{How To}: Makeup for photos

January 11th, 2012

K, y’all! Because we’re having a few more family photos taken this weekend, I thought it would be appropriate to do a makeup tutorial specifically for photos. But please take note: I am no makeup artist. I simply love makeup. Which means, I’m just a schmuck who can fake it. So if you’re a schmuck like me, you can fake it too! :D

There are a few tricks to get your makeup to stand out especially for photos. The look I’m doing today is a play on stage makeup, but take out the theatrics and this could be a cute look for a girl’s night out or a date!

Here’s a neat eye diagram

Start with a primer on your eyes. It will keep the eyeshadow from fading and make the colors pop a bit. You can use it on your lids and even on your under eye before you conceal.

With your finger, use shimmery silver and apply it to the lid (from mid-lid to inner lid). Then with a white shadow, highlight your brow bone and your tear duct (this isn’t on the diagram, it’s the spot between your eyes and your nose).

This is the fun part. Take a black eye pencil and line just above your crease. This creates the illusion of a deeper crease. I’ve only done this over the eyeshadow, but I’m pretty sure you can do this before and come back with pleasant results.

It’s ok if the line doesn’t come out perfectly. Blend that sucker with a good blending brush. If you know you probably won’t be looking down a whole lot (like me here) don’t blend it too much… BUT if you’re doing family photos you might want to blend it a little bit more so that line isn’t so THERE! Just keep blending, it’ll ease up a bit. :)

If you’re comfy wearing eyelashes, do! The Sonia Kashuk eyelashes (which is what I’m wearing here) are pretty inexpensive and look natural. I cut one in half and applied a half to the outside of my lid for an even more natural look.

Here I used a liquid eyeliner staying as close as possible to the lashes, and then barely flared it out on the ends.

Then I went in with a black eye pencil and used it on my upper outer waterline, and the lower waterline.

Take that mascara and apply it to to both the upper and lower lashes. If you’re using falsies you’ll want to curl your realsies so that it doesn’t look like you have two rows of lashes. :) Although, if someone notices they’re probably standing a little too close anyway.

Highlight! If you have a fancy highlight, great! If not just use a white shadow (which is what I used here), works the same way. Think of highlighting as illuminating the places on your face that (literally) stand out. So the forehead, the tops of your cheeks, your chin, the tip of your nose. This gives your skin the illusion of a wonderful glow.

The picture here is right before I blended out my highlight.

Contouring is a super fun way to basically change the entire shape of your face. You can basically re-sculpt your face with just highlighting and contouring. Here though, I’m just doing an exaggerated version of what I normally do when I contour. Use a matte color that is in the brown tones; no orange-y shimmery bronzers! Think of contouring as shading, when have you seen a shadow that is orange and shimmery? Exaaaaactly! If you don’t have a fancy contour, just use a brown eyeshadow which is what I did. I used one that was about 3 shades darker than my skin tone.

Because I’m going for exaggeration, I took a fan brush and made a line right under my cheekbones and dragged it down a bit. Then make a fishy face, and right where your face sucks in, go in and make another blunt line right in there. Blend it (using upward strokes toward the first line), but not too much, we want it to stand out. Contour your temples, a *little* on the sides of your forehead, and the sides of your nose. DON’T go around the edges of your entire face! Think about it, are there shadows all along your hairline? Just go about where you have natural shadows and where you want to create depth.

Ready to lose 5 lbs? Take that contour and, starting right under your earlobes, trace your jawline. Ta da! Apply your blush to the apples of your cheeks.

Now lips!

Take that primer we talked about earlier and dab it on your lips. Didn’t think you could use primer on your lips did ya? :D Smear it all over your lips, then apply your foundation over. This will create blank canvas for that beautiful color we’re about to apply.

I used a lip stain. Lip stains tend to work best when you exfoliate your lips, they’re very drying so it’s best to use some lip balm over top.

There’s no fancy technique here. Line the lips, and put the stuff on. Go back after it dries a bit and go over the edges to create a bit of depth. You can also use a lip liner! I just don’t have a pink one. :(

And presto! You’re ready for the camera! This is the part where you practice modeling in the mirror.

There’s the angry pouty model…

The Tyra model. (Careful though, this has the potential of making your eye muscles spazz-out and lock. If this happens just take a cold compress to your eyes. And never attempt to Smize again. Also… don’t go out in public like this, you’ll scare the children.)

And work.

Cheers!