Faking a Clear Complexion & Contour

My skin hasn't been clear since the third grade. (Dear teenagers, anyone who tells you that you will grow out of your acne is probably lying.) 

I'm fighting a constant, losing battle against the acne invasion. People love to tell me it's probably caused by the fact that I wear makeup. I beg to differ. (This is your TMI warning. Don't say I didn't warn you.)

My acne is most certainly hormonal, as it follows a perfect cycle. I can predict, almost to the day, when I will wake up looking like I have small pox, and it definitely coincides with my period. I made this post on the up-swing, when my skin was especially clear. Still, I had a lot to cover. 

In addition to the acne, I have to cover acne scars, wrinkles, and serious dark circles under my eyes. These are my personal struggles with my face, along with the battle against unwanted facial hair (which we can discuss later), and my incredibly pale skin. I'm not saying I'm a hideous person, but I'm certainly not perfect. We've talked about contouring before, so I'm not going to go into serious detail about it today. (You can find the original post about contour on the old blog here.) 

Today's post is mostly about coverage. I love you so much, I even included two pictures of my face with absolutely no makeup whatsoever. This is the bravest thing I have ever done. 

Step 1 is always PRIMER. I can't say this enough: use primer! The finished product will be significantly different if you skip this step. 

I use femme couture mineral effects face primer, $9.99 at Sally Beauty Supply. (Try to excuse the pictures of my dirty makeup,lol)

Step 2: Circles under your eyes have a blue-green tint to them, so you counteract this with yellow. I use Palladio brand, also from Sally. It's about $5.99 and lasts absolutely forever. If you don't have under-eye circles, don't do this, as it will leave you looking jaundiced. Trust me on this one.

Tip: I have been using my homemade lip balm underneath the yellow, because it hydrates so well. With the vitamin E and almond oil in it, it keeps the wrinkles under control and lets the concealer glide on easier as well.

Step 3: Concealer. I am still searching for the perfect concealer, but this is my favorite for now. It's femme couture "get covered", applied with the eyeslipsface Concealer Brush.

I love this concealer because it's in a pot (thicker formula), and it provides a good, thick layer of coverage. I'm not in the market for a translucent concealer; I want to cover everything. 

Tip: I buy the second-lightest shade, which is lighter than my skin, so it also serves as a highlight. As you can see, it goes almost everywhere on my face, only excluding the places I put my bronzer. 

Blend this with your fingers or a beauty blender, I use this one from Target, $4.99. I refuse to believe that anyone needs a $40 beauty blender, no matter what anyone says.

As you can see, I'm starting to look like a human. 

But there is more war paint to come.

Step 4: Bronzer. I would normally never buy this, as it's a lot of money, but it came in my May ipsy Glam Bag, and I love it. When it runs out I'll be going back to my cheap bronzer, but until then, I prefer this Chocolate Soleil by Too Faced. 

(It's made with cocoa powder. I have yet to try this, but I saw a pin on Pinterest about making your own bronzer out of cocoa powder. Someone should try it and let me know what they think!)

I'll be posting about ipsy, but for now I'll just say I ADORE IT! It's only $10/month for 5 high-end products/month. You should sign up to get it too, with this link. :) 

(I get free makeup when 5 people sign up through my link.)

I use my blush brush and my Eyeshadow "C" Brush, both by eyeslipsface, for bronzer. The blush brush applies around my hair line and creates "cheekbones" on my cheeks. The eyeshadow brush is used to create the contour on my nose. 

So far all that's on my face is the concealer and bronzer, so the lines are harsh. That's done on purpose; the next step evens it all out.

Not gonna lie, that rogue eyebrow hair is driving me crazy.

Step 5: Foundation

I use Bare Minerals Matte foundation, and because I'm poor, I mix it with High Definition loose powder by eyeslipsface, to make it last longer. I apply this mixture with the angled blush brush from eyeslipsface.

Tip: If I'm going out at night, I will do foundation before bronzer, so my contour lines are a bit more pronounced. Day makeup calls for a smoother look, so foundation is further down the list. 

I need very little foundation after my concealer and bronzer have done all the leg work, so my foundation lasts several months.

These pictures aren't the best, but as you can see, I've eliminated the look of the current acne and the acne scars. The dark circles under my eyes still exist (they are basically just an unsurmountable force), but much better than they started out. 

That's it for the face. After I did this, I applied eye makeup, eyebrows, and lipstick You can find the tutorial for that here. But just so we're clear, I recommend doing your eye makeup before your face, in case you have excess eyeshadow land on your cheeks. 

