Makeup Rules To Live By

I think I have always had a major love for the beauty industry as a whole. I can fondly remember playing with my mothers red Clinique lipstick, in its perfect silver tube, back in 1995.

And after hours and hours of YouTube, magazines, and department store counters, I like to think I now know a thing or two about makeup. Here are a few of my CAN'T-LIVE-WITHOUT-MUST-DO-OR-I'LL-DIE tips I've accumulated over the years. They are fool proof, and a lot of them you may already be doing. Thumbs up if you are!

1) Layer Blushes. This means smile into the mirror, find the apples of your cheeks, apply a matte blush, and then follow up with a subtle-shimmer blush right on top of that. It will instantly give your face extra dimension.

2) Always highlight your face. If you can't be bothered with contouring, at least highlight the important places...the inner corner of your eyes, cheekbones, tip of nose, top of lip.

3) Prime your eyelids. Find an awesome primer, slap it on your lids, and then apply shadow. If you are anything like me, there is nothing worse than all that hard work creasing at the end of the day!

4) Use brow gel. It’s like hairspray for the face. It makes a HUGE difference, especially on the days you aren't fooling around with penciling/shading/plucking/waxing/drawing your eyebrows.

5) Check your brush sizes. You would be AMAZED at what the right makeup brush can do for your face. Sometimes it's not the product that isn't working, as much as it is the tool you are applying it with.

6) Liner before lipstick. I hate reapplying lip products. It's sort of a pet peeve of mine. So, to keep everything lasting all day, I line my entire lips first, and then apply my lipstick. And for added longevity, I powder them as well.

7) Conceal your lips. Speaking of lips, if you are going with a nude color and it separates and looks all funky...consider applying concealer all over them first as a "white-out" effect, then apply your favorite nude

8) Set it all with makeup spray. No joke. Like, 5-6 sprays all over the face before you walk out of the house. It keeps the grease at bay, and the perfection in place! Sometimes I mist multiple times a day if I'm super busy.

9) 3 coats of mascara. False lashes are fun, don't get me wrong. But you couldn't PAY me to apply them everyday with all the other steps going on with my face. So, I just apply 3 coats of mascara. Let them dry in-between coats.

10) Bronze. A little like contouring, just not as advanced. I bronze around the hairline, in the hollows of my cheeks, and under my chin. That way it hides my multiple chins, and makes me look like a Victoria Secret model (jk).