10 Things I Learnt From My 10 month Makeup Stint

I had never been a makeup junkie until I got married this February. The only things that I ever used during my college days were Biotique Kajal, Lakme Lip gloss in Strawberry (which I loathe now because it’s sticky. Yuk! ) and Maybelline watershine liquid diamonds in crystal clear (now discontinued πŸ™ ) I was particular about my skin care but not makeup. I got so much makeup stuff as gifts that I totally fell in love with the beautiful hues of lipsticks, blushes, glosses, eye shadows and what not. Since I didn’t know what to do with the whole bunch of cosmetics, I decided to learn how to use them.

10 months back I didn’t know how to use foundation as well but just a few weeks back one of my friends wanted me to do her makeup for her wedding function. I did it as well. πŸ™‚ Isn’t it an achievement guys?

I thought I would share all that I learnt from my mistakes and continued practice. Hell yeah! I used to practice doing makeup on my own face. I still do. lol! πŸ˜€

1. Foundation is the base of your makeup. If the base of your makeup looks cakey or blotchy, your entire makeup will would look bad. I say INVEST in a good foundation, I did. Matte foundations work best for oily skin and people with normal/ dry skin can look for dewy foundations.

2. The concept “this will look best on Indian skin tone” is crap.Β  Starting from Jammu & Kashmir to Kanyakumari, you would be able to find at least 5-6 different skin tones of Indian women. There is no way you could put all of them in one “skin tone” category. Some colour that would look best on my skin might look pale on my best friend’s skin. Aren’t we both Indian women?Β  Test and try what looks best on YOU, especially the foundations. I say, dare to try.

3. Kajal or bronzers can make wheatish complexion/ dusky complexioned women look darker. It is a goddamn myth. Has anyone heard of Bipasha Basu? Has anyone given a second look to her makeup done in Jism? Her eyes were done with blackest of black kohl pencils, charcoal eyeliners and smouldering grey eye shadows. Her cheeks had a light dusting of shimmering bronzerΒ  and lips were kept pale/ nude. Raise hands who thought Biapasha didn’t look HOT in Jism!

Bipasha Basu Jism
Bipasha Basu in Jism

Indian women are obsessed with whitening when they should be more worried about anti ageing.Β  Be proud of whatever skin colour you have and enhance your skin with hues that suit you the best. It’s just the matter of testing and trying.

4. Using cosmetics on your face don’t get you early wrinkles. It’s the lack of skincare that gets you wrinkles. If you sleep with makeup on or don’t take enough care of your skin, no beauty fairy would be able to save your skin from damaging. The least you could do is that you remove your makeup every day before going to bed, even when you are dead drunk. Just remove it and let your skin breathe. Read posts on anti ageing here and here.

5. Apply blush directly on your cheekbones without smiling. Throw that “smile and apply blush on your cheekbones” concept in trash bin. The logic is that when you smile your cheeks go up and when you stop smiling the cheeks fall down. So essentially, your blusher is not applied on the apples of your cheeks, it is applied somewhere below the apples. It looks drab!

Where the hell is the cheekbone?

Locate your cheekbone
Locate your cheekbone

Your cheekbone is the highest point on your face. When you touch your face right below the center of your eye, there is a high bone that you would feel on your cheek. That bone extends towards your ear. It is called the cheekbone . So put your blush on that bone and extend it towards your temple in an upward direction. Go high and up!

Check out the blush application in pics. It’s up on the cheekbone and lifted high towards the temple.

Blush application
Blush application
Blush blush blush! :)
Blush blush blush! πŸ™‚

I have seen a lot of difference in my overall look when I apply blush this way and when I apply it on my apple of cheeks. Apply it and trust me, this application technique would give a younger and tighter look to your skin.

6. Do not buy a concealer that is two shades lighter than your skin tone. Buy the concealer that is the same shade as your foundation. Why? Because if you are not a makeup artist, you cannot make everything work for you. You need right products and tools to do things right.

