Help for a Newbie

First I'd like to start by appologizing if I've put this in the wrong forum.

I'm new to most makeup and skin care in general. I really dont know anything at all. I'm 28 and I've wandered through most of my life with the minimalist care about make up and skin-care. I don't wear make-up every day, infact I'm lucky if I put on once every couple of months.

Recently I've decided that I'd like to take better care of my skin and would like to figure out this make-up thing, but as i stroll the internet looking for tips and ideas whith just where to start im completely overwhelmed. Most stuff on the internet is super advanced stuff, or assume that you have at least some basic grasp on makeup and skin care. I don't, Not at all.

So I'm going to ask a series of questions. Perhaps I can get some answers, and would be greatful with any additional tips.

I'll tell you a bit about my skin. I seem to  have combination skin for the most part. It is neither very dry or very oily.  I have what seems to be roseatia on one of my cheeks (Patchy Red, sometimes flakey, and sometimes pimply [for lack of a better word]), I have very dark circles around both of my eyes. My pores seem to be fairly large and visible, and I am plauged with blackheads on my nose (as everyone seems to be).

The foundation of make up is great skincare, right?

- Can anyone explain to me a basic skin care routine?

-- Do you wash your face Twice a day, Morning and night?

-- Is Toner nesscessary?

-- Do you use different moisturizer for night and day?

-- Are there other things that should be done?

-- Masks? Exfolation? Etc?

On to the make up Part.

I dont know anything about applying makeup at all. I don't have the money or desire at this point to buy expensive makeups, So things that are fairly inexpensive or that can be easily picked up at a drug store would be great.

- What are the most basic needed makeup brushes?

-- What would you reccomend as a bare minimum to someone who has no brushes at all?

- What order does make up even go on in?

-- What is nesscessary to get smooth natural looking makeup?

-- Is it nesscessary to set with powder?

Every youtube tutorial I see online does things differently, and im super confused on how to even go about it. Up to this point inmy life my makeup consisted of some foundation, Mascara, a liiiiiitle bit of eye liner, and some blush. I had no idea what consealer actually was or was used for in practical purposes (or more like i didn't know what the difference between foundation and consealer was), I have no idea how to do eyeshadow in any effective manner.

I recently bought consealer and have been using it in attempt to cover the super dark circles under my eyes. It works ok, but it doesn't cover them remotely good enough, in my honest oppinion, and i'm not quite sure what i can do to help bridge the gap.

Thank you in advance for anyhelp anyone may offer. I'm a hot mess, I know and I appriciate your time.

No one then? Thats rather disappointing.

Hi! Welcome MUT!

Somehow I missed this post. Sorry about that! I'll try to answer the best I can and I hope others will chime in as well.

Skincare:

You want to make sure you use a cleanser, toner and a moisturizer at least once a day. This should be done at night time to remove any makeup you might have on your skin. A serum would be great to use under the moisturizer as well but that is more of a bonus item. Toner is necessary because it removes the residue of the cleanser and any makeup left still after cleansing and it prepares the skin for the moisturizer. In the morning, you can either just rinse the skin with water or use a cleanser and use a toner and a moisturizer with SPF for day time. The moisturizer for night time is typically different from day time. In the day time moisturizer you want to have an SPF and at night time it's not necessary. Masks and scrubs are great too and should be used 1-3 times a week depending on the product and the skin type. The product usually has instructions on how often it can be used in a week.

Makeup:

A simple makeup routine that would also look pretty natural is, a tinted moisturizer, powder, blush, eye shadow, mascara and lipstick/lipgloss. Maybelline has a nudes eye shadow palette that is a great beginner palette. You can just do a light all over color with one of the neutral tones in the palette and if you want to get fancier, you can use a light color all over the lid and then darker in the crease. Covergirl has great mascaras. L'oreal and covergirl lipsticks are great. NYX and Elf are great brands for all types of makeup as well and inexpensive. Sonia Kashuk brush sets are great for beginners and so are Elf and Eco tools. Maybe try a different concealer if you are not happy with results and maybe try applying it with a concealer brush to see if there is a difference. Some people prefer to do their face makeup first before the eyes and some do it the opposite. The more you play with makeup, the more you will find what you are more comfortable with. /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20">

Hope this helps.

Agree with everything above.

Just want to add a bit. You asked about mask and exfoliation. Consider masks treatment products. They are used to address specific problems. There are masks to hydrate, firm, shrink pores, etc. They are used less frequently, maybe once or twice a week. But only if you feel you need them.

I consider exfoliation more of a necessity, although I don't do it daily. They remove dead skin cells and can help a lot if your skin seems a bit dull or dry. 

I just wanted to add a few words about concealer, as I see you are a little bit mixed up about it... On my blog I recently answered the most popular questions about how to choose and apply them. So here are some of the answers, which you might find helpful for yourself:

There is such a variety of formulations! I don’t know which to choose.

It depends on the coverage you need. Different formulations give different coverage. To have a better idea what coverage a concealer offers, pay attention on the packaging:

• The most pigmented are stick and pot concealers; they are quite thick, slightly dry in texture, have opaque finish and provide the greatest coverage, which makes them perfect for covering spots, broken veins or anywhere on the face where you have discoloration/redness.
• In case you do not wear much makeup, choose tubes, pens, wands. They are easier to blend and lighter in texture; creamy concealers usually give better coverage than liquidy concealers.

If you buy one concealer, make it creamy and opaque one, they are the most practical and do their job perfectly.

I have dark circles under the eyes. What kind of concealer will work for me?

