Apps like TikTok are full of catfish videos that leave everyone stunned. Beauty gurus on YouTube amaze people every day. If you already wear makeup, it definitely makes you feel like your skills need an upgrade. If you don’t wear makeup and are just getting started, it can make you feel overwhelmed pretty quickly. Don’t stress. This makeup for beginners article is going to help you get there.
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Then, you dive into the world of makeup to be bombarded by terms like an illuminator. You discover there’s a product called strobe cream. There are so many cool products and techniques, it can be a bit much. You want to learn everything and try everything. Don’t do that to yourself. Follow this advice instead.
How To Get Started With Makeup
There are so many cool products that you’re going to be dying to try. There are even more that you’ll want to learn about. The world of makeup continues to evolve, and the looks that you can come up with are amazing. However, there is a certain way that you might want to go about learning how to do makeup for beginners.
Start With Skincare
Before you jump into the world of makeup, it’s really important that you have your skincare routine down. Makeup can be really harsh on your skin. It’s really important to take care of your skin with cleansing and moisturizing to avoid blemishes, too.
You also need to know what type of skin you have to make sure that you buy the right makeup products. If you haven’t done that yet, develop a skincare routine, stick with it for a week, and make sure that you’re happy with it. Then, go back to makeup.
This article breaks down everything you need to know about skincare, and how to get started.
Recommended Skincare Products For Beginners
First Aid Beauty Cleanser Mini Travel Size ($6.50)
First Aid Beauty is an amazing brand with skincare products for every skin type. You can find cleansers for everyone! This particular cleanser is for sensitive skin, but it works well for every skin type. I used to own this one before I switched to a 111Skin cleanser, and it instantly leaves your skin feeling refreshed. Another family member with acne prone, oily skin also used it, and they even saw results.
Another great thing about First Aid Beauty is that you can find products available in a travel size. If you’re just getting started with skincare, consider picking up travel size products to try them out. You don’t have to spend money on the full size version, and you won’t wind up wasting a full size bottle of product because it isn’t right for you.
You can check it out and read the rave reviews here!
Agency Skincare
Agency Skincare is more than just one product. This company goes above and beyond to ensure that you have the right products and formulas for your skin type. First, you discuss your skincare concerns and your skin type. If you’re just starting with skincare, they work with you to determine things like what type of skin you have.
Then, every formula is customized to meet your individual needs. Agency skincare knows that every person is different, so every formula is different but packed with research-backed ingredients. As your skin changes, your formula changes to accommodate your changing needs. It’s a monthly subscription with a free trial, so you can try it before you buy it.
All you have to pay is $5 for shipping and handling during the free trial.
Dr. Brandt Skincare
Dr. Brandt Skincare is another brand worth checking out, especially for beginners. This allure beauty award winning brand has every product you can imagine, from basic moisturizers and cleansers to specific products to target skincare concerns, such as redness and premature aging.
On the website, you’ll also discover a skincare quiz. Taking the time to do the quiz can help you determine your skin type, and what type of products or ingredients are best to keep your skin healthy.
How To Know Your Eye Shape
Knowing your eye shape is so important when it comes to eye makeup. You’ll find that you can and can’t pull off particular looks if you have a hooded eye, round eye, etc. Specific eye shapes work well with graphic eyeliner looks, and certain ones don’t. You need to know this before learning to apply your makeup because you want to know how to apply makeup for your specific eye shape.
Try One Makeup For Beginners Category At A Time
Every type of makeup has a process. For example, most people don’t simply swipe eyeshadow across their eyes. First, you should apply an eyeshadow primer. Next, your eyeshadow look. Then, your eyeliner. You can close your eyes when you apply setting spray at the end of your look to seal your eye makeup.