Did I see women ready to shoot me now? πŸ˜›

In most cases, your under eyes would end up looking like Celina Jaitley’s. Eeewww!!

celina-jaitley-rubbish makeup
celina-jaitley-rubbish makeup

The idea is to brighten your under eyes and not lighten them. Well! if you are using a concealer that is two shades lighter than your foundation shade and it works for you, then be it. Just blend well so that your concealer and foundation look one. As it is there are no strict rules in makeup. πŸ™‚

7. Every woman should have at least one eyelash curler. It makes such a hell lot of a difference to your eyes. Since months back, I didn’t know how to curl my lashes so I didn’t want to spend too much in buying a curler. I bought a Vega lash curler for Rs 60 and it’s working well for me. After this, I guess I am going to buy a better one. πŸ™‚

eyelash curler
eyelash curler

8. Blending is the key to a good makeup. Your makeup should look as one. Each colour blended well into another. No one should ever be able to find out whether you have applied three shade of blushes, or four shaded of eye shadows. Only you should know what all you have applied on your face while the other person should be left to solve the mystery of your beautiful face. πŸ™‚

Well blended makeup
Well blended makeup

9. Use a damp sponge to apply foundation or concealer. You would never look cakey or overdone. If you apply concealer with your fingertips and foundation with brush, that’s fine.Β  Just move a damp sponge once you are done with the entire application. The damp sponge will take away the excess from your face leaving just the right amount behind. Just make sure that you wash your sponge after every usage.

makeup sponge
makeup sponge

So far, I have not been able to find these triangular sponges in India. However I discovered a pack of 4 sponges by Vega for Rs 45. I use them all the time. They are good but not the best.

10. If you are fond of doing makeup, get addicted to skincare. Eat healthy and take care of your skin. Makeup is about enhancing your features. A clean, acne free skin would give a new definition to your makeup. Smile and feel good about yourself. It makes a lot of difference. πŸ™‚

I would be sharing more stuff with you as we go along. Especially, another blush technique. πŸ™‚

Till then, good day. Do share your tips as well, I would be so glad to try them.

Love and Hugs,

Rati

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31 thoughts on “10 Things I Learnt From My 10 month Makeup Stint

  1. Great Post Rati! I am gonna bookmark this as i’ll keep visiting again to keep these tips in mind..

    I agree with most of them especially the one on skin whitening & anti-aging.. Most Indian women don’t start taking care of their skin until it is too, too late!

    Not only that, a lot of them actually believe that make-up is bad, like u rightly pointed out.

    Good work.

  2. wow !!
    that must have required so much patience .. great post !!
    even I agree on this kajal – bronzer thing .. its mainly cz mst ppl dunno hw to use it properly , and end up makin themselves look sunburnt nt sunkissed !!
    hey , U c Rakhi Sawant … living example to use bronzer all ova her face !! she looks so damn scary !!!

  3. on that eyelash curler thing . I so totally agree !!
    I have the one frm Oriflame and it works wonder for me .. if asked me – I wd anyday pick curler ova mascara .. yeah . YOU heard right πŸ˜€
    good day baby
    xx

  4. Thanks Tanveer, I am glad it helped. πŸ™‚ I myself keep getting comments that I must not use makeup because it harms your skin and all. Actually, it’s the ignorance that makes women think like that.

    I see so many women who want to do makeup and it’s just that they don’t know how to do it so they give the overall thought only.

  5. Palak,

    Yes it look me almost 4-5 hours to bring this post up. But I am gld you liked it. Rakhi Sawant is one attention seeker. If that ugly looks gets her attntion, I guess she would go out of her way to adorn it. πŸ˜›

    I guess I would also pick a lash curler over mascara. I keep curling my lashes during the day, love it like that. πŸ˜›

    And where do you keep disappearing?

  6. Ok, I gotta admit.. I have a eye lash curler, but it scares the beejeezuz outta me.. Really.. All i see is this giant contraption heading towards my eye threatening to cause some catastrophe.. Just cannot get down to using it.. Maybe u cld do a step by step guide for ppl like me πŸ™‚

  7. Lol!! I don’t know why is that. Okay let me see what I could do for you.

    As of now, when I curl my lashes, I jus count 1-2-3-4-5- and I am done with one lash. I do the same for the second one. This gives me just the right amount of curl , no contraptions nuffin. πŸ˜€

    Will try to do something for you to put you in Palak’s and my category. πŸ˜›

  8. Hey great post! Kudos to yr achievement in doing yr friend’s makeup!! I guess the bottom line is that everybody should experience makeup for themselves to discover their own truths about it all. Yes proper skincare is crucial. I agree with u on the people who say makeup ruins the skin…idiots! πŸ˜€
    That pic of Celina always makes me want to throw a stone at her …hahaha….
    I see u’ve added my blog to yr Blog roll…u really didn’t need to do that girl. LOL “DBA”…looks weird now…MBA…. NBA…lol. I think i’ll stop signing off with that now :\
    β™₯XXβ™₯

  9. Thanks Cynthia. πŸ™‚ I know, I felt like an achievement when I did it. And I also did touch ups for my other friends as well. Yay! Every skin is different and must be dealt differently. I myself did a foolish thing for picking up a water based foundation for my normal to dry skin. I can’t blame too much on others. ROFL! But you learn, you know!

