Choose Your Foundation The Fool-Proof Professional Way

Hey Guys, it's been a long hour since I last posted here. It's been ages actually. But I am back with the promise to keep writing.

Fingers crossed, wish me luck!

Picking up from where we left off, the complexion, something I always talk about and create passionately.

There are no shortcuts to doing a great complexion work, you cannot simply pick one foundation formula, swipe it all over the face, a little dab here a little dab there and voila! You get a flat complexion.

Let's look at it from a Professional's point of view.

When you are choosing a foundation shade, either for yourself or a client, start by analyzing the skintone and undertone. I can bet my entire kit on it that you cannot narrow it down to one single colour.

What should be done then?

Use three different shades. But how to pick those 3 shades?

Here are some important pointers (they are important so read carefully).

Sticking to the same undertone, make sure one colour (out of three) matches your client's cheek area, the second one matches their jawline and neck area, and the third one matches the bridge of their nose and the center part of their forehead.

Confused? I too was in the beginning, trust me.

Let's make it simpler.

Pick one shade that matches your client's majorly. Pick a second shade darker than the first one and another shade lighter than the first one.

Apply these shades in the said places, that is cheek area, jawline and neck and forehead and nose bridge, blend the demarcation lines ensuring one colour does not bleed into the other.

The result? You will get a beautiful three-dimensional professionally done complexion.

Try it and if you like it let me know here!

Much Love,

Fizzah

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Complexion - There Are No Short Cuts

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The way to do a complexion, neat and clean though is pretty simple but it requires some logical thinking on our part.

You have a few (or all of these) concerns you tackle while doing a complexion:

1. Part of your skin that is of your normal skin tone colour.

2. Part of your skin that has gone darker (blue/purple) than your normal skin tone colour.

3. Part of your skin that has gone darker than your skin tone but isn't blue/purple-y rather just dark brown.

4. Part of your skin that may be red-ish.

These are pretty much the general skin concerns. And to effectively build a complexion you need to bring any part of your skin that is other than your normal tone (point 1) back to its normal tone THEN do something else on top (highlight or colour).

To tackle concern number 2, you use a warmer foundation product (concealer, high coverage, with more red in it) to bring that darkened, cooler (purple/blue) skin tone back to the normal tone.

To tackle concern number 3, you may use a foundation product (concealer, high coverage) that may be of the same colour as your normal skin tone.

To tackle concern number 4, you may only need to apply another thing layer of your foundation product that you apply on parts of your skin with normal skin tone.

Only when you have a one tone skin tone that you go ahead and apply a foundation product (concealer or highlighter) under your eyes or anywhere on your face to take that normal skin tone a bit lighter to highlight and add a darker colour to take the normal skin tone a bit darker to contour.

There is no other way around.

There are no short cuts.

Love,

Fizzah

Disclaimer: This is a personal blog edited by its owners. We do not hold the copyrights to the information shared in this post. For questions and queries please email at thepoutpainter@gmail.com

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Two Basic Ways To Shape Your Eye With Eye Shadows

As much as I know about eye makeup until now, there are two basic ways you can shape your eyes with eye shadows regardless of your eye shape. One method of eye shadow application makes your eyes more almond-like, more elongated while the other method of application makes them appear more rounded.

While it's good practice to follow your natural eye shape for makeup application and enhance their shape but that may not be the desired result at times. You may have round eyes and wish for more elongation or you may have elongated eyes and want more rounded effect. There is a way of doing that with eye shadows.

Use three matte shades for this purpose, although you may use shimmers as well but just for the sake of explanation we will stick to three basic matte shades. A creamy beige shadow, a medium warm brown and a darker slightly ashier brown.

Eye Shadow Application For Elongated Effect:

Start with the medium warm brown shadow applied all over your lids blended up to your socket. Add more and blend if you want more intensity. Now with the darker ashier brown shadow apply it all along your lash line (do not go too far up on the lids) and in a triangular shape in the outer corners, again not going our of your natural lid space. Blend the shadow applied along the lash line slightly upwards and that applied in the outer corners slightly inwards and into the socket. Repeat this process to get desired intensity and depth. Use the medium warmer brown shadow on your lower lash line and blend. Apply the darker ashier brown only on the outside 1/3 section of your lower lash line and blend inwards into the medium brown shadow. Use the creamy beige shadow on the higher points of your brow bone for a highlighted effect.

Eye Shadow Application For Rounded Effect:

Again start with the medium warm brown shadow and apply it all over your lids blended up to the socket. Add more and blend in the same way for more intensity. With the darker ashier brown apply it all along your lash line and up on to the lids without going out of your natural lid space, stopping slightly below the socket bone and blend it to remove any harsh lines. Doing so will impart depth to the lids while letting the medium brown shadow still showing through in your socket bone. Apply the medium warmer brown shadow all along your lower lash line and blend. Apply the darker ashier brown closer to your lower lash liner and blend slightly downwards into the warmer medium brown for a seamless gradient. Apply the creamy beige highlight on the higher points of your brow bone for a highlighted effect.

