1) Good make-up brushes.
These DO NOT have to cost the earth. Mine were about £20, are goat hair, and are just wonderful. Really nice quality, work perfectly for all I need them for. Here's a picture of mine for you. Note, it does not get progressively smaller... I just photographed it from a rubbish angle!
You can tell which ones I don't use, because they're still wrapped in plastic.
This set is perfect for me, it didn't cost the earth and is great quality. The brand is XinYiZhui and you can sometimes find their stuff on eBay. I actually helped Havana find a similar set, cept hers is gold and has a huuuuge bronzing brush that mine doesn't have. You can look around on eBay and generally find a great deal on brushes, but PLEASE shop around. MAC brushes are extortionate and I will not pay the amount they charge for them. Maybe their brushes are OMG AWESOME but mine work great, so I'm not phased.
2) A decent eyeshadow pallette.
This is something that is super easy to get for a very good price. I have the fantastic 120 palette from eBay that you'll find lots of people on YouTube using. The seller I bought mine from is Jolieeeee, but there are plenty of sellers selling the exact same products. These are very highly pigmented and a fantastic price, you'll never be lost for a colour again. This has just about every colour you could want and is a great way to get started without having to debate which colours you want. You can have them all! :)
These DO NOT have to cost the earth. Mine were about £20, are goat hair, and are just wonderful. Really nice quality, work perfectly for all I need them for. Here's a picture of mine for you. Note, it does not get progressively smaller... I just photographed it from a rubbish angle!
You can tell which ones I don't use, because they're still wrapped in plastic.
This set is perfect for me, it didn't cost the earth and is great quality. The brand is XinYiZhui and you can sometimes find their stuff on eBay. I actually helped Havana find a similar set, cept hers is gold and has a huuuuge bronzing brush that mine doesn't have. You can look around on eBay and generally find a great deal on brushes, but PLEASE shop around. MAC brushes are extortionate and I will not pay the amount they charge for them. Maybe their brushes are OMG AWESOME but mine work great, so I'm not phased.
2) A decent eyeshadow pallette.
This is something that is super easy to get for a very good price. I have the fantastic 120 palette from eBay that you'll find lots of people on YouTube using. The seller I bought mine from is Jolieeeee, but there are plenty of sellers selling the exact same products. These are very highly pigmented and a fantastic price, you'll never be lost for a colour again. This has just about every colour you could want and is a great way to get started without having to debate which colours you want. You can have them all! :)
Please remember that these are coming from Hong Kong so I cannot vouch for the ingredients and they might not be a great idea of you have sensitive skin. My skin is sensitive and has always been fine with them, but your mileage may vary.
3) A good make-up mirror.
Mine is a cheap one from Ikea and I love it. One side is normal, one magnified, and it only cost a couple of quid!
Find it here. For the price, you really can't complain!
4) Eye primer.
You REALLY do need this if you want the shadow to stick to your eye. I personally use Beige-ing Shadestick by Mac, but you could also use one of their paint pots in the colour of your choice, generally find something close to your skin tone. This WILL help the eye make-up stick. Alternatives are Urban Decay Primer Potion or Too Faced Shadow Insurance. You just have to find out which one will work best FOR YOU.
5) Mascara.
This, again, does not have to cost the earth and will be a matter of personal choice. I use Mac Plushlash, but your milage may vary. Please look at the price... it is NOT that expensive. You'd pay between £5 and £8 for a drugstore mascara anyway... this stuff works better and doesn't clump. It's worth the extra few quid, in my opinion.
6) Eyeliner.
You will have to decide what kind of liner you prefer for this. I can recommend MAC Fluidline (though I have none, boohoo!) as it glides on really smoothly. But a good eye pencil will go a long way and allow you to line under your eye aswell as over it. NEVER use liquid liner under your eyes. Just don't. It'll run all over the place! I use black gel liner from this seller and it's fantastic, almost as good as MAC fluidline I'd say. It's fantastic and so cheap!
7) A versatile lip colour.
