Professional Application with Professional Brushes.

Someone once said that the difference between a great makeup artist and good makeup artist is one more stroke. Makeup is all about blending. Just when you think you’ve blended enough, blend one more time.

This is especially true with eyes. No matter how subtle or vibrant you like to wear your shadows, blending is the key to a perfect result. I was always taught to start off with the lightest shade and work up to the darkest. Now I’m not so sure that’s right. More and more I begin with the darkest shade and work towards the lightest. I find that I get automatic blending this way and I make fewer mistakes.

Of course, you can’t blend if you don’t have the right tools. Good brushes are absolutely key to a good result. You just can’t use that little sponge-tipped thing they gave you in your eye shadow compact. Invest in good brushes, treat them well and they will last you forever. I promise you, you’ll get more joy out of your makeup than you ever have. A good brush has natural bristles and is hand-tied, just like ours.

Widening Close-Set Eyes.

Makeup is all about illusion. You can actually give the appearance of widening close-set eyes with a few simple tricks. The first one is do NOT pluck your brows back. Brows should begin level with the middle of your nostril. If you pluck them back, they draw attention to themselves.

The way to give the appearance of widening the eye is to widen the arch of the brow. In other words, instead of having it end at the outside edge of the iris, bring it out a little bit. You’ll have to play with this to see what works for you. Then use very light shadows on the inner third of the lid.

Dark shadows will pull the eyes together. Our Highlighter Pencil is wonderful for running around the inside corner of the eye. This is usually the darkest and most recessed area of the face. Put a light in there eyes will look farther apart and you’ll look instantly brighter and more awake. (A great tip for more mature eyes.)

Deep Set Eyes.

Deep set eyes have a special beauty and need special care when applying shadows. You almost have to think backwards. Usually, deep-set eyes have a prominent brow bone, so the last thing you want to do is to put a light shadow there unless you want the brow to stand out more! (Light colors bring things closer, dark colors recede.)

Brush a medium tone over the brow bone up to the brow. Keep the lid as light as possible. Our shadow Oyster is perfect for this. It has a slight shimmer, which pulls light to the lid. Often, I don’t use an eyeliner because I want to keep the lid as light as possible and enlarge the eye. Liner can close your eye up.

It’s OK to dot liner in between the lashes, but do it very subtly so it just makes the lashes look longer and thicker. Claudia Schiffer has the most deep-set eyes of any model I know. That hasn’t stopped her from being one of the most beautiful women in the world!

Eye Shadow Colors.

I think that the most common question I’m asked is, What color eye shadow should I wear? I would say the only hard and fast rule is this, “don’t try to match your eye color.” If you do, you will cancel the eye out. Also, if you wear a bright color that overpowers the eye, then that will pull the focus.

If you don’t mind people saying, What great eye shadow as opposed to What beautiful eyes you have, then iridescent is for you. I prefer to find colors that complement the eye and have the effect of making the eye pop.

A color wheel is a useful tool, if you’re just starting. Colors opposite each other on the wheel complement each other. So, brown complements blue, green complements red, etc. In real life, this means that brown will pop a blue eye. Violet and purple look wonderful on a green eye. Brown eyes really have it all. You can wear anything as long as you don’t try to match the brown. You’ll cancel your eye out. I love gold on any eye, but I especially love it on brown eyes. Place it on the lid just above the iris.

When I’m working on a hazel eye, I like to pick one of the colors in the eye and use it as a liner. You can really change the color of the eye that way. Our shadows make wonderful liners – dry or wet. All of our shades have been picked to enhance eye colors – not to ice the cake!

Selecting your Mascara Color.

What color mascara should you wear? We sell about three times more Black than Black/Brown, but I personally think that black is over-used. Unless you have naturally black lashes, black mascara can look harsh and aging. Although long gorgeous lashes are the crowning glory to beautiful eyes, if they’re piled full of mascara, they become too obvious, take all the focus and look seriously fake.

It’s impossible to apply endless coats of mascara without getting clumps and I think it looks, dare I say it, trashy. The trick to gorgeous lashes is easy. Apply a layer of our PureLash Conditioner. Allow it to dry for 30 seconds. Wipe off your mascara wand and replace it in the tube and twist. Then rock it at the base of the lashes and pull it through to the tips. Before it’s dry, add another coat to the lashes on the outside upper corner. This will give the eye a lift. Pinch off any large clumps with your fingers and separate lashes with a Spooley or a dry mascara wand.

