Make-up lessons

1. Where to shade and highlight according to Kevin Aucion (genius!). I have made adjustments according to personal taste, but this picture is key to my happiness with my make-up routine.

2. me, no make-up

3. me, foundation only. I don't go all the way to the edges of my face, I use it only to even out red patches and/or cover blemished areas.

4. products I use regularly. There are three foundation colors, but I only use two - one for base, one for highlights, but the base changes depending on summer or winter skin tone.

5. me with regular make-up before the magic of highlight/shading -- nor eyebrow pencil, no inner eye-liner or fancy eye shadow tricks.

6. bronzer powder for shading. I prefer a liquid, but haven't found a new source since my banana boat instant bronze ran out (they only sell the self tanning version now :o( ).
7. I have exaggerated the amount so you can see where it goes. I do the sides of my nose, define my jaw line and blend down the neck, and I do the top of my forehead. The official version does sides of nose all the way up and over the eyes, but when I do that my eyes look too closely set. I also skip the cheeks part because it starts to look too made up (for me).

8. The highlight I do just like Kevin Aucion picture suggests. You can't see it on my forehead in this shot, but it's there. I use regular foundation make-up, but in a shade or two lighter than my regular base color. If you go too light, you will look like a dead person -- experiment. Sometimes for extra fun I add a bit of white shimmer eyeshadow on the top of the cheeks there (for going out and if I have summer color).

9. I also dot my lips then bend. Blending all of it is key. Think of the women with the foundation line -- you don't want any lines, so blend baby, blend.

10. My final trick is to flick a little water on my face and gently pat -- this helps things to not look too matte (too matte = more wrinkles and too drag queen-ish).

**special note -- I usually put blush on last so the highlight doesn't go on top of it. I just do the apple part of the cheek -- I don't drag it to the sides. I try to use creme blushes (creme everything when I can) as powder makes me look older and/or more made up.

also, a couple of final touches -- I do light shadow around the inner corners of my eyes, I do eyebrow pencil (again, blend or it looks stupid, but a little pencil fills in the color and brings out the thin outer edges a bit. last thing is sometimes I use a white liner pencil on the bottom inner lid. I line it, then wipe it off and it leaves enough behind to make the eyes pop (I've done that here -- you can see in the last photo. I've seen people leave it full white and it's a mistake, unless you want to look surprised all day.)

*** for more fun things to try check out the book Making Faces by Kevin Aucoin. Or google him and check out the website.