Good morning, my friend. How are you doing? I hope you’re hanging in there…
So, you know me pretty well, and I think that you know that my whole makeup agenda in life is to do my skin — my foundation, concealer, powder, etc. — and have it look like I’m not wearing any makeup at all, otherwise known as “no-makeup makeup.”
One trick I use is to use very little product (and in some cases, no products) on strategic areas of my face, namely on the bridge of my nose and my upper cheeks.
I have some freckles there and a small beauty mark next to my mouth, and I feel that freckles and beauty marks tend to make us look more youthful, so I try not to cover all of mine. Also, skin isn’t naturally perfect. Most people do have some freckles and pigmentation and textured areas somewhere, and when you allow some of those “imperfect” (air quotes) areas to peek through, your coverage looks more natural.
Try this
Apply your foundation and concealer strategically. Use the least amount of product possible on your strategic areas. Sometimes I leave mine completely foundation- and concealer-free (and, if that’s the case, sometimes I’ll just use primer and maybe a little powder on those areas).
Then, blend the crap out of those edges!
Now, if you’re going to do this, it really, really helps to pay close attention to your blending; otherwise, it can look like you just forgot to put foundation or concealer on those areas. So it really helps to use something like a wet beautyblender on the edges to seamlessly blend them into your skin.
When the magnifying mirror is your friend (for once)
Even though I’m not a huge fan of magnifying mirrors because I think they give people (especially me) a complex by exaggerating every fine line, blemish and flake, when you’re trying to get that hyper-blended look, they’re helpful. With them you can really see where your blending edges stop and start.
Be picky and choosy
Obviously, you don’t have to leave every freckle hanging out. Makeup goddess Lisa Eldridge suggests using a very thin, pointed eyeliner brush loaded with your concealer, and just dotting it on the freckles and marks you want to cover. That way, you can pick and choose which areas you want to show, and which ones you want to conceal. I do this all the time (thank you, Lisa!) for the spots on my upper cheekbones.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. TGI-ALMOST SATURDAY!!!
Great tip Karen, and this photo of you is gorgeous! I like to leave my freckles bare a lot of the time, but I have problems with redness around the center of my face so sometimes I’ll just blend a little BB cream in the center of my face to help combat the redness while still being pretty sheer coverage.
Thanks, Ashleigh! That’s a great idea to use BB cream on those parts; I’m going to try that next! You know I’m all about product cocktail-ing.
How are you and the pup doing? Good I hope!
Me too! 🙂 I actually just ordered the It Cosmetics CC cream to try out, I hope I love it.
He’s been better, he has a biopsy scheduled soon. Hopefully everything goes alright, the vet doesn’t think it’s cancer but we’ve tried treating every other avenue so she wants to make sure, and while they’re taking tissue samples they will also take some to check for rare diseases and infections, so fingers crossed we can figure out what’s wrong!
These are great tips! I have beauty marks and those do get covered up but they are in areas I need to cover like my cheese because I have redness.
I’m a BB girl so my coverage is pretty sheer but I only use primer in large-pore areas (around my nose). I’m with you on TGI almost Saturday. It has not been a good week and I’m very eager for it to be over. HAHA! I hope you have a fab weekend!!
Political crisis and I’m looking at makeup….lol!
I love this idea. I often gaze at my nose and wonder if I really need foundation all over it. I’m going to try it for sure.
Have you done any posts on hair removal products? I’ve been using a depilatory I get at Sally on my upper lip for years now. But, now that I’m solidly in my mid-40’s, I’m getting a crazy amount of chin hair. I guess I will start waxing it but that’s so painful!
I’ve been doing a version of this lately where I’ll skip undereye concealer and just use my foundation on that area. A little darkness peeks through but, like you said, it makes everything look more real. I also go back in and take the foundation off my beauty mark.
I’m also a fan of using two different foundations/tinted moisturizers/BB creams with varying coverages on different parts of the face. I think other commenters have mentioned that trick! Sometimes I’ll use tinted moisturizer all over and then a thin layer of foundation where I have redness.
I’m really freckly, and I like those to be visible, so I always do really minimal base. I’ve been doing a tinted moisturizer or sheer tint on the under eyes, nose creases, chin, anywhere with a little redness, and then add some concealer for undereyes and any blemishes. I’ve got most of the redness on my skin under control with skincare, luckily, and don’t have many blemishes as long as I follow my routine and keep my hands off my skin!
I want to try to find a concealer that matches my skin a bit better, because a lot of mine don’t really work unless I’m wearing tinted moisturizer or foundation. I’m kind of broke right now, but I want to go swatch the new Nars Soft Matte concealer to see if it would fit the bill.
Oh yes, I definitely have a love-hate relationship with my magnifying mirror… But in this instance it really does help to double check everything from up close. Very very very up close… 😉