And don’t be wedded to black. Black/Brown is softer and looks more natural. It’s a nice trick to brush the tips of lashes with another color. Try our Teal, Navy or Wine.

Love your Lashes.

Lashes have a tough life. We would never treat our hair the way we do our lashes. Apart from the mascara we use every day – many of which contain shellac and petroleum that dries lashes out – we don’t think of conditioning them they way we do our hair. So they dry out and break and rarely reach their full potential in length.

I swear by a coating of our PureLash Conditioner. It keeps lashes soft, conditions them so they grow as long as possible and is a fabulous base for mascara. You’ll find that you have to use less mascara because the lashes have been primed before you apply it, so they look longer and thicker and are much happier.

We have many customers who had given up wearing mascara because of sensitivities before they found ours. We’ve not only taken out the harsh chemicals but we’ve also added conditioners and wheat protein to help curl. Our PureLash Lengthening Mascara even contains cellulose fibers to add extra length and thickness.

Mascara & Bacteria.

If you have your makeup done professionally, never let the artist apply mascara on you from a tester that still has its wand. This may seem drastic, but you don’t know where that wand has been! A conscientious professional will cut off the wand and use disposable brushes. She will also never double-dip.

Why is this so important? We all have bacteria that live in our lashes. We live harmoniously with them provided they don’t get out of control. Every time you use mascara, you take off some of those bacteria and put them in a dark warm environment hospitable to bacteria - the mascara tube. Eventually, their numbers will break down the preservatives. So don’t keep your mascara longer than three months.

Professionally, if someone comes at you with a mascara tester with questionable history, ask the artist if she would mind taking a new one from stock and using disposable brushes on you, or buy a mascara from her and ask her to use that one. Ask for our PureLash Lengthening Mascara in Jet Black, Black/Brown, Teal, Wine or Navy.

Eyebrow Care.

Most makeup artists will tell you that eyebrows are the most important feature on the face, and I agree. Eyebrows frame the eye and balance the entire face. Kevin Aucoin showed us that he could change someone’s complete look by changing her brows.

The classic brow – the shape that suits almost everyone – is this: Imagine a vertical line drawn from the middle of your nostril up towards your brow. That’s where it begins. The brow arches at the outside edge of the iris. Then hold a brush diagonally from the corner of your nose to the corner of your eye and to your brow. That’s where the brow ends.

I find that powder looks more natural than pencil so I choose a color (a shade lighter for dark hair or a shade or two darker for light hair) and apply it with our Eye Liner and Brow Brow brush. Then I hold the brow in place with our Brow Fix.

Our Super-Shape Me Eyebrow kits make the perfect brow so simple. Two powders to choose from, a wax to hold brows in place and even a yellow cream-to-powder eye base to take away any redness. Included is a pair of tweezers and two brushes. It doesn’t get any better than that!

Rosacea.

Rosacea is one of the easiest things for minerals to cover. Forget about the days when green was recommended to cover redness. All that did was to leave you with green to cover or a ghostly grayness. Neutralizing colors like this works on an artist’s canvass but not on the human skin. In the mineral world, yellow neutralizes red.

If your rosacea is very pronounced, you may need to use two colors. First, choose a yellow base with about the same depth as your skin color and pick up some of the powder with our flocked sponge. Apply it in a rocking motion as you press it onto your skin. Then, using a mineral base that matches your skin tone, brush it all over your face.

Yellow bases we recommend are Warm Silk, Warm Sienna or Golden Glow. Minerals cover so well that you may not need to use two bases. Choose your complexion color, brush it over your face and then add more minerals to the red area with our flocked sponge. No more rosacea!

Covering Tattoos.

Ever wish you hadn’t had that tattoo put on your shoulder? Help is at hand, especially if you’re a bride and want to wear strapless.

First, find a shade of our Disappear and a mineral powder that closely match your skin. We have five shades of Disappear from which to choose. Then, with our Camouflage brush, smooth on a thin layer over the tattoo. Let it dry for a moment, then smooth on another layer. With our flocked sponge, pick up some of the powder and press it onto the tattoo. Repeat the process if you need more coverage.

You will still sometimes see a blue shadow coming through. I find that pressing some blush like our Copper Wind will usually neutralize the shadow. If you need to, you can add another layer of mineral powder.

Remember that no camouflage is perfect when examined close-up, but since people usually look at you from a distance of about three feet, this method will disguise the distraction enough so that no one will notice it.