8 Makeup Tips the Pros Want You to Know

As it is with just about every other craft under the sun, makeup application looks better and can be achieved faster once you have the right products, the right tools and a nice little suite of industry secrets. Here are eight makeup tips from beauty professionals that will totally up your game!

1. Achieve a Natural Looking Glow.

Celebrity makeup artist, James Vincent, shared a super helpful tip with readers of Marie Claire. He recommends applying the blush of your choice before you put on your foundation. He explains this gives a really natural look because it will appear as if the color is coming from beneath your own skin, rather than from underneath your coverup. 

2. Make Your Lipstick Hue Pop.

You know that sad moment when you realize the lipstick you just bought isn’t nearly as bold and color-rich as you thought? Well, now you can have a good laugh the next time that happens. All is not lost! All you need to do is apply a color corrector on your lips to neutralize the color of your natural lip color and then apply the lipstick. We love this super helpful tip by makeup pro, Petra Strand.

3. Get a Long-Lasting, Sultry Smokey Eye.

Mila Kunis’ makeup artist, Tracey Levy, is a real eye makeup master and she recommends choosing waterproof mascara and gel liner products to keep smokey eyes firmly in place. If you haven’t mastered your smokey eye yet, it’s actually really simple. You can use eyeliner stencils to achieve the look in just a few minutes with minimal clean up and a professional-looking finish. We love dark smokey eyes featuring black product for night but there are also a lot of other great looks you can do with purples, browns, emerald greens, golds… Look to your eye color and personal style to see what works best for you.

4. Contour with Purpose.

Celebrity makeup pro Dominique Samuel makes us all want to think about what we’re doing before we contour. She explains that the first step is knowing what shape your face is because that will determine the type of techniques you’ll need to put into action. Next, consider why you’re contouring. Do you want to accentuate your overall beauty? Do you want to play up or subtly redefine specific features? Then she advises that you also consider the venue you’re headed to and the type of lighting you suspect will be there.

This kind of research will save you time and give you much better results!

5. Focus on Key Areas First.

Lisa Eldridge, one of the most sought after celebrity makeup artists there is, always has a lot of great tricks up her sleeve! She wants to help time-strapped beauty lovers by advising you to focus on the most important areas first. That way if you run out of time, you still look fantastically made up. This could mean starting with blemish coverage, concealing dark circles or doing a quick contour.

6. Get the Slept-In Makeup Look.

Tom Pecheux is an incredible top makeup artist whose work you’ve likely seen on the runways of such fashion houses as Chanel. One of his favorite makeup looks ever is one that we love and a particularly popular one seen around Paris – the slept-in makeup look. It’s really easy to recreate and it makes your makeup look more sultry. All you need to do is apply your eye makeup and then go back and take some of it off.

You can use something such as blotting papers to take off some of the product without taking off too much. This works really beautifully with simple eyeliner on your lower lashes or even for a full smokey eye. Just remember that it’s gorgeous to look as if you slept in your makeup but that actually sleeping in your makeup is one of the worst things you can do for your skin!

7. Minimize Fine Lines.

Oh, those pesky little fine lines. We always imagined we’d be much older before they started to appear but pillowcases, pollution and everything in between had other plans. If you’ve noticed you already have a few fine lines, Tom Pecheux suggests you skip the powder. Powder makeup has a tendency to lay inside and around those lines in such a way that they become much more pronounced than on your makeup-less face. Opt for cream coverage instead.

8. Play with Colors and Products.

Have you heard of Dick Page? He’s one of the most legendary makeup artists in the fashion world. When he speaks, the industry listens! We love his passion for all things cosmetics. He’s a firm believer that makeup should be fun and we definitely agree. On that note, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he wants you to experiment. Step out of your comfort zone and experiment with new, bold colors. You can always focus on one aspect of your look (such as your eyes or your lips) to reduce the overall intensity. The other rule he wants you to break is sticking to product labels. He likes to mix it up and use lip products on the eyes, eye products on the cheeks, etc. Play around with your own beauty supply. Who knows what you can discover!