Growing up with acne on my face and seeing even my older sister battle it, I never thought I'd get to this point in my life when I'd take a picture and not worry about the number of pimples I'd have to edit out of it. AWESOME I tell you.
So anyway, someone asked me here how I get my face to look so fresh all the time. Uhm, it's actually not fresh all the time eg. when I just wake up in the morning with yuck in my eyes, swollen under-eyes etc. but hey, I'll take it anyways, lol.
So I'll be answering her question in this post sharing the things I do to keep my face looking fresh.
- Clean Face: I never wear makeup when I've not just come out of the bathroom and moisturised my face. Heck no, I don't. If I want to wear makeup a couple of hours after taking my bath, I wash my face again and moisturise. I just believe the makeup won't come out looking great and apply smoothly if dirt has settled on my skin in the form of grease or whatever.
- Oils: Face oils to be precise but in a pinch, I can grab a light-weight oil like maybe Sunflower oil to apply on my face. I wrote all about my love for face oils and my current favourite here. I make sure to press the oil into my skin and not rub like I would a cream moisturiser. With my favourite facial oil, I use two pumps in the night and one pump in the morning.
- Moisturiser: The crazy thing is I don't have a particular cream moisturiser I use. I just make sure that whatever it is doesn't weigh down my face and absorbs quickly. I've used Pears, Makari, Final Lotion, Neutrogena, Shea Moisture and so many others. While I didn't used to care too much about my body, I've always been known to moisturise my skin come what may. I guess it just began to pay off.
- Highlighter: I'm a highlighting girl. How on earth can anyone go without using some shine on their cheeks after applying makeup? While I don't go for the blinding sort of highlight that has become famous on Instagram, I LOVE TO GLOW. The way I do this is to either use liquid highlighter directly on my foundation before a light dusting of powder or I use a very light hand of powder highlighter under my blush. The key for me is to look natural. This means that the glow comes from under my makeup and not from the top ie. my skin glows.
- Light: I'm a photographer so I'm constantly chasing the light, great light for that matter. If you know the law of light and shade then you'll understand what this point is all about. I almost always ensure that the light I'm using hits my face at any of the high points. But I always try to avoid the tip and bridge of my nose though because it makes my nose look fat.
p.s. when I take the pictures with my DSLR and edit in photoshop, I always use the dodge & burn technique to create that extra bit of light & shade on the skin.
- Makeup Off: There is no way enough can be said about this. But taking off your makeup at the end of the day is actually the first step to great skin. Besides, it saves you laundry time and money as it won't stain your bedsheets and pillowcases. I can be lazy so I always have wipes at the ready. One wipe takes off ALL my makeup as I actually don't wear a ton of makeup.
Well, I couldn't not wear makeup for this post so I shot a video answering the questions and accompanied it with a mini lip tutorial using an eyebrow pencil from Zaron to line my lips, one of the Blot Cosmetics lip shades in Moonshine + a nudish lipgloss to tone down the pink and the matte of the look.
I really like the final look because it is very wearable. I wore it to work and didn't feel overwhelmed at all like some lip colours make you feel.
I shot the video with my iPhone5 and frankly, it just means to me that if I don't have time to set-up the lights, background and ambience for my DSLR and I really have something to say to you guys, I can go right ahead and shoot it with a mobile device.
What do you think about the lip combo? Would you wear it as a daytime look?
And give me a +1 if you agree with the 6 steps.
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