    I swear, didn’t Celina bother too look at herself in mirror before stepping out? I actually see a lot of women wearing a lighter shade under their eyes. the point is either you blend the lighter shade well with the foundation or you wear a same shade concealer if you don’t want to get into too many hassles. And her blush is also drooling down. lol! I can really go on and on in this one. πŸ˜€

    Have changed the link name to Cynthia. πŸ˜› I get to read very few blogs because of time crunch, I’d better keep all of them on my blogroll. πŸ™‚

  10. Hi my darl, How r u? Long time no see…thnq for all d sweet msgs sexy πŸ™‚ quite a post.

    Would u mind if I say something? Please “shift delete” Celina from ur lovely blog πŸ™‚ YUCK!!! I wanna meet her makeup artist and admit him/her in a better beauty school. Wat say? congrats babe πŸ™‚ i can see u going places now πŸ™‚

    Rati, Makeup artist would be ur title in the future πŸ™‚ like it?

  11. I am doing good Divija. How are you? How are you feeling now? Is snow stil stinking. lol! So many questions. πŸ˜›

    We will keep this pic as a reminder for all the women who like to go shades and shades lighter for their concealer an then forget to blend it in their foundations. πŸ˜€

    Lol, Divija. there is a long long way to go. I still make loads of mistkes, buy lots of wrong products and can’t get a perfect liner…Gosh!! What I am feeling great is that I have started blogging about all this and have met some wonderful people such as you here. I would have missed so much, otherwise. πŸ™‚

  12. Hey there, great tips, thanks.
    It would absolutely be great if you could give some BRAND names that us Indian women can actually use!
    Thanks

  13. hahaha! just so many similarities!! looks like we even got married at the same time! And what’s more.. last Dec when my cousin got married I was roped in to do some of her pre-wedding functions’ makeup (didn’t have the guts to do on the BIG day) and she was left gaping as I rolled out one thing after the other from my makeup kit ..like a magician πŸ˜€ Its was also the first time I was visiting my native post the wedding and everyone remarked how nice I was looking – thought it was the post-marriage glow.. its just that I had learnt how to apply makeup πŸ˜‰ Tons more to learn.. and this blog is great!

      1. of course I am staying around!.. this entire weekend has gone in just reading your blog!! Besides the couple of hours where I dashed out to Sephora (too much makeup reading.. I had to buy some!) and bought me a mineral foundation and a MAC gel eyeliner – my first πŸ™‚

  14. Hey Rati,

    I’m a newcomer to your blog. Loving it! In fact, I’ve been up all night reading it πŸ˜€

    The triangular sponges you mentioned are available from a brand called Audrey makeup sponges. They’re available at a store in Chennai called Prisha’s at Rs.125 for a pack of 10 I believe. This is the manufacturer’s site

    http://www.audreysbeautyworld.com/content/main.htm

    Hope you find them πŸ™‚

    Thanks for all the effort you’ve put into this blog. It makes matters look so easy and inviting for makeup newbies like me πŸ˜›

  15. Like many others, I was brought up to believe that make up is not good for the skin. half my life and a divorce later, I realize that it is not so. I found your blog quiet by chance and truth be told have been following your reviews of various products. I’ll bookmark this and return to it when I get my stuff. The thing that I want to ask is how can I know the shade of foundation that is right for my skin tone? Do I keep on buying till I hit the jackpot or do beauty counters have samples which I can try on before I buy?

    Great blog. Love it.

  16. hey guyzzzz!!!! like many of them,i have a dusky color like bipasha,deepika and many others….!! after i find this blog it made me realize that this iz realy very helpful 4 me….!!! thank you very much :woot:

  17. Same here,for so many years i was moisturiser and compact girl,one and half year back I started using shiseido foundation and compact and mac lipsticks but scared to apply blush and shadows as i do not know how to? i will try, …now… but still do not know(confused) about shades for wheatish skin and day wear shadows, Even i tried whitening range from shiseido and not anti ageing .Thanks for useful information for,( make up illiterate) women like me

  18. Thank you so much for this advice πŸ™‚
    I live in Portugal but have Indian heritage, and make up for me is a real pain here. They only supply for really white people!! I literally have to use blond people bronzer as powder, because I’d otherwise either be forced into buying a more expensive product, or use nothing at all. As for foundation, forget it! I’d have to pay about 20 euros for a low end one, so I can’t use any at all.
    I love my skin color, and my ancestry (though I wish I knew more about it) but applying make up is difficult when everything is supplied for people with completely different complexions.
    Anyways I just found out your wonderfull website and I’m fascinated! Thank you for you advice πŸ™‚

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