“Beauty shines from within and makeup frames that.”

-Andrew C. Petersen

To put it bluntly: my frame was busted. And I was in need of a serious retouch  - with all the brushes.

And so it began ….

With the help of Christina of Good Graces Photography I was able to document my makeup application lesson with Andrew. Under the often unforgiving fluorescent lighting of my office (Location selected on purpose, because let’s be honest – how many places do you know that have perfect lighting? Exactly.), I sat down with zero makeup on my face and braced myself for what was about to unfold.

First step begins with skin care.  Daily washing of your face in the morning and at night and use an exfoliate (with round beads, NO grains!) at least once a week, or whatever works best for your skin. And then hydrate, always always hydrate with a moisturizer and never forget the SPF (interesting fact about SPF coming up Thursday that I’d never known before!). After swiping a cleansing cloth over my face, Andrew used a really light moisturizing primer. Good thing I learned about primer, it moisturizes and fills in the little cracks.

Primer: “Its like putting a slip on under your skirt.”

Best explanation I’ve ever heard. Once your skin is ready, its time to get your brush on. And it starts with the eyes. One of many lessons I learned that day – always start with the eyes.

*Note: I tend to go rather natural with my makeup for everyday and at the office. Andrew walked me through on how to Take A Step Up if I’m meeting people out for drinks after work as well as a Night Time Sassy for hitting the town. These steps can easily be tailored to you with your matching color palette.

Eyes

Why start there? “Women tend to wear too much foundation. When you start with the eyes you’re nearly half way done when you finish them.” Starting with the eyes also make clean up of smudges or powder sprinkles much easier when there’s not other makeup to wipe away.

• With chin up, looking down apply an eye base (primer) all over the lid of your eye and don’t forget the corner. This evens skin tone and, if you’re a natural fan like me, can be used as your eye color for a natural look. Apply this with a brush (the same as the one you use as your concealer) or your finger tip.
• After your eye base add a light color to the ball of your eye, i.e. from your lash line up to the crease.
• Mascara – Hold the mascara wand upwards and swipe across the bottom of your lashes. This helps separate them to avoid the clumpy tarantula eyes (scary). For your top lashes hold the wand flat and swipe them up your lashes, wiggling the wand a bit to help with separation.  When completed use a mascara brush (or another tool I’ll mention Thursday) to separate even further if needed.

• Clean up: This is a big reason you do your eyes first! Use a Q-Tip to touch up any areas that you see fit. The shadow doesn’t get caught in concealer or your foundation because it’s not on yet. Always use a Q-Tip – so much easier than smudging it around with your finger.

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• Take it Up a Notch: With a beveled brush do a windshield wiper motion in the crease of your eye with a slightly darker color than that on the ball of your eye. Aim to cover 3/4ths of the crease.
• Use a powder Eye Liner, with a brush, to lightly line your top lid. As for the bottom, line as far as you have lashes. (I always had questions about that – never understood the half way situation.) Don’t worry if the shadow sprinkles off or you get out of line. Another reason to put eyes first, ladies!

• Night Time Sassy: Take a darker eye color to the outer corner of your eye and brush up slightly from the lash line. (Andrew used a dark charcoal on me.) A technique I had never done before but provides great, subtle results. *Understanding the whole, less is more theory finally.
• Use a brow pencil (that matches the color of your hair) to trace your brow and lightly brush out. *I had never used a brow pencil but I was a big fan after I saw what it can do when used properly. It’s something I experiment with – I’m learning my way of the brow.

Foundation / Concealer / Powder

Once your eyes are completed it’s time to move on to the rest of your face. This is the part I’m usually cautious about. I’m weary of liquid foundations because I don’t like to feel that cakey feeling some can leave. Andrew urged me to step out of my box and try a light foundation with an SPF in it. So I sat back, said You’re the Boss, Apple Sauce (not really, but I thought it) and decided to see what happened. Well, he was right about trying out different brands and types until you find one that feels right – because I might have fallen in love with the bottle of foundation that morning. Important notes to remember about the whole Foundation / Powder / Concealer order:

Liquid Foundation before Powder
Liquid Foundation before Concealer
Concealer before Powder

Foundation: Andrew put my foundation on with a brush and during this point I realized how little you really need to use. And you don’t have to cover every surface of your face. <–I’d been completely mistaken since day 1 on that. Good to finally know and see for myself!