This, again, is a matter of personal choice. Obviously, I like MAC products for this. You can decide what you like best... a nude tone, gloss, a nice pink or brown. Choose something you could wear with anything, you want this colour to be versatile so you can get by with just the one lipstick till you can afford more. You could also go for a lip palette like the eyeshadow one. There will be plenty on Ebay, or from the same seller as I linked on the eyeshadow and eyeliner. This is a bargain because for the price of one MAC lipstick you could get 36 colours in a palette. The only downside is it's hard to take it with you to do touch-ups.
8) Blusher.
Once again, get a palette! Contour, highlight and blush is really important, IMO, or you just end up one colour all over from your foundation. NOT what you want. Your face is not naturally all one shade, you don't want to look that way. You want to add in the shadows and highlights to make it look natural. I really recommend the 6 colour contour palette as it allows you to contour, blush and highlight all from one palette. I use mine all the time and love it so much. The same seller also has blush palettes with other blush colours, as you might want more variety.
9) Foundation and powder.
This is a personal choice again, I'm afraid. I personally use Bare Minerals in Fairly Light. Now, the plus of this is I can use the Warmth that comes with it as my contour when I do my blush. Handy, eh? My powder is their Mineral Veil. If you don't know what your skin tone is then please, don't just guess. Go to a department store and ask at one of the make-up stands what they recommend you use. MAC have told me not to use foundation, just to blend concealer with their Strobe Liquid. Unfortunately that's expensive and doesn't cover my acne as well as the Bare Minerals stuff does.
NOTE ON FOUNDATION: A good foundation WILL NOT look like you're wearing make-up. Anyone who has ever commented that I have beautiful skin... THAT is the result I wanted. It is not my skin, it is fantastic make-up that makes me LOOK like I have beautiful skin. If you look like you're wearing foundation... ur doin it rong. You want it to look natural, not "I spent an hour today applying this shit to my face with a trowel."
Aaaaand I think that's about it. I kind of went in my personal order of importance, but you can decide what your priority is. Try not to skip things like primer... they'll make your eyeshadow look better and last longer!
Eyeshadows Vs Pigments:
Now, lots of people are scared of pigments. They come in quite a large pot, lots of product in it and they think "I will never use this up." But... you pay £9 for a MAC eyeshadow and £14 for a pigment... the pigment WILL last longer and be more versatile. You can use it on your eyes, your lips, to highlight and contour, as body shimmer, in your hair, on your nails. The only problem is that they can run all down your face... the way to fix this is to lightly tap off the brush on the edge of the pot, so that you tap off any excess and won't get it all falling down your cheeks. If you're going to use a pigment you absolutely must use a primer to help it adhere to the skin better.
Order of application:
Now, I'm going to tell you a secret. I apply my eye makeup before ANYTHING else. Yep... guess why? Because that way I can spill eyeshadow and pigment ALL over my cheeks and it doesn't matter. I can wipe it away, without fear of removing half of my foundation with it! Then I do my foundation and concealer (Bare Minerals foundation is foundation and concealer in one), contour, blush, highlight and then powder. After that I do my lips. I find this much easier than constantly worrying that I'm going to ruin my foundation with my eyeshadow fall-out.
I've got my essentials, what next?
Well now, it's all up to you! You can decide what your priority is... lip colours, eye colours... you could get some stuff to define your brows, collect more mascaras. Or... just stick with the essentials. It's all up to you!
If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask. I love helping out and I'm really enjoying working with make-up. It's something I've become pretty passionate about.
Again... please please feel free to ask any questions. Havana and I are happy to help. ^.^
3) A good make-up mirror.
Mine is a cheap one from Ikea and I love it. One side is normal, one magnified, and it only cost a couple of quid!
Find it here. For the price, you really can't complain!
4) Eye primer.
You REALLY do need this if you want the shadow to stick to your eye. I personally use Beige-ing Shadestick by Mac, but you could also use one of their paint pots in the colour of your choice, generally find something close to your skin tone. This WILL help the eye make-up stick. Alternatives are Urban Decay Primer Potion or Too Faced Shadow Insurance. You just have to find out which one will work best FOR YOU.
5) Mascara.
This, again, does not have to cost the earth and will be a matter of personal choice. I use Mac Plushlash, but your milage may vary. Please look at the price... it is NOT that expensive. You'd pay between £5 and £8 for a drugstore mascara anyway... this stuff works better and doesn't clump. It's worth the extra few quid, in my opinion.
