My Two Best Makeup Tips

Share it Please

Tweet

Beauty tips come in a range of sizes and shapes. Some are temporary, a learning tool until you are able to master a technique and others manage to make their way into your regular routine.

I wear very simple makeup, I generally just have some mascara, maybe a little eyeshadow, and a lip balm or lipstick. That means there aren't too many tips and tricks that make in to my regular routine. There are plenty of great ideas coming from today's experts, and if you want to do something a little more complicated than me, they are definitely worth listening too. However, over the last couple years, there are only two tricks that I have stuck with.

Now to clarify, there are other tips I follow when creating a look for a night out on the town, but I'm talking about tips I use for my everyday looks.

Luscious Lips

When you put on lipstick, especially a mat lipstick, is there anything worse than dry, flaky lips? I think not.

I have learned a fairly fast and easy fix. It isn't one you want to do everyday, but you shouldn't have to. To do this you will need three common household items: a tooth brush, Vaseline, and lip balm. First take your tooth brush, get it wet, and gently brush each lip for 20 seconds. This works as an exfoliate and removes all the icky dead skin. Your new lips will soft, supple, and tender. To give them some needed TLC put one layer of lip balm on and then a coat of Vaseline over the top. Leave on for a minimum of 10 minutes. Of course, the longer you can leave it on, the better. I like to do this right before bed. By the time I wake up in the morning all the moisture has been absorbed into my lips. Of course, you could do this in the morning and leave it on while you get dressed and do your hair, then wipe it off and apply lipstick. Because of the exfoliating aspect of this, you should limit this to once a week. I also like to put Burt's Bees on right before bed every night to keep my lips nice in between times.

Elegant Eyes

This is a new tip for me, but I don't think it is new to the makeup community in general. Does your mascara clump? Other than the basics of lash curling, etc, there is one other counter-intuitive action you can do. Take your wand out of the tube and wipe it off. We aren't doing a vigorous cleaning, but use whatever clean cloth or paper product you want (I just use tissue) and just gently wipe the wand's sides and tip off. I just go over it once. Then use the remaining formula and apply to the eyelashes on one eye. Repeat for your second eye.

For me this is really counter-intuitive because I feel like there won't be enough left on the wand and I don't want to waste any formula. Honestly, though, those tubes go bad and I have never, ever used one up by the time I'm supposed to throw it away. Unless you are just buying a bad mascara, the reason it clumps is because there is simply too much formula on your wand. Wiping it off helps your lashes stay separated and gives them the right kind of volume. If loosing the formula is still bugging you, think of it as a decision of either wasting a little bit of formula, but allowing what you do use to work its magic versus wasting all of it by creating clumpy, bad looking lashes all the time. I'd rather have a product that works.