Trying to learn this process, trying different eyeshadow looks, and learning where to put highlighter all at the same time can be a lot. The four basic makeups for beginners are:
- Certain face makeup (primer, foundation, concealer)
- Bronzer or blush
- Eye makeup
- Lip makeup
- Eyebrows
Pick one of those. Learn the process, and practice applying your makeup. Once you get the hang of that, move on to the next one you want to learn. After you learn how to use foundation and start applying it, you’ll want to make sure that you learn how to do bronzer or blush. Using foundation can make your face look too bare, so you will want to add color and depth to it.
After learning the makeup basics for beginners, you can move on to other things, like a highlighter, strobe cream, how to contour, etc. Follow the same process of learning one thing at a time. Within two months, you’ll be able to compete with makeup artists on YouTube!
Try One New Product At A Time
When you get a huge haul from Sephora, playing with everything in a day can be tempting. However, this is not a good idea. Instead, you want to use one new product at a time, especially if you’re using a new brand.
This can help you determine if you have an allergy to specific products or if they irritate your skin. When you try multiple products at once, you won’t be able to tell what you’re having a reaction to. Then, you’ll have to try them all one at a time to figure out which product or ingredient you need to avoid.
Beginner’s Makeup Kit
Before you start buying random eyeshadows, there are certain things that you’ll need in your makeup kit. Make sure that you put thought and consideration into each one. Makeup can get expensive, especially if you’re not using drugstore products. Because of that, you want to make sure that you put some thought into each purchase.
Some of these are necessities, but some of them are not. Some are fine to buy online, but some you should probably buy in person. We’ll go over all of that to make sure that you have the perfect beginner’s kit to move from one type of makeup straight into the next.
Primer
I love Dr. Brandt’s Pores No More Primer. It makes your pores disappear, and it’s really lightweight. If that doesn’t work for you or you want another primer, that’s fine too. However, you need a primer for whatever makeup you wear. This includes face primer, eyelid primer, and lip primer. You can order these online. Your makeup will cover them up, so it doesn’t matter if they match your skin tone perfectly or not.
Basic Face Makeup
You must buy face makeup, such as foundation and concealer, in person if you can. It’s really hard to find your perfect foundation match online. You need a foundation, a concealer one or two shades lighter, and another one or two shades darker.
The reason that you need two concealers is that you can use concealers in quite a few different ways. Concealer is great to contour with. A lighter concealer is excellent for covering under-eye circles and slight blemishes. Sometimes you’ll need a slightly darker concealer to cover pimples or darker spots, though.
In addition to those, you need bronzer and a blush. Blush usually gets a bad rep, but it’s about how you apply it. A small swipe of blush and bronzer in the perfect places will give your face depth. When your face is covered in foundation, it tends to lose some of that.
Setting Spray Or Powder
Some people use setting spray, and some use powder. For a full lipstick routine that you want to last for twelve hours, you’ll need setting powder. Aside from that, you can use a setting spray for everything. (I’m not a huge fan of setting powder, so I usually use a setting spray. However, setting powder does have its place on the vanity too.)
As a general rule of thumb, those with oily skin tend to opt for a setting powder while those with dry or combination skin typically use a setting spray. However, innovative formulas let you use whatever product you’d like. There are setting powders that are specially designed to hydrate dry skin, and wonderful setting sprays that are formulated to address the excess sebum production that we see with oily skin.
Our Recommended Setting Sprays And Setting Powders
Urban Decay Setting Spray Travel Size ($14)
Urban Decay setting sprays are the holy grail of setting sprays. Formulas are available for oily skin, and normal skin and a brightening setting spray gives your skin a healthy dose of vitamin C. This setting spray is well-known for living up to its claims! It helps extend the life of your makeup and makes makeup look better as it melts into your face after applying Urban Decay setting spray.
