Tutorial: Everyday "No Make Up" Make Up

Ok, so recently, I was requested to show a "no make up" make up, complete with a Before & After shot. Ready to see how I look like when I just woke up? Here it is!

And my friends don't believe me when I tell them how much make up I slap on...

Eye close up!

The highlight was supposed to be a subtle, neutral gold...but in a bad eyesight moment, I grabbed the wrong one...

So let me take you step by step through my "no make up" make up look, with full face pics of each step so you can see the purpose of each step and how it adds to the overall look.

I'll also go through what brushes you can use since brushes are damn important. I'll give several options for brushes you can use, because let's be honest, not all of us has the money to invest in an arsenal of brushes. As for where I get my brushes, I used to use Body Shop's, Bobbi Brown's and Make Up Store's brushes back when I was a make up noob. Now, I buy cheaper ones from eBay, Aliexpress, Masami Shouko, and Sigma. They're all as good! XD

First, here's me with glasses and without:

My degree's -10.5 & -8, so yeah, the lenses distort my face by a lot!

Apply Foundation & Concealer

And my friends say I have good skin. LOL.

Now, for your viewing pleasure, I applied concealer and foundation on my face. See the difference?

I normally do this after I'm done with my eyes in case I need to clean up fall out from my eyeshadow.

Eyes

Step 1: Apply primer and line your eyes with eyeshadow

Brushes you could use:

Anything flat-ish to apply eyeshadow. Since you're sweeping the colour over a relatively large space, you can go with larger heads.

I suggest doing this with your eyes open so you can see where to place your eyeshadow. Pick whatever colour you want, but I use brown for a natural look.

Now I'll be honest, when I'm in a rush, this is all I do. It already makes me look prettier :P

Step 2: Elongate your eyes

1. First you draw a ">" shape at the outer corner of your eye using a darker brown shade (black for a more dramatic look). To figure out how to draw this, draw it with your eyes open. For a more cat eye look, follow the upward slope of your lower lash line, and extend the line upwards. For the more flattering "Korean" look, follow the downward slope of your upper "eye line" to extend the line downwards by a bit, and then slope slightly straight outwards. Think of the end of a gentle ski slope.

2. Fill in the ">" and blend inwards


Brushes you could use:

For step 1:

Anything that helps you create controlled lines

For step 2:

Anything you can use to blend with. You're blending over a large area so you can get away with fluffy brushes, but I still prefer a tapered tip to give more control.

See how much larger my eyes look?

Again you can end it here, but you can make your eyes even bigger....

Step 3: Heighten the center

Brushes you could use:

Basically the same brushes you used in Step 1

Grab the first colour you were using in Step 1, and make the center even taller. Check out how much larger my eyes look:

Using the pic from Step 1 so you can see how much taller it is, because I stupidly forgot to take pictures with my eyes open in Step 2

Again, you can finish the look now and slap on some mascara or falsies, but you can keep going too. Speaking of mascara....

Step 4-ish: The importance of mascara

Ok, I'll be honest. Sometime, I go "f- it" and skip the mascara. No one can see my lashes since they're folded into my lids anyway! But mascara does give your eyes a subtle pop! See the difference?

I usually leave mascara for last, but I wanted to show how much difference it can make to a pretty finished look. This is also the step where I apply falsies if I'm using them, just because falsies alter the shape of monolids so much.

Step 5: Line your lower lashline with something light/shimmery

Brushes you could use:

Anything you can draw a semi broad line with works. I rather not use a tightline/eyeliner brush for this since the line will look too tight and rigid

Ok, I messed up...I wanted to go for gold for this look, but accidentally got pale green (not colour blind, I swear). If you're using falsies, you may have to make the line thicker on the outer corner, depending on what kind of false lashes you're using. Start drawing from the inner corner and go towards the outer corner, thickening where needed. Just do what's right for your eye shape. See how much more awake I look now?

Step 6: Dot a highlighter on your inner corners

Brushes you could use:

You can go with fluffy or precise, but just make sure it's small enough to keep it controlled.

Just smack that highlighter in. I personally prefer the messy puff of shimmer look..it looks more natural.

And you're done with eyes!

Add a nude/My Lips But Better (MLBB) lip colour

Add a subtle contour

Add blush

Sorry the blush isn't showing up that well in the pics thanks to the bright light. It makes a difference, I swear.

Do brows

 And I noticed I accidentally rubbed off the concealer on my nose and touched it up...

DONE!

Tutorial: Neutral Cut Crease on Monolids

Here's the before and after!

This is without tape or glue!

1. With a blending brush, roughly create the shape of your fake "crease" with a brown eyeshadow. I personally prefer using a tapered blending brush for this. Monolids tend to have a super flat plane, and blending the way we're usually taught to with a fluffy blending brush usually ends up looking messy and badly blended. You need a lot more control with the brush. Gently wash an eyeshadow that's a match with your skin tone (if you can't find a perfect match, you can go lighter) above this crease. It'll make blending easier later. 

2. Use a pencil brush to really define the line of the fake "crease" with a darker brown eyeshadow. 

3. Now that's you have your "crease", use it as a guide to blend the brown eyeshadow outwards and upwards. I'm still using a tapered blending brush for this. 

4. Fill the gap in the bottom with a light shade (I went with light taupe since I find it most flattering on my skin tone). See how crisp the "crease" is looking?

5. Take a colour that's about 2 shades darker than the light shade and gently blend it into the inner and outer corners. Apply the colour to the corners and blend inwards in a "<" sort of shape. I find for my eyes, it's most flattering for the outer corner to be blended to the point where it's nearly half my eye, and the inner corner is only about 1/4 of my eye.

6. Repeat step 5 with the dark brown, only stick to about 1/2 of the area you covered in step 5. Since monolids don't come with a crease, we really have to work on creating dimension to avoid looking like we got a botched up plastic surgery. It's ok if you're losing your "crease" with the blending, it's supposed to happen.

7. Take a black eyeshadow and redraw the "crease" line with an eyeliner brush.

8. Go over the line repeatedly with the dark brown shade, applied with a pencil brush. Do this until the line is soft.

9. Line it with a liquid liner. If you're not planning to use lashes, skip the rest of this tutorial and simply line your lower lashline with the light taupe eyeshadow (or go with silver or gold to make your eyes pop). I find doing anything with your lower lashline tend to make monolids look too bottom heavy without false lashes. If you're planning to wear falsies, carry on.

10. With a black (dark brown if you want something more subtle) eyeliner, line 1/5 of the inner and outer corners of your lower lashline.

11. I prefer applying falsies now. False lashes tend to alter the shape of my eyes so much, I need it as a guide on where to blend the lower lashline make up. Use a pencil brush to blend out the eyeliner on your bottom lashline with the brown shade.

12. Clean up fall out, go nuts with concealer, draw the inner corners with a liquid liner (optional), and your DONE!