*Great tips and insider information on Foundation in Thursday’s post.

Concealer: Use the wand to put concealer on your face first then a brush (can be same brush as your eye base after cleaning it off – more on brushes Thursday!) to blend it in. Dab concealer on the creases of your nose first - “We all get red here, it’s not just you, don’t worry!” – to even out skin tone. Then small triangles under your eyes to counter act pesky little bags. Dab the brush in the areas you want to conceal, rather than swipe the brush, to help the concealer cover the desired areas better.

Powder: Run a light sweep of pressed powder (or loose but I’m a clutz and spill it everywhere, and I just got a new makeup bag that I don’t want it to fall out in) over your face. Dab the powder in areas, such as the crease under your bottom lip, that you want to cover a little more and sweep the brush for the rest.

Blush :: Bronzer

“My colors are blush and bashful…I have chosen two shades of pink, one is much deeper than the other” – Steel Magnolias

I’ve always had issues with blush and bronzer. Blush in a sense that I get confused on exactly where to put it and how far to go and well, you know the blush struggle. But Andrew showed me exactly where blush should go and even pointed out that I had selected (after years of trials with this one) the correct blush color for me. (Yay! Fist pump.) So where does blush go?

On the High Apple of your Smile

Now with bronzer it was always more of a color / quantity control situation. I used to think of bronzer as a chance to turn my entire face and color a nice golden tan. <– Thank goodness that statement is in the past tense. For my skin tone Andrew suggested I go with a pink-based bronzer.

I knew bronzer is meant to highlight features but again, I had no clue how to do that…until I was introduced to the E & 3 method.  With your brush start at your forehead and trace a light E (forehead to mid cheek to chin) on one side of your face then do the same but trace a light 3 on the other side. Trace a light line down your nose and even lighter on your esophagus. *Note: this is the only time you put makeup anywhere other than your face.

Night Time Sassy: Use a light highlighter on the cheek bone, brow bone and the inner corner of your eye. The highlighter Andrew used on me was a light, cream-based color he simply dabbed on with the brush.

Lips

For my lips Andrew used a chubby lip pencil and gloss. I like to keep my lips natural 90% of the time so this was right up my ally! Easy to carry with me and touch up throughout the day and still look great? Sold. And with this route I didn’t have to worry about trying to trace the outline of my non-existent top lip and wonder should I fill in or not fill in and…yea. The chubby pencil took away those worries and gloss (which he said I can switch with my Rosebud Salve whenever I please because the pencil will still provide a touch of color) adds that splash of shine everyone loves!

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Put it all together and this is my transformation:

And there you have it. Exactly how Mr. Andrew C. Petersen walked me through step by step in the makeup application process. *I might have missed a few details here and there on accident. (Andrew, please forgive me if I did!) The best part was that he would show me something and then have me do the other side. When I looked in the mirror I knew he didn’t just make me over, whirl my chair around and give a Taadaaa! I did part of it myself. Having the confidence of knowing you can walk out and with a little practice do it yourself every day makes the world of difference. Trust me on that one.

Overall, my every day makeup averages about 20 – 30 minutes. Before that might have been a bit of a pain trying to squeeze that in to my mornings, but now…now I don’t mind waking up a little earlier each day to take some time for myself.

I totally deserve it.

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*Believe it or not – I left out about 1/3 of everything we talked and laughed about in this post. But don’t you worry, that’s why there’s another post with more tips, tricks and some of his hilarious one liners coming to you on Thursday morning.  Stay tuned …..

* THANK YOU *

To Andrew for showing me the way & to Christina for capturing it all.

*To read all the posts in my series with Andrew, please click here.