6) Eyeliner.
You will have to decide what kind of liner you prefer for this. I can recommend MAC Fluidline (though I have none, boohoo!) as it glides on really smoothly. But a good eye pencil will go a long way and allow you to line under your eye aswell as over it. NEVER use liquid liner under your eyes. Just don't. It'll run all over the place! I use black gel liner from this seller and it's fantastic, almost as good as MAC fluidline I'd say. It's fantastic and so cheap!
7) A versatile lip colour.
This, again, is a matter of personal choice. Obviously, I like MAC products for this. You can decide what you like best... a nude tone, gloss, a nice pink or brown. Choose something you could wear with anything, you want this colour to be versatile so you can get by with just the one lipstick till you can afford more. You could also go for a lip palette like the eyeshadow one. There will be plenty on Ebay, or from the same seller as I linked on the eyeshadow and eyeliner. This is a bargain because for the price of one MAC lipstick you could get 36 colours in a palette. The only downside is it's hard to take it with you to do touch-ups.
8) Blusher.
Once again, get a palette! Contour, highlight and blush is really important, IMO, or you just end up one colour all over from your foundation. NOT what you want. Your face is not naturally all one shade, you don't want to look that way. You want to add in the shadows and highlights to make it look natural. I really recommend the 6 colour contour palette as it allows you to contour, blush and highlight all from one palette. I use mine all the time and love it so much. The same seller also has blush palettes with other blush colours, as you might want more variety.
9) Foundation and powder.
This is a personal choice again, I'm afraid. I personally use Bare Minerals in Fairly Light. Now, the plus of this is I can use the Warmth that comes with it as my contour when I do my blush. Handy, eh? My powder is their Mineral Veil. If you don't know what your skin tone is then please, don't just guess. Go to a department store and ask at one of the make-up stands what they recommend you use. MAC have told me not to use foundation, just to blend concealer with their Strobe Liquid. Unfortunately that's expensive and doesn't cover my acne as well as the Bare Minerals stuff does.
NOTE ON FOUNDATION: A good foundation WILL NOT look like you're wearing make-up. Anyone who has ever commented that I have beautiful skin... THAT is the result I wanted. It is not my skin, it is fantastic make-up that makes me LOOK like I have beautiful skin. If you look like you're wearing foundation... ur doin it rong. You want it to look natural, not "I spent an hour today applying this shit to my face with a trowel."
Aaaaand I think that's about it. I kind of went in my personal order of importance, but you can decide what your priority is. Try not to skip things like primer... they'll make your eyeshadow look better and last longer!
Eyeshadows Vs Pigments:
Now, lots of people are scared of pigments. They come in quite a large pot, lots of product in it and they think "I will never use this up." But... you pay £9 for a MAC eyeshadow and £14 for a pigment... the pigment WILL last longer and be more versatile. You can use it on your eyes, your lips, to highlight and contour, as body shimmer, in your hair, on your nails. The only problem is that they can run all down your face... the way to fix this is to lightly tap off the brush on the edge of the pot, so that you tap off any excess and won't get it all falling down your cheeks. If you're going to use a pigment you absolutely must use a primer to help it adhere to the skin better.
Order of application:
Now, I'm going to tell you a secret. I apply my eye makeup before ANYTHING else. Yep... guess why? Because that way I can spill eyeshadow and pigment ALL over my cheeks and it doesn't matter. I can wipe it away, without fear of removing half of my foundation with it! Then I do my foundation and concealer (Bare Minerals foundation is foundation and concealer in one), contour, blush, highlight and then powder. After that I do my lips. I find this much easier than constantly worrying that I'm going to ruin my foundation with my eyeshadow fall-out.
I've got my essentials, what next?
Well now, it's all up to you! You can decide what your priority is... lip colours, eye colours... you could get some stuff to define your brows, collect more mascaras. Or... just stick with the essentials. It's all up to you!
If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask. I love helping out and I'm really enjoying working with make-up. It's something I've become pretty passionate about.
Again... please please feel free to ask any questions. Havana and I are happy to help. ^.^
One day, I too will have one of these kits! Methinks this is a good Christmas present for Amaia :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for all the tips and advices! You really introduced me to the make-up world!!
ReplyDeleteBest,
CS