• A light reflecting concealer that it is 1-2 shades lighter than your skin tone. It also must provide a good coverage.
• A white concealer that can be mixed with a beige-colored concealer, it adds a brightening effect and disguises dark circles effectively. Also, it can be used as a highlighter (Trainee, you can use this tip when you will feel more confident about applying makeup).

Should concealer match my skin tone or be slightly lighter?

• It’s all up to your preference. However, in case you decide to go lighter, the difference between your skin tone and the shade of a concealer should not be striking, it has to be only 1/2 shade lighter, or 1-2 shades lighter in case of dark circles under the eyes.​
• When choosing a concealer at the shop, apply it along the jaw line and look at it in natural light. Keep in mind that the color has to blend in perfectly with your foundation.​

Hi @ welcome to MakeupTalk! Sorry I wish that I saw this sooner! Hopefully these will answer your questions/just some general advice - and don't ever forget it is never to late to learn about makeup and skincare! Once you get the hang of it, it will become super easy!

- Yeah the internet can be confusing at times! Start to just look up basic tutorials, and then you can get to things like contouring and "baking" (you will find that in the makeup community, or at least part of it you could say, comes up with all of these trends that are sometimes just either too much, or have been around for ages) once you have figured out the basics!

- I have terrible dark circles too! Just wanted to let you know before you get your hopes up, if they are hereditary (genetic), I would say (my opinion) that it is impossible to get them away! Makeup can help though with the appearance of them greatly though! (Little side note actually the first product I ever used makeup-wise was my Mom's old Covergirl concealer to try to cover my dark circles around when I was eight! I used to get so upset when people would think I was sick or tired!)

- Basic skin care (not saying you have to do all of this, just really depends on your skin)

Wash at least once a day - I do this in the shower in the morning and sometimes at night, my skin hardly breaks out/ is dirty so I mostly just wash my face once a day, which is something I have to work on myself! I would say wash your face more if it is more oily (I have combination skin as well)

Exfoliating your skin is super important, and really helps with dry skin, and just getting all of the dead skin off! I do this every 2-3 days in the shower as well

Adding moisture to your skin is important, in the day time try to use a light weight lotion that will be good under makeup, and at night a heavy cream for our skin to soak up (again, depending on skin type)

^And do not forget the eyecream!

Again, I will admit I'm rather lazy so at night what I usually do is just use a cleansing towelette to take of my makeup and think to myself that it is reasonable to use that and skip washing my face. But when you go to bed get every bit of makeup off your face!
 

I would recommend using a toner morning and night too, there are so many different ones for so many things. For example I have ones to help with acne and others to give lots of moisture to my face

Masks are good too, but I would say the other steps are more important

And spot-treatment is great for acne at night!

Now for the makeup:

For what you said you own, the way you should apply things is:

Foundation

Concealer

Blush

Eye Liner

Mascara

My recommendations for you right now are to get a powder to set your foundation and concealer (A good drugstore option is the Rimmel Stay Matte in translucent), and for concealer use a shade perfect for your skin tone for your face (blemishes, redness, etc), and a corrector (Pixi at Target makes a great one! A little bit pricey for drugstore, but a great drugstore corrector option!) and brightener (to use over your corrector, I would look at the Maybelline Instant Age Rewinds. They actually have a neutralizer shade you could try for the corrector as well, but I have never tried that one personally. The brightener should be only one-two shades lighter than your skin tone. Any lighter makes for bad results!).

Now for brushes I do not think that they are super important for you at this point, you can use a brush for foundation if you want but at your sage right now I think your hands is fine. Blush you will want a new brush though, and you will want one for your powder. I recommend for on a budget the individual ones that Elf sells in their black packaging (the Studio series).

And to get the most natural look to the skin get a setting spray like the MAC Fix+! This one is not to make your makeup last longer, but to make it look great! (This is great when you over-powder too). This is not drugstore, but not too bad and can be used for many things if you look it up online!

Anyways hope this helped!! If you have any questions just let me know! /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

Thanks for the tips everyone. I'm pretty sure I had some more questions, but I'll think on it for a little bit.

Queennie said:

Now for the makeup:

For what you said you own, the way you should apply things is:

Foundation

Concealer

Click to expand...

You put the concealer over the foundation? My concealer is a bit lighter than my skin and foundation, so I had been putting it under my foundation. Is this wrong?

Forgive me, first post here, as I've had trouble doing an introduction post.

Regarding foundation first: if you only had a couple of small blemishes, you could get away with concealer first. But from what you've said about your skin, using foundation first will give you a better gauge or where and how much concealer is needed.

Aduah said:

Thanks for the tips everyone. I'm pretty sure I had some more questions, but I'll think on it for a little bit.

You put the concealer over the foundation? My concealer is a bit lighter than my skin and foundation, so I had been putting it under my foundation. Is this wrong?

Click to expand...

Yes for me I put my concealer over my foundation, but everyone does things differently and there is really no rules on how to apply your makeup, do whatever makes you feel good!

The reason why I do this though is first let me tell you have I have a warm skin tone (more golden, olive, or bronzy than say pink (cool tone), or think that my skin looks better with gold than silver), and my very dark, purple based dark circles.

Since my skin is so warm, and salmon/peachy shade to counter-act my dark circles does not look too noticeably different than my skin tone. After adding the highlighter over the corrector too also helps with not really having it matter if my concealer goes on top over below my foundation.

For the skin I would always recommend putting concealer over foundation, as foundation can cover the imperfection, allowing you to use less concealer.

Hope this helps!