Even though these days, cosmetic products are quite often angled for long wear with staying power formulas, the Australian summers can often lead to perspiration giving an oily appearance, dark shadows can often creep up again over time and your lip colour can wear away, especially from the centre of your mouth – definitely in need for a refresh!
Image via pinterest
Of course we don’t want to be touching up our makeup every 5 minutes of the day as this would obviously be very frustrating, but the products you would be using to touch up with would build up more and more, giving a heavy or cakey appearance, remember, less is always best.
If time is taken and with the correct textures in products, suiting your particular skin condition, makeup should sit very well on your skin. If you are finding that a new product, or your makeup in general just doesn’t seem to bond or have staying power, that product or texture just may not be the right one for you – Just because it looks great on a friend, doesn’t mean that product will work as well for your skin type.
MB Pro Tip: The best touch up tool is all in the prep!
Take time to prime, not just the face for foundation, but also the eyes for eye shadow and the lips for fullness and colour stay.
A woman shouldn’t need her entire makeup collection in her handbag for touch ups. I find the more makeup items you place in your bag, women tend to touch up areas on their face just for the sake of it because it’s there, even when the area doesn’t need any particular refresh or touch up – this can also cause a heavy build up of product. Think what normally happens or appears on your face after makeup long wear. Do you get shiny? Eye shadow creases? Lip wears away? Or perhaps your eyeliner smudges down your eyes?
Either way, everyone can be slightly different, so next time you are out, take not how your makeup sits after a night out.
My three handbag must haves for touch up’s are, a concealer, powder and lipstick. These are the 3 essentials, you should not need much else and if you do, you might want to re-look at the products you are using.
I also recommend eye drops! These are a great way to keep looking fresh even if you feel tired as red eyes can ruin the great eye makeup you applied and often can then pull focus.
Keeping a couple of cotton tips in your bag are also great, as they can be used to wipe away the crease lines on eyelids and used if bent in half, using the smooth, bent tip to apply lipstick if a fingertip is not your thing.
My fave concealer is the iconic YSL Touche Eclat for touch ups. This product is more of a highlighting concealer to brighten areas like under eyes (especially the inner corners), edges of nose, chin and around the mouth, but a lighter way to re-apply than using a traditional full coverage concealer which can make the skin a bit patchy looking if too much touch ups occur.
Always dab into skin rather than sweeping for best results and not disturbing other make-up and the brush applicator makes it just so easy!
I am sure most women have some sort of powder they use to control shine or matte out/set their makeup.
I prefer loose powders myself when working as a make-up artist, but they are not practical for travel or touch ups when out at a party.
I like loose powder because of the fineness of the product, controlling shine with out caking up your look.
You can purchase some compact powders, which do feel quite light and silky, always test before purchasing.
I also prefer a matte powder, as the main purpose for these products are too de-shine the skin around the nose, chin or forehead.
When out and about the sponge or puff contained in the compact can be great to gently pat and press away shine from these areas, rather than wiping. When you wipe, you disturb others of makeup, which can lead to the need of blush re-application or even concealer for the face rather than just for the highlight areas. A thin layer gently pressed into the shine areas is perfect for keeping everything in place and looking fresher.
MB Pro Tip: Don’t choose a compact powder that is too dark.
You can sometimes think you need a bit of colour, but this can make the skin look muddy, as powders are so opaque, go translucent or your exact shade of your skin, not darker.
Keep the ‘giving yourself colour part’ to a bronzer, made for that purpose, with a light sheen to give light.
Last touch up product is your lips, always take your lip product with you, which I’m sure most women do, but remember to actually touch up your colour.
The center of the lip is where most wear and tear occurs, so add more colour to these areas rather than outer edges as build there can occur looking messy.
As you all might know by now, I’m such a lipstick application with fingertip kind of guy as this works wonders for my clients I apply lipstick too, most saying lipstick lasts so long when pressed into the lip, fusing lip pigment to lip, bonding the two together – a very simple quick dab centrally when out is all you need. If the fingertip idea is not for you, as mentioned above, grab a cotton tip and bend in half, using the smooth side as an applicator – no fluff from the cotton tip!
MB Pro Tip: Use a hydration or mineral based spray after make-up or even during the day to infuse goodness needed into the skin for a lasting finish.
A lot of brands have this ‘fixing’ sprays, or even a general hydration spray to simple mist the skin – be careful not to wet the skin too much, mist being the keyword.
My favorite product for this is the M.A.C Fix+.
It is great before or after make-up as it hydrates with a calm-the-skin effect, enriched in vitamins and minerals, perfect for these summer party times.
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