This method of application can be adapted with any type of shadows you want to use. Though both methods of application give you a smokey eye, you may notice that the eye shadow application that results in a rounded shape may look slightly smokier than the other but that just depends on perspective and certainly does not mean you cannot achieve a fierce smokey eye with the elongated effect, you most definitely can. Note, however, I have explained both methods of application while staying within the natural space of your eye lids and socket bones. Blending the shadows up and out for a more cat eye or extended eye shape is something you would do after this basic application.

If you have any more questions regarding this post feel free to type them in the comments under and I will answer to the best of my knowledge.

Love,

Fizzah

Disclaimer: This is a personal blog edited by its owners and the opinions expressed here belong solely to its owner's. For questions and queries please email at thepoutpainter@gmail.com

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Skin Prep - What Goes Under Your Foundation?

Visit my Instagram @thepoutpainters for details on this look

Those who know me know I am a huge Kevin James Bennett fan and that guy is big on complexion, it's his niche and he is brilliant at it. After some time of reading his advice, posts and listening to him online wherever I could here is what I have gathered from him on skin prep - what goes under your foundation.

He is not a believer of 500 layers of skin prep under your foundation. He likes to keep things simple and straightforward. Here is what he recommends you do:

1. Cleansing: Use facial cleansing wipes and not baby wipes, or micellar water for this step. He recommends Bioderma, Garnier, Neutrogena.

2. Exfoliation: Get rid of any dry flaky skin with exfoliation. Do not use scrubs those are really harsh on skin. Use acid exfoliators, AHA or BHA ones. Pixi Glow Tonic is one of his favourites.

3. Hydration: Here he does not refer to emollient moisturisers but hydrating products. Serums are his favourite for this step especially Hyaluronic acid based serums.

If you have oilier skin that is all you may need if you do not have any visible texture to deal with. Your next step would be foundation.

If you have texture to deal with, you may want to add a thin layer of a silicone based primer to fill in lines and pores and then go in with the foundation.

If you have drier or combination skin you may need to add an emollient moisturiser on top of it. Facial oils are great for this step and he loves using them. Smashbox Primer Oil is one of his favourites because it gets absorbed into the skin really well. One of our locally available facial oils that I personally love is Aura Craft's Revive Oil. Your next step would be foundation application.

P.S. As KJB also says, this is a temporary skin fix before makeup application and does not replace your skincare regime. For a skincare routine you will have to do some study, research and may as well consult a dermatologist. This is purely for makeup application.

How do you prepare your skin before makeup application?

Love,

Fizzah

Disclaimer: I do not hold any rights whatsoever to the information mentioned in this post. For questions and queries please email at thepoutpainter@gmail.com

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No More Streaky Highlight With This Technique!

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I know people think my taste in makeup leans more towards 'natural' and I hate a strong highlight, or a strong eye paired with a strong lip. None of which is actually true. I love all of this together but I like to think about makeup logically, through 'rules' and go about the application following the 'rules'.

So I have a very interesting logical explanation behind why the streaky cheek highlight looks super unnatural, unflattering and is not my cup of tea and God willing, never will be.

The below mentioned technique may sound very theoretical but I think it works.

You all know our cheeks are not a flat surface and to amplify their dimensions, we use contour and highlight and colour to bring the cheek area out. And the best way to demonstrate how a 'flat' cheek area can be made to look more 3D, more spherical is to use the image of a circle (like Jordan Liberty did too in one of his videos). But to change that circle into a sphere you have to add shade and light.

Now, have you guys ever observed a sphere shining under light? The highlight is never uniform all over. It has a center of intensity that blends out and bleeds into the shade. And that shade too has a center of intensity farthest from that of highlight's and it's intensity also blends out and merges into the light somewhere in the middle of the sphere giving it that perfect spherical shape.

Now, how can you achieve that look on your cheeks?

By layering your highlight.

Instead of putting one streak of intense highlight all across your cheekbones, put one thin layer and blend it out, put another layer on top but do not blend out the top layer as much as you did the one under it. At the end either use that blinding highlight you love or the same you layered, and put the last layer on the very highest point of the cheekbones and diffuse it out with the smallest of the brushes you have or your finger.

Alternatively, if you have ever done shading while sketching you'll know how you can achieve the same effect by moving your brush/ hands further away from the point of intensity bit by bit and lifting pressure as you go.

Your cheekbones will catch light on all the places that have the blended highlight but will catch it the most on that highest point giving the impression of perfectly plumped, highlighted cheeks.

Sounds like a lot of work in theory but again it's all about the attention to detail and those little rules that actually make all the difference in your makeup.

P.S. The same technique and logic can be applied to your contour. The only difference being highlight is blended down, the contour is blended up.

Love,

Fizzah

Disclaimer: This is a personal blog edited by its owners and the opinions expressed here belong solely to its owner's. For questions and queries please email at thepoutpainter@gmail.com

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