one of their newer shades called “Bold Faced Lilac.” Because liquid blushes are more highly pigmented than cream and powder blushes, I’ll put one dot ONLY on the back of my hand and then swirl a brush around in it so I can evenly coat the brush. I’ll tap it on so I don’t disturb the foundation underneath.
Then I’ll once again reach for the clean brush I used to blend out my foundation and contour, but first I’ll wipe it off on a paper towel and my Sigma Switch which really helps to remove product from brushes – even cream products. Then I’ll repeat the process of blending out the edges of the blush on the left side only with my clean brush. Wow, what a difference this makes to my makeup look!
This Final Use of the Hack Really Helps
Then, for the final use of this hack, I like to take my very slightly damp makeup sponge and gently press it over just the left side of my face. Using the sponge in this way not only picks up any excess makeup, but it’s an especially great technique to use on dry mature skin since we’re adding some wonderful moisture.
Also read, 10 Ways to Use a Makeup Sponge (with Demos).
I hope you’ll try these tips and notice the amazing difference they make in how flawless your makeup looks.
Let’s Have a Conversation:
Have you tried this clean brush makeup hack? If so, did you notice a positive difference in how your makeup looked?
