Makeup Basics: Full Coverage but Natural Makeup With a Natural Glow

To me, skincare is about becoming comfortable with the skin I’m in. I have naturally terrible skin that breaks out a lot. In recent years I’ve kept this under control with good health, eating well, and skin care. I clean and exfoliate religiously without damaging my skin, and I take care of myself.

That said, I still have tons of old acne scars to cover up, as well as some occasional patchy redness. With my incredibly oily skin, this makes for very difficult make up application that will last through the day. Even though I have really incredibly troubled skin, I can look like the above picture without any touch up if I apply my make up right!

Here I will go through with you, step by step, with product recommendations, how to achieve the perfect daily base make up. This is basically a complete face tutorial, minus eyes and lips.

Preparatory Work

Make sure to clean your face and moisturize, even in the summer. If you have flaky patches, exfoliate before you moisturize. I use a simple gel moisturizer at night by Clinique (Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel, $13 – $24.50), and a nice oil-free moisturizer in the day with SPF by Benefit (Triple Performing Facial Emulsion SPF 15 PA++, $28).

If you are going to be out at all in the day time, even for five minutes, it’s important to use sunblock. The sun is one of the greatest enemies of our skin! On days when I need extra help in sun protection other than what I already have in my daily routine, I like Kiehl’s Super Fluid UV Defense SPF 50+ ($34-$56).

Priming your skin

Priming your skin is incredibly important. I use Make Up For Ever’s All Mat, which keeps my foundation on all day and keeps my oiliness to a minimum. It also fills in lines and rough spots and makes my skin smooth, and helps my make up slide on. Another good option is the Smashbox range of primers.

Wait a few minutes to dry. I like to start on my eye make up while I wait.

Concealer

Apply concealer with your fingers or with a brush where needed. I use a stick concealer by Urban Decay (from their 24/7 pencil line, $19), and I blend it in lightly with the same sponge I used for foundation. I find this product great for covering blemishes but not so great for under eye concealing. I also like YSL’s highlighting pens at this point for under eye brightening. I like to use my waterproof concealer under my foundation and directly on my primed skin because to me, it sticks better that way and lasts all day. If it moves around a little after you apply your foundation, you can always touch it up before setting with powder.

Foundation

I use Chanel’s Mat Lumiere Long Lasting Luminous Matte Fluid Makeup SPF 15. It’s pricy at $54 per 1.7 fl oz bottle, but it’s totally worth it. It’s the most natural looking oil control make up I’ve ever used and lasts all day.

I smooth my foundation on with my fingers, and blend it in with a sponge or a brush. I like Sonia Kashuk’s Beauty Blender knockoff for this. You can use any sponge, slightly dampened with water or MAC Fix+. This helps your make up blend into your skin better, making it look more natural and last longer. If you opt to use a brush, I suggest trying a  small stippling brush like MAC’s 188.

Set With Powder

I like to set my make up with the Make Up For Ever HD powder, or if I need it to stay particularly long, their Duo Mat Powder Foundation. This helps your make up stay all day!

Contour

I don’t do this daily since I have very defined cheekbones already, but for special occasions, I like to contour under my cheekbones (in the hollow of my cheeks) lightly with MAC blush in Harmony (it’s a matte, mid-tone brown that is just a few shades darker than my skin, $14.50), and around the frame of my face. This helps also to blend the make up into the hairline, since I tan naturally more around the edges of my face and it looks awkward against my hairline when I put foundation on. Another nice, natural looking option is NARS Laguna ($33).

For this I have no other brush than MAC 168. It is amazing and fluffy and perfectly angled and sized.

Blush

Blush is so important. On light summer days, I like to use Bobbi Brown’s Illuminating Bronzer in Maui or Antigua (my review here), both light pink bronzing shades, applied with the Bobbi Brown bronzer brush (way better than the one they had before–it’s new to 2010, I believe) for a perfect glow. First, I apply with a heavier hand on my cheeks, blending back towards my temples, and then use what’s remaining on the brush to apply all over my face. For a pop of color, I sometimes add one of the two Dior Bronze de Harmonie blushes just on the apples of my cheek and blended very slightly back.

