Makeup For Beginners | nina-westbury

I love teaching beginners all about the joys of applying makeup! I love showing them that we shouldn’t fight with what we have, but instead enhance and celebrate our look. We can always find something in our features that needs celebrating whether it is your eyes, lips or you skin!

This post is dedicated to those of you that are new to makeup and don't know where to start! I love teaching makeup novices how to apply makeup. They have no bad habits that I need to break, and really enjoy watching them blossom into a makeup master in no time at all. The original idea behind makeup was to help bring out our best features and making the best of one’s appearance is something that I still believe in today. We shouldn’t fight with what we have, but instead enhance and celebrate our look. When I speak to makeup newbies, they all have the same question: where do I start?

Some Tips for those new to wearing makeup!

Makeup can easily be removed with a cleanser. Mistakes are made and that is ok!
Makeup is the best thing that has been invented for enhancing women’s beauty (though Spanx are a close second!).
Trust your instincts. Look to others for inspiration but no one knows your style and face as well as you do.
And if you are looking for inspiration that always feel free to walk into a cosmetic hall and look at all the people working behind the counters. When you see someone’s style you like, ask them about it. It’s flattering and the lucky individual will be more than willing to teach you how to apply it all.

Here is a few things and tips to get you started writing in order of application. If you are wanting to learn more register for my online makeup course The Essential Guide to Makeup where you will receive a lot more information plus online support!

1. A Tinted Moisturizer or BB Cream can be your best friend when it comes to managing an uneven skin tone. They create minimal coverage and are so easy to apply. This step is sometimes referred to as your base.

How to apply a Tinted Moisturiser or BB Cream

Squeeze a dime-size amount onto your fingertips and rub it onto your face like you would a moisturiser paying extra attention to your nose, around your nostril and jaw line. After applying you shouldn’t see lines or patchy colours. Some newbies like to use a foundation brush to apply their base and it sometimes leaves them with streaks. If there are still streaks it means it hasn’t blended in properly, so just keep blending.

2. A Concealer is another fantastic product for makeup up beginners. Concealers disguise dark circles around your eyes and can cover blemishes and imperfections. They come in an array of forms such as tubes, to wands with a brush attached, to little pots and even fat pencils. The trick for beginners is to use a light concealer that will just a little coverage. Some concealers are heavy and are harder to blend so you may want to start light and work your way to heavier.

How to apply Concealer

Once you have applied and blended your BB Cream or Tinted Moisturiser on then apply a small amount of concealer under your eyes with either your finger or a concealer brush. If you are using your fingers, then tap and dab the concealer until it totally blended, and you see no lines. If you are using a brush, then use feathery strokes across the skin to erase under eye circles. Use this technique to erase broken capillaries around your nose and any other flaw or blemish that need disguising.

3. Powder is essential for making your base last and for keeping shine at bay. Even if you have dry skin, you should still invest in a translucent powder to set your makeup for the day ahead. I recommend you start with a pressed powder and a small, handled powder brush for ease and convenience

How to Apply Powder

After you have applied your base and concealer you load up the brush by swirling it in the compact a few times, and then apply by sweeping it down your nose, up your cheek bones, across your chin and along your forehead.

4. Blush is a pigment rich powder that mimics a healthy complexion that you wear on your cheeks. A blush can come in a powder, cream and even liquid form.

How to apply blush

The easiest way to apply blush is to dip a blush brush into the blush and simply sweep the brush up both of your cheek bones in the direction of your temple, for a lifted effect or to the apples only for a rounder effect. Repeat on the other cheek.

* A great tip is if you apply too much blush then apply some of your pressed powder from step 3 over the top to tone down the blush.

5. Eyeshadow can be so flattering but also very daunting for beginners. Trying a shade such as a champagne shimmer will not overpower you and will give a subtle effect, catching the light beautifully and give you a polished look with minimal effort. I have heard a lot of women over a certain age freak out when I say shimmer eyeshadow as they say it can settle into lines. A light shimmer is good, but a glitter is not!

How to apply Eyeshadow

The easiest way to apply eyeshadow as a beginner is to dip an eyeshadow brush into a eyeshadow then sweep it over your eye lids back and forth from inner eye corner to the outer eye corner. Or you can dip your finger into the eyeshadow and dab it onto the lids. By using your finger to apply your eyeshadow isn’t the ideal way but I want you to have fun applying makeup not stress out about it.

6. Mascara is a perfect way to bring out your eyes and everyone on this planet has beautiful eyes! If there is another feature on our face that make us self-conscious, for example large lips, small lips, large nose, or skin flaws… then drawing attention away from it and onto our eyes is easier than you think. A rich brown mascara is a sensible choice for beginners as you may feel that black is too harsh but navy can look amazing too!

How to Apply Mascara

Applying mascara is an art form as it pulls the entire look together. Trust me, when you have good mascara on you entire day is better! This simplest way to apply mascara is to pull the wand out of the tube and make sure there isn’t a blob on product on the end of the brush (also known as a spooly). Looking into a mirror and keeping your chin up (this will give you a better angle, allowing you to capture all your lashes with mascara which will not be possible with your chin down), place the brush at the root of the lashes and give it a little wiggle to coat the smallest shortest lashes in mascara and defining the shape of your eye. By defining the shape of your eye, you are framing your eyes which will draw attention to them and what eyeliner will do when you are ready to apply that. Next, sweep the brush to the tip of the lashes combing through the lash hairs repeatedly until you have enough mascara on without returning the wand back into the tube. Then repeat this process on the other eye!

Lastly is your lipstick, gloss, balm whatever you want. If you are totally new to makeup, then try using a colour lip balm and work your way up to something stronger and brighter when you are ready. Remember makeup is supposed to bring you joy and there is no right or wrong way of progressing!