Anastasia Beverly Hills Loose Setting Powder ($38)
Anastasia Beverly Hills is another iconic makeup brand that every up and coming makeup maven needs to know about. While this brand is famous for it’s amazing brow products, it has a wonderful line of everything else, too! For example, the setting powders. We love them because they are:
- Available in a variety of shades for every skin tone
- Available in both standard and travel size (travel size is only $19)
- Gluten free
- A fine powder that is effortless to apply
- Effortless to apply
Eye Makeup For Beginners
To get started with eye makeup, you need two eyeshadow palettes. You can also pick up one in your favorite colors to get started if you’d rather let your inner makeup artist out to play. These eyeshadow palettes don’t have to be elaborate if you don’t want them to be.
Other eye makeup that you’ll need includes mascara and eyeliner. To be on the safe side, and to only have to purchase one of each, opt for smudge-proof and waterproof products now.
For a more comprehensive article on eye makeup for beginners, check out this article!
Our Favorite Eye Makeup For Beginners
E.l.f. Bite Size Eyeshadow Palettes ($3)
E.l.f. Bite Size Eyeshadow palettes come with four shades that play well together, including both a matte and shimmer shade. They’re perfect for anyone that’s just learning how to mix and match eyeshadow colors together for awesome custom looks, and they’re so affordable you can buy one of every shade!
Wander Beauty Mile High Mascara ($26)
The price point is higher than a drugstore brand, but this beauty favorite is well worth it. Wander Beauty Mile High Mascara has won awards in America, is an Indie favorite, and was once considered the most innovative mascara. It’s still a must-have makeup staple for millions.
The formula is smudge-proof, flake-proof, and water-resistant, so you can trust that your lashes will look fuller all day long. The brush delivers the perfect amount of product, so your mascara application isn’t messy, but you can trust that you’re getting a coat of mascara on every single lash.
L’Oreal Infallible Pencil Eyeliner ($9)
Pencil eyeliners are a great way for beginners to start. However, they can tug on the eyelid and be uncomfortable. That’s where products like the Infallible pencil eyeliner come in. It glides on like a gel pencil eyeliner, stays put like a liquid, and is easy to use like a pencil eyeliner. It even has a built-in sharpener! The mechanical pencil makes it even easier. A few twists and the pencil slowly comes up for easy application.
Eyebrow Pen
Eyebrow pencils or pens are the perfect products for beginners. They are easier to apply than a pomade, only take a few minutes, and can instantly give you a flawless brow look. Whether you choose a pencil or pen is up to you. I like eyebrow pencils better because the formula blends a little bit better into the eyebrows than some of the old-school eyebrow pencils on the market.
You’ll also need a spoolie. After filling in your brows, make sure that you use a spoolie to blend the product into your brows for a seamless, natural look.
My favorite eyebrow product for beginners is hand’s down an eyebrow pen from Anastasia Beverly Hills. Check it out here!
Lip Makeup For Beginners
Lip makeup for beginners is surprisingly simple. You can swipe some color across your lips and call it a day. As you continue your journey down the world of makeup, you’ll learn more about different lip products, and what you do or don’t like.
However, if you want to go a bit more in-depth, there’s nothing wrong with that. The complete process involves making lip care a priority. Lipstick and other lip products will cling to dead skin on your lips, so lip exfoliation is important. You’ll also need a primer. Before applying lip products, apply a primer to your lips. These are typically white-colored lip primer pencils, and you just color your lips with them. Then, apply your lip color. To make your lipstick last all day, dust a little bit of translucent powder over the top of your lipstick for longer-lasting color.
Tools
There are so many makeup tools out there that it can be hard to choose. You need a basic makeup brush set that includes everything, such as one of the all in one brush kits on Amazon. It’s easier to start with a kit like this and slowly upgrade your collection as you learn your preferences and what else you need instead of trying to find all of the perfect makeup brushes before you start doing your makeup.
In Conclusion
If you’re new to the world of makeup, you’re going to get a lot of information all at once. It can be overwhelming, but these tips will help you get started. For more awesome makeup tips, check out this article! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the blog for more in depth articles, tips and product reviews!
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