How to Apply Bright Makeup

Is your makeup kit bursting with products you like but can never wear because you're afraid of bright colors? Believe it or not, there are techniques you can use so your cosmetics don't go to waste.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Palette
• Spatula
• Clean makeup sponge
• Cotton swabs
• Eyeshadow blending brush
• Light porcelain eyeshadow
• Translucent powder
• Fluffy blush brush
• Flesh-tone lip liner
• Facial tissue
• Lip brush
• Lip powder
• Sponge-tip lip applicator

1. Prepare a palette, spatula, clean makeup sponge and cotton swabs to work with your usual tools. These are essential materials in taming brightness down in your products. Scrape minute amounts of the makeup you will be using onto your palette. Now you are in control of applying makeup in tiny increments, gradually layering as you please. With powders, tap off excess to avoid fallout and keep the application less opaque.

2. Use a blending brush on eyeshadow after you have pressed the color of your choice on from lash line to crease. This greatly mutes the color down to a more sheer wash. You may also dust a light porcelain shadow over your main color and blend to take the color intensity down a little bit. To add depth to eye makeup, blend a considerably deeper version of your original color into your crease. This also takes some of the shock away from an eye-makeup look that originally might have been too bright.

3. Tap excess blush away from your fluffy brush so you only put a little at a time on the apples of your cheeks. Buff the color into your skin one thin layer at a time. Step back to see if you need more or if the blush is still too bright. Lighten it up by fading away hard edges with a makeup sponge. Use gentle rubbing motions that don't drag on the skin. If the color still seems too intense, dip the brush into translucent powder and sweep it over the color to mute it.

4. 
    
   Example of lip powder

   Line and fill your lips in with a flesh tone lip liner instead of one that matches the bright lip gloss or lipstick you will be using. Apply a thin even coat of your lip gloss or lipstick of choice, beginning from the middle of both your top and bottom lips, spreading outwards. If the color is too shocking for your taste, position a facial tissue in between your lips and blot. Use a lip brush to spread the remaining color evenly and neatly over your lips. If you remain unhappy with the brightness of your lip product, press a small amount of lip powder on top of your lips using a sponge-tip lip applicator. The color of your lip powder should be a soft one that mutes your bright one underneath.

5. Improvise. Perhaps some of your items would look best as accents instead of as the featured colors of your makeup look. Light shimmery brights, for instance, in monitored amounts could make a great highlighter on browbones, tops of cheekbones, the center of your lips and inner corners of your eyes. Simply blend excess away or tone color down prior to application by blending with a lighter, softer one as part of a new concoction on your palette. Crushing colors and blending them together works wonders.

Tips & Warnings

• You may want to have a color wheel handy if you intend to mix colors. That way, you avoid murky creations and actually combine shades that come together becomingly.

Resources

• A professional who can coach you on makeup looks that flatter.

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