All of the above generally takes me less than 8 minutes (+ wait time between steps after cream products, about 15 minutes total).

“Just Chill” make up break down.

This is a make up info post for the outfit I posted on Thursday titled “I promise we will just chill.. just chill.” It was a really fun look to do, and the cheeks/lips combo was somewhat unusual for me.

I generally love a really pink, cool-toned cheek, but on this occasion, because I was wearing such a pretty, beige/yellow toned maxi dress, extremely pretty, extremely romantic, but extremely warm, with all these bronzy, brown, warm-toned autumn colors, I decided to try to work with warmer colors, with a splash of frostiness.

I wear brown smokey eyes pretty often, so this is nothing new. However, I went with a peachy, apricotty cheek, created with a mix of Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick (Apricot), Dior Harmonie Blush (Coral Riviera), and Nars Orgasm. Also, for an extra glow and to diffuse light on imperfections, I blended everything together all over the face after everything (but before mascara!) with Guerlain Meteorites in Teint Beige. They are seriously my HG setting powder. I set my foundation with something else (a generic translucent-ish powder), but the Meteorites are seriously where the magic happens. It blends together everything so wonderfully and adds a subtle glow to my skin that is just right but never sparkly, resulting in the beautiful, subtle, and never over the top glow that you see on my nose, chin area, and forehead (the cheeks are the help of the Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick). Seriously my Holy Grail product for the face.

I hope you will enjoy the full, super-detailed break down below as well as some more photos, all below the jump:

Chanel Joues Contraste blush in Rose Petale.

The good ladies at Spektra.net convinced me about two months ago to buy this blush… and I’ve been wearing it non-stop since then.

What is this mystical blush?

According to Chanel,

he touch of colour and radiance.

Offers effects from very natural to very sophisticated. Used as a simple touch of colour, it gives your complexion a healthy glow. As a professional tool, it shapes and models your face (cheekbones, browbones, forehead, chin, along the nose).

Manufactured by a process exclusive to CHANEL, the compact and silky texture of JOUES CONTRASTE gives easy application and subtle blending. The brush is made of natural hair.

Highlighting your cheekbones enhances the youthful appearance of your face. For the eye zone, choose a satiny tone to soften and rejuvenate this area.

By the way, I’d like to add that mine is the US version–not the baked European version found elsewhere in the world!

Rose Petale in the pan.

In the pan, it is a sparkly neutral pink. On my cheeks, it leans slightly warm, but is a generally neutral lovely rose flush. It has just the most subtle sheen (much less than seen in the pan). It’s a great every-day blush. It’s very sheer to begin with but can quickly be built up to intense color. What I mean to say is.. it’s really pigmented, of course, but the powder is so soft that it’s not hard to just pick up a tiny bit and do a subtle look with it.

I do feel like for the $42 you pay, part of it is for the whole Chanel appeal—you know, the classic Chanel packaging, the sleek black casing with the double C logo.. but nevertheless it’s a beautifully made product and it’s worth the price to me. I wear it a ton and it’s still pretty dome shaped after 2 months, so count me impressed. It’s wearing down much slower than my Dior blushes, that’s for sure.The powder is super soft and it blends really, really, really easily and I love everything about it—the color, the packaging, the pigmentation, the texture… I even love the rose scent, which may be a concern for those of you who dislike scented cosmetics or are allergic. Other than that though…

I wholeheartedly recommend this product, as it’s one of the best blushes I’ve ever used. I truly believe it is a universal color!

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Click the jump for a photo of it on the cheek as well as an arm swatch:

Gray daytime look with Guerlain Rouge G lips.

Products used:

Eyes:
- Benefit Creaseless Shadow in Skinny Jeans
- MAC Smoke & Diamonds
-Stila eyeshadow in Kitten
- Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliner Pencil in Oil Slick
- MAC Feline
- Dior DiorShow Iconic Extreme Mascara

Cheeks:
- Guerlain Light Terracotta Summer Bronzing Powder 02 Brunette
- Chanel Jous Contraste Blush in Rose Petale

Lips:
- Guerlain Rouge G lipstick in Gaia

Hit the jump for full face pics.