Makeup Tutorial

Throughout the past few years, the makeup industry has been growing and becoming more popular in society. Sadly, conflict arises too. Makeup can reinforce negative beauty standards and harmful gender roles. But what if I told you that makeup is actually just a form of art and expression for anyone?

Before I continue, I should make it clear that people do not need to use makeup! Not to sound like every beauty influencer, but everyone really is beautiful with or without makeup. Whether you choose to use cosmetics or not, what makes you feel most comfortable and true to yourself is what you should continue doing.

Many types of cosmetics used in the makeup industry help people affirm their identities and express moods & personalities. From a simple and elegant makeup look to using makeup to cosplay, anyone can use makeup to express themselves in any way imaginable. If you are interested in following a warm, silly, and exotic makeup tutorial for anyone of any skill level, you can follow along with the instructions provided below. You can alter any steps you wish, whatever you feel comfortable doing!

If you do follow along, I wouldn’t suggest using a makeup remover after we finish the makeup, so instead, you can use olive oil, baby oil, or even Vaseline to remove your makeup if you dare to follow along. If not any of those, washing your face multiple times should do the trick.

A few steps before doing makeup are to wash your hands with soap and your face with a facial cleanser so your makeup can stay on better and be applied more easily. After you wash your face, you can apply facial moisturizer to keep your skin smoother for a better makeup base. Also, make sure your makeup hasn’t gone bad and is from a legitimate makeup company. You can tell if a cosmetic isn’t good to use if its color, smell, or texture is off.

Before I started my makeup, I realized I had zero cosmetics, so I used my mother’s makeup. If you also don’t have any, try to borrow from a sibling or a parent/guardian, but make sure it closely matches your skin tone! After I stole the makeup, the first step I took was applying foundation everywhere on my face. Any foundation like powder or liquid would work, but I used powder. The foundation is to create a smooth and basic first layer in your makeup base to build off of.

My next step was supposed to be concealer, but I didn’t find any from my mom. This reminds me, if you don’t have any of the materials needed, that’s okay! This is simply just to have fun and explore… different kinds of makeup styles. If you were to apply a liquid concealer, apply a generous amount right under your eyes, on the bridge of your nose, in the corners and under your lips, and finally in the center of your forehead to conceal any dark spots. Then, blend it into the foundation using a big brush/beauty blender, or your fingers if you must.

The next step is contour. If you don't have contour, you can use any cosmetic powder that’s a few shades darker, which is what I did! Apply your contour underneath your cheekbones following their shape and stop after about two inches. Then, apply some contour on your jawline, stopping at the chin, and then blend for a nice and defined face shape. Usually, you would also contour the edge of your forehead, but mine is already a bit contoured. 

Right above your contour, apply any textured blush. You could use any product you have that gives a pink/red tint to your face, including lipstick! Apply your blush just above your contour on your cheekbones and blend into your makeup base. Just to give this makeup a warmer look, I added some blush on my nose too.

On top of your blended blush and contour, use highlighting powder to give a nice finishing touch to your makeup base using a big brush, but don’t apply too much! If you don’t have a highlighter, you can use any shiny, metallic eyeshadow for aesthetic-looking eyes.

Onto your eyebrows. I didn’t have any eyebrow materials so I just drew a bit on my own with eyeliner. Whatever material you use, outline your desired shape of eyebrows, such as defined, thickened, or just to outline. Any style of eyebrows will do. 

After all of this finally comes the best part, the eyes😍 Since we’re going for a soft, warm makeup look, use colors like red, orange, and pink for eyeshadow using a smaller brush to cover your entire eyelids. I used a red eyeshadow but made it fade a bit going out to the corner of my eyes, then used a silver eyeshadow to fill in the faded red eyeshadow.

After the eyeshadow comes your eyeliner. I used liquid eyeliner, but you can use a pencil or gel. Any type will always define your eyes. Outline the shape of your upper eyelid, then from the corner of your eye where it ends, start to curve up like those Disney princess eyes and make it any length you’d like. From there, outline half of your bottom eyelid and connect it to the tip of your eyeliner. If you make your eyeliner a bit longer, there will be a bit of space to fill in.

For the final steps, apply liquid mascara to your eyelashes to make them look thicker or use glue specifically for fake lashes. I used mascara, then finally a red lip gloss for my finishing touch!

You may consider that we’re done, but my final step was to smear it all. Why, you may ask? Because why not? Makeup doesn’t have to make people look perfect and more beautiful. I used my makeup just to experiment for the first time, and you can do the same; just to have fun! Above is my before and after photo, or the other way around in this picture.