Have fun experimenting, and leave me a comment pretty please!

Alternative Smokey Eye

If you don't have a large eyelid (or even if you do), this is a good alternative to the original smokey eye. It's the exact same process, but only covers the lid, leaving the upper half of your lid as highlight.

Smokey pallet by NYX - an $8 alternative to the $53 Naked pallet

I want to show you the way I do a smokey eye, and a few extra tips along the way about eyebrows and mascara. Try to bear with me, as this post required a lot of pictures. 

Oh, and I'm not sponsored, even though it sounds like it. I just really love eyeslipsface products, so I use a lot of them. :)

These are the four makeup brushes I use to do my eye makeup every day. 

The far left is a Sonia Kashuk brush I've had forever, which is good for applying mass amounts of color. The second to the left is e.l.f. essential defining eye brush, my all-time favorite brush. The third is the e.l.f. Studio line small angled brush, and the fourth is the e.l.f. Studio line contour brush. 

No, I'm not exaggerating. I use four makeup brushes just for my eyelids. There is no other way to achieve these precise looks, so if you've been attempting it with just one brush (or God forbid, that little spongey applicator that came with the pallet), you've found your first problem.

I'm going to show you Smokey by NYX and Sex Bomb by NYX. I got them for about $8 each and you can find them pretty much anywhere. 

I use these two pallets together, because I like two or three of the colors from each. You don't need both, you can do this look with either one of these pallets, but I use both, so that's what I show here.

STEP 1: Start with your absolute lightest color (for this I used the one that's almost white). Your lightest color always goes first, and it's always under your eyebrow (to create a highlight) and around the inner corners of your eyes. Pull the light color down under your eye, by your bottom lashes, to make them stand out a little too.

STEP 2: Next is your second-lightest color. Cover the lid with this color. 

STEP 3: The next darkest color makes a vague triangle around the outer edge and crease. (I prefer purple to blue, but if I had blue eyes, I'd probably choose blue.) If you have small eyelids, skip this step and move straight to step 4. 

STEP 4: This is the part where you start to feel like the Goth from high school. Trust me (and yourself). You have to apply too much to start with, but I promise it will be OK. We'll be blending soon. 

I use the Sex Bomb pallet for this, as I prefer the matte black color to the sparkly black in the Smokey pallet, but it's really whatever you like best. (Any pallet can follow this process, just go from lightest to darkest!)

Your darkest color goes in the crease and makes a triangle at the outer corner. Absolutely none of this color goes in the inner corner! Keep this color away from the light inner corner you already created, or you will look sunken in and dead. Anywhere you put the white, back in Step 1, this color does not go there.

STEP 5: Blend like crazy. You will lose a lot of the color during this process, which is why we put on too much to start with. You are going for smokey, not Cat Woman. 

(OK, maybe a little bit of Cat Woman.) 

After you blend, add a little of the cream color wherever your dark color ended up and you didn't want it. (Tip: by now my tissue is filthy... this process is messy. I usually don't do my foundation until after my eye makeup, but I didn't want to scare you guys!)

STEP 6: Eyeliner - I use e.l.f. eye brightening eyeliner ($1) for the bottom lid and e.l.f. liquid eyeliner ($1) for the top. 

STEP 7: Eyebrows and mascara

The picture below was taken to show you why I fill in my eyebrows. I have a lot of "how do you do your eyebrows?" comments, and I have to say, I don't do anything special. I pluck them every single day before I do my makeup, and I fill them in with e.l.f. eyebrow kit in Dark. My eyebrows are naturally black, but as I get older they are less full, and I find it makes a big difference to fill them in. (Try to ignore the eyebrow hair on the left which is currently on strike.)

As you know, my favorite mascara changes by the minute. (You already know I LOVE the 3D fiber lashes, but I don't use them every day.) For every day mascara I use Maybelline The Colossal Volum' Express: Cat Eyes.

I have two tubes of this because when I buy a new one, I hold onto the old one as long as I can stand it (and extend its life with this trick). The new one gives me the dramatic affect I'm ultimately going for, but the older one gives me the volume to build on. If the first coat of mascara is too new, it's too wet, and will just clump all ugly-like. First coat: older tube of mascara, second coat: new tube of mascara. Don't forget to curl your eyelashes before the mascara! If you do it after it makes the clumping much worse.

(If you find this look doesn't work well on you, try the alternate smokey eye, 

which you can find here.)

That's all I have for you. Thanks for reading!

Leave a comment, pretty please! 

And if you can share this post, that would be pretty sweet of you as well. :)