Consolidating Your Make-Up

Want to condense your make-up down to just the bare minimum? 
Are you a make-up "collector" looking for painless ways to cut back?
(See the bottom of this page)
Not really into make-up and want a simple and foolproof start?

For a professional and polished look you will need:

Concealer - Over any dark circles or imperfections. Please don't skip this step! It just looks so much more finished and polished. Undereye concealer makes you look awake, rested, healthy, and draws attention to your eyes. If you skip concealer, the rest of your make-up will not look as good and any dark circles will be distracting.
Foundation - Unless you are blessed with flawless or nearly flawless skin. For some women their foundation alone will be enough coverage and they won't need concealer. Some will only need concealer. Some will need both. But very few can get away with neither. There are benefits to wearing foundation in addition to evening out your skin tone. All your make-up will go on better than over bare skin, and it will also last longer.
Blush - Some make-up artists only use either a pink or peach, or a tan/brown tone for everyone. Pick a soft, neutral tone with some brown in it so it will look light and natural. Or pick the same color as your face is when flushed.
Lipstick - You can wear one lipstick with everything and everywhere if it matches your coloring and is neutral enough. A brownish pink, mauve or berry, or a peach to rust or even a brown shade if your coloring is more warm. For the most natural look, match the color of your lips or go slightly darker. I do think that if you love red, plum or bright lipstick you can wear these to work as long as the rest of your make-up is subtle, neutral and classic. Red lipstick is a very classic, sophisticated look.
Mascara- If you have very light coloring, consider using brown or brownish black for a very natural look.

Choose only matte shades of blush, lipstick and eyeshadow. They are the most flattering and are appropriate for both daytime and evening.

Eyeshadow & Eyeliner - I think eyeshadow and eyeliner are entirely optional. Many women look just great with only  mascara on their eyes. It is a clean look that is always appropriate. You have to be very careful with eyeshadow and liner or it can look overly dramatic for daytime or work. If you wish to wear eyeshadow you can get by with only 1-3 matte shadows. A light shade of brown, an ivory or sand color, and a darker brown. Browns are flattering on just about everyone, anywhere and anytime. They make the color of your eyes stand out rather than the shadow. You can wear the light brown alone on the lid, in the crease, or to line the eyes. Or add the highlight and/or contour colors if you wish. With all three you can create a number of different looks and combinations (see the eyeshadow section on Application Techniques ). For a more dramatic evening look, you can increase the intensity of the shadows by how dark or heavily  you apply them.You can also create more drama by using the darkest color over a larger area than just as liner or crease color by day. Try the dark shade all over your lids and up into the crease, or try the light shadow on your lid and under the eyebrow and apply the dark brown in the crease and up onto the browbone and extend it out a bit further than you would for day.

If you are a make-up "Collector" and your collection (and expenditures) have grown out of control, and you would like to pare it down but can't kick the purchasing habit just yet, here is some advice for you. Most of us make-up addicts don’t just buy enough make-up to get by and wear the same colors everyday, we like to have collections of products. We like to have a large selection of colors. I think this behavior is related to animals in the wild who collect shiny metal objects and keep them in their nests or dens! This is where it really pays off to shop the most inexpensive drugstore brands, because buying in bulk can really add up.

I encourage you to go a step further and limit your collecting to just one, favorite product.  It helps to pick something practical that you can keep long enough to use up before you have to trash it and buy a new one. Keep in mind that for sanitary reasons, make-up should not be kept and used indefinitely once opened. Mascara and liquid eyeliner should be replaced every three months (so it definitely pays to buy really inexpensive mascara). Eyeshadows should be replaced every 6 months to one year. Foundation, powder, blush and lipstick can be kept for one to two years.

I think it is most practical to choose to have a variety of low priced lipsticks or $1 lip liner or eye pencils to satisfy a collecting "habit." In 1-2 years you should be able to go through them all and get your money's worth out of them. They can also be so much cheaper than other types of products. It would be the equivalent of wearing the same lipstick shade everyday and having to buy a new one every month or two. If you collect eyeshadows, you will be throwing money away because you will never go through even a fairly modest collection in 6 months or a year. But if eyeshadow is your thing, just stick with $2-$3 shadows and you will do alright. Collecting blush can also be a waste because it could take years to use them up. They will either get old before you use them up, or you will get sick of them and want new colors. And you should trash them after two years anyway, and that is not enough time to go through more than just a few.

Keep the rest of your make-up collection down to a reasonable, practical minimum. The more you own, the less likely you will be able to use it all, and then you will waste money. I suggest keeping no more than 1-3 blush colors at a time. That will give you plenty of variety. You can wear one with all your lipsticks if you pick a soft, neutral shade, or pick the same color your face gets when flushed. Since it is currently fashionable to wear blush so lightly, no one is really going to be able to notice whether you wear different colors or the same one everyday. But lipstick can really dramatically change your make-up look and make a strong impact. Since I feel neutral eyeshadows look best on everyone, and eyeshadow gets used up so slowly, I see no reason to keep more than 3-6 shadows at once. You can still do your eyes in a variety of different looks with just a few shadows. You can go light or dark, wear one eyeshadow or three at once, and go with or without eyeliner. The possibilities are endless. If you want to play with color in your eye make-up, I think $1 eyeliner pencils are a great way to go (try Winks pencils at Long's Drugs and beauty supply stores). You can buy many of them cheaper than eyeshadow, and just a little color around your eyes with neutral shadow will look much classier than colorful eyeshadows.