I made a few small tweaks to my makeup routine and dedicated them to a video: one of the changes is to my eyebrows and you may already know about it, but the other four are relatively new and stylish. I know the suspense will kill you, so let’s get cracking.
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Tweak One
My first makeup tweak is so weak and weird I’m embarrassed to write about it, but seeing as the USP of social media is people sharing things so trivial it makes you want to lobotomy with a corkscrew, it would go straight in front. The makeup update, if you could call it that, is that I only put foundation or tinted moisturizer on center of my face than everywhere.
See, I told you it was exciting.
It’s more of a convenience than a fit, and it’s evolved from the usual time I wear a turtleneck or high neck jumper. Because who wants foundation up to their neck when their neck is going to be drowning in wool? Heck, who even wants a base on them chin, when their chin is permanently rubbed against the wool roll? Not me.
So I use face foundation sparingly and lightly and only on the center of the face and not all the way to the edges which, in fact, is the only part that tends to need foundation anyway. Face contours rarely have a lot of annoying bits going on.
This skin-perfecting approach is best done with a sheerer foundation or tinted moisturizer, which is forgiving and super blendable. If you try to do this with a long opaque base then you will probably run into problems. My current shade of choice? Still ILIA Skin Tint (I use shade ST7) with its great shine. You can find it here online*.
Tweak Two
My next little fancy twist in makeup history is using blush on my eyes. I know! What has happened to me? I saw Katie-Jane Hughes (amazing makeup artist) do this on Instagram to line her eyes with blush and it was so easy and fun and fresh, and the pink isn’t actually right around the eyes so it doesn’t look like with rabbit from Watership Down… It’s just a quick bosh with the brush on the outer edges and then blended – watch the video below to see it in action.
You can use whatever is left on the brush from doing cheeks. It doesn’t really matter if it’s a cream or powder blush, but I used the amazing Freshfaced Cream Blush from Beauty Pie here*. (Remember to use RUTHSENTME if you’re a new customer signing up and you’re going to get a little out of the subscription.)
Tweak Three
Not even a tweak, so I’m starting to feel like this whole exercise is a lie, but I’ll keep going. It’s just a clumsy, dark eye crayon in the outer corners in an upward-facing wedge, blended out to lift the eyes and make them look less tired. All it does (again, you have to watch the how-to video) is bend the lash line upwards so that the outer corners look like they’re sitting a few mm higher than before. Small, subtle change but it’s extremely effective. If you want a stronger optical illusion, do it with a solid line of eyeliner, but it’s harder to achieve than the splodge-of-wedge-and-blend-it method. I used the excellent Vieve Eye Wand in coffee, here*.
Tweak Four
I honestly can’t even remember what that was and I have to go back and watch the video. PLEASE WAIT. I only had five bloody things to remember! I’d be trash on Kim’s Game now. It used to be almost champion level.
OK the fourth tweak is to glue the eyebrows using Brow Freeze. You already know about it if you’ve read it previous makeup post but you must see them laminated and waxed and glued in place in the video. This Brow Freeze is amazing – my brows end up about half an inch higher than my face! Some may think this is a bad thing, I really like it for a change. It’s a bit like when you move your bed to a different wall and it’s like you don’t even know who you are anymore. But instead, rearrange your facial features. Feng Shui face.
You can find Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Freeze here* – I would recommend, and I am surprised here, that you get the special applicator that you have to buy separately. Because my way of plunging the brow brush into an awkward angle is not very convenient.
Tweak Five
The gloss on a stick. Apparently these Revlon Super Lustrous Glass Shine lipsticks have gone viral on Tiktok. If I could use Tiktok without crashing Tiktok, having to log out of Tiktok, and having to reset my Tiktok password every time, then I would spend a lot more time on Tiktok, but as it stands I don’t have the energy to this. I keep getting told to use it and upload videos there, but it’s so…chaotic. And noisy. Everyone is pointing at things on the screen, or talking out loud, or dancing. You feel like you are stuck in an arcade game.
So I’ll take everyone’s word for it that these lipsticks are the new craze – it makes sense too, because they really are great. As glossy as a gloss, but without the stickiness, they actually plump up lips properly with no effort at all. And they are moisturizing. Sincerely. I felt the results long after the color was removed.
My favorite shade is Strawberry – find it on LookFantastic here* and almost nowhere else because everywhere seems to be out of stock!
Great, we got through with these changes, didn’t we? Now you only have the video to watch. Get to it…
I have my hair cut and dyed The Suite in Bath (not an ad, I’ve always paid, I just like to call them and they always ask me!).
My pink jumper was a kind gift from my friends Scamp & Buddy
