Make-Up Tips and Ideas: Be Creative, Be More You.

Make an Artist of Yourself: Exciting Make-Up and Hair Techniques for Spicing Up Your Look

Even the most 'natural' of us spend so much time on beautifying ourselves, why not add some excitement?

1. Add Some Colour

Mermaid Eyes

Best Suited To: Darker toned skin/olive skin (you can change the colours to pastels if you have paler skin). Make sure the colours match or contrast well with your outfit.

Products Used: Max factor 'creme puff' pressed translucent powder, Maybelline '24hr colour tattoo' (purple), Bodyshop metallics (aqua & gold). Rimmell Lash Builder mascara.

How: Prep eye area for blending and adhesion - remove excess moisture/grease with a babywipe and prep with translucent powder.Contrast metallic violet and aqua colours. Dab the violet brightly on the outer corners of the upper lids. Blend upwards to outer browbone, add a slightly pinker tone as you blend. Dab aqua under outer edge of lower lashline. Highlight browbone directly under eyebrow with a pale gold. Add black or dark mauve eyeliner to upper and lower lashlines. Add black mascara.

Contrast Eyeshadow Colours

You can add great va va voom to your look by contrasting colours. Every colour that exists has an opposite counterpart (google 'the colour star' for an image of this), but basically you can use opposite colours to create contrast. Examples could be blue and orange, or green and pink. Admittedly these combinations sound ghastly, but with some careful application (bearing in mind with this sort of technique less is more), you can achieve a look that pops! 

You can also make your eye colour pop, or stand out by contrasting it with an eyeshadow, but subtly. Dark brown eyes contrast well with deep, dark aqua colours, blue eyes contrast well with oranges or warm pinks, and green or hazel eyes contrast well with lilacs and purples generally. The colour should compliment your eyes though - it shouldn't clash nastily.

2. Elongate & Add Shape

Egyptian Eyes

Best Suited To: Any skin/eye colour or tone.

Products Used: Max factor 'creme puff' pressed translucent powder, Bourjois colour intense eyeshadow (brown), black kohl eyeliner from Natural Collections (non-waterproof), Maybelline 'Scandaleyes' cat-like mascara.

How To: Prep eye area for blending and adhesion - remove excess moisture/grease with a babywipe and prep with translucent powder.Line the inner rims of the eyes with black non-waterproof eyeliner. Use mahogany or dark brown eyeshadow to line the lower lash-lines - sweep upwards towards the outer ends of the eyebrows. With the same eye shadow, line the upper lash lines and the outer sides of the eyelid, blending and fading towards the inner eyelid. Ensure the colour does not 'half' the eye. Add a bronze eyeshadow to the inner eyelids and inner halves of lower lashlines. Blend with the brown. Add mascara, sweeping lashes up and outwards for a cat-like effect.

Grecian Eyes

Best Suited To: Larger eyes. Any skin tone, any eye colour, although with dark eyes this look can be especially intense.

Products Used: Max factor 'creme puff' pressed translucent powder, bodyshop simple black eyeshadow, black kohl eyeliner from Natural Collections (non-waterproof), Benefit mascara.

How To: Prep eye area for blending and adhesion - remove excess moisture/grease with a babywipe and prep with translucent powder. Line the inner rims of the eyes with black non-waterproof eyeliner. Add black eyeliner to the lower lash line, carrying on in a straight line after the outer corner of the eye curves upwards. Add the liner the top lashline but only to the outer side of the eyelid in a straight line, avoiding the browbone. Add bright gold eyeshadow to inner lower lash line, and from the outer corner of the eye in a straight line in the middle of the black eyeliner. (Use pencil, liquid or gel eyeliner, depending on how sharp/intense you want this look to appear. You can even use black eyeshadow with a damp brush - I have used pencil and black eyeshadow for a more blended, subtle look).

3. Contour & Highlight

Shadows and highlights can be created with any number of products such as bronzer, shimmer, blusher and various powders. If it is shiny, shimmery or lighter than your skin it will highlight an area, making it stand out and look prominent. If it is darker than you skin tone it will create a contour or 'hollow' - making the area appear further away, concaved, or 'hollowed out.'

If you're creating a contour effect don't use any product more than two shades darker than your skin tone otherwise it will look severe and artificual, even blotchy.

Highlight cheekbones: 

Smile and apply the highlighter to the 'apples of the cheeks' (the rounded areas). Blend a little and ensure the product adds lightness or shimmer to the area desired.

Product Suggestion: Benefit's 'Girl Meets Pearl' highlighter - great for adding a dewy pearlised shimmer to highlight cheekbones and other areas such as browbone.

Contour cheeks:

For a chiseled look, or to slim down the look of your face, shade the areas beneath the cheekbones slightly. Apply subtly. You may need to experiment a little. Apply only around the area underneath the cheekbones (nowhere near nose or mouth).

Shade a double chin:

To minimise a double chin you can shade it as you would for the contour effect. Use a shade darker than you skin tone and blend. Add a little highlighter to the chin bone area to further add to the effect of the 'double chin' receding into the distance/shadows.

Text and Images Copyright © Lise Griffiths, 2012

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