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Ok, so sometimes we get people posting pictures asking for help. Let's turn it into a game where everyone can play!

I sometimes think I trust you ladies' and gents' judgement better than the people at the beauty counters.

So, I recently had this picture taken of me and my boyfriend and noticed how freaking washed out I looked next to him. I need help!

What should I do? What should I apply?

The bad thing is I'm actually wearing foundation, concealer, brow pencil, setting powder, blush, mascara, and tightlined my upper lash line with brown liner.

I don't see anything on my face, and my blush isn't showing up and my lipstick work off and I just look... really bad. Granted, I did just get off an overnight flight right before the picture- but still!

Also, I feel like my hair is clashing with my skintone- it looks brassy next to my pink undertones.

What should I do?

Help me, please, ladies- tell me what to apply! Also, feel free to tell me how cute my boyfriend is. ;) /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

qog2uu.jpg


 
If I can pretend for a minute that that is someone else and not myself, here's what I would suggest (please, tell me if you agree):

1. Try bronzer

2. Try contouring

3. More blush, but use a more neutral color, such as Tarte Exposed

4. Get a long-lasting lipstick

5. Get some dewy highlighter action going

6. Tone your hair to remove the brassiness

7. Smile less like a weirdo

8. Get a nose ring to distract from your weird nose.

9. Start wearing scarves on your neck to detract from the wrinkles.

 
Please help me! You don't have to be as hard on me as I was on myself (and hopefully you know I won't be as hard on you as I was myself if you decide to post your photo too) but I just want some help!

Every time I go to get a makeover they go way too far and I just need to know what I should focus on.

 
You shouldn't compare your skin tone to his -- you're very fair-skinned naturally. I think your skin looks great in that photo -- you just look fair-skinned, not sickly. 

If you want a little more color, a bit of bronzer could do that, but you don't want to overdo it and make it look mask-like. Choose the color carefully. Too Faced makes a really nice multishade one called Snow Bunny that would work well for fair skin. (I personally love that one, and my skin's not all that much darker than yours, and I think it's mostly because I have about nine gajillion more freckles.)

I'd just suggest a little more pop of color on the cheeks (but not overdone -- I think we fair-skinned girls have to walk a pretty fine line between 'glowy' and 'OMFG, when did I sign up for clown college?'), and a longer-lasting lip color. Perhaps a stain would work, if you don't find it too drying. 

Also, I think subtle eyeshadow would do wonders to bring out your very pretty eyes. The complement of blue is orange, so you my want to look at things in that color family. I'm not sure what brands you favor, but if you want an inexpensive and low-key way to try out shadows, NYX has a series of colors in their Nude Matte line that would fit the bill. Those run about $5 each, and Ulta often has them on BOGO50. There's one shade with a name that escapes me that's a matte golden-bronzey medium brown. 

I don't think your hair looks brassy, either -- but I'm a natural ginger, and in the sunlight, my hair looks like molten copper, gold, and bronze sorta swirled together, so I'm not the best judge.

 
I’ll play! And I’m really excited to see what you do with everyone’s advice. It would be great to see some after photos!

OK, I see the list of makeup used for that photo, and don’t see much of it. But that’s a thing - the ‘wear makeup to enhance your natural beauty while looking like you’re not wearing any makeup at all approach’. Problem is 1) some of you makeup has worn off, 2) it’s important to choose a strategy (colour, placement, product) that most enhances your natural beauty and key features, and 3) You need to embrace your features, complexion, and natural beauty so you can enjoy using makeup as an enhancement or even as a focus-feature in your beauty.

foundation - Though you used it, in the photo it’s worn off or it doesn’t work effectively for colour balancing. Your fair skin-tone is beautiful and the envy of many, but to show it off, you want to reduce the annoying redness showing here. Try either a green colour-balancing product (specifically on the tip of your nose, the area under your nose and above the lips - careful not to over apply there, and the middle of the chin), or a fair cream concealer that matches your skin tone. The concealer can also be used to mask blemishes. Your eye area looks good (and I’m mentioning it as you’re doing well with that common problem area). Set these or immediately move on to applying your foundation, and set after that. You could do balancing after foundation too, but make sure to avoid a green tinge of over-applying a balancer.
Also, make sure you don’t fall into the trap of getting an overly pink foundation because you see the pink in your face. Focus on your neck, and matching that, as once you have muted the redness on your face, you will find a truly matching foundation will have more yellow tones in it than you might have previously expected.
brows - Look good!
tightlining - OK, this is popular and many are doing it for good reasons, but you and I have what I would describe as ‘a bit smaller’ eyes with slightly downturned corners. I find tight lining can be a problem as it makes the eye seem smaller and can tend to enhance the appearance of droop at the corner. You want to use black/brown lines to your advantage. Lining the outer 3/4 of the upper lid above the lashes can have the effect of opening up your eyes and making you look less tired. For a more dramatic look, you could also line the entire upper lash-line, but avoid lining anything more than the outer 1/4 of the lower lash (under the lashes) to avoid ‘closing-in’ your eyes.
mascara - If you can curl/directionally crimp your upper lashes so they point a lot more up (and use a product that helps to keep that curl), it would look marvelous and work wonders in opening up your eyes.
eyes - I agree the bronze/gold/copper/orange/brown family is your friend for shadows. You have a fantastic lid space to work with and a beautiful eye-colour. So it’s not too wild to start with how about playing with a three-tone combo just on the movable upper lid? From eye to outer corner, in thirds, apply a vanilla, soft copper, and intense deeper orange/copper / brown. An even softer option would be half vanilla, half copper. In either case, take the outer colour into the outer half of the crease and just a bit above to enhance the look. As you start to enjoy the effect, play with more true orange tones. Don’t worry, they can still work with a pink lip too. Try full lid looks as you can do so many things with the area you have. Highlighting under the brow with the colour from the inner corner would work well. If the liner and eye shadow combination feels ‘too much’ right now, you can also do only eyeshadow and see how that works. That outer brown shadow can also be used for a soft eyeliner if you want to add just a touch more. Pink as an eye-shadow colour is unlikely to be your friend given your complexion. 
blush - Once the pink in your face is toned down, you will suit a red-pink blush beautifully. I would encourage you to try something like Alima Garnet - a fresh cool red blush. The intensity of this can be controlled with light application with a good ‘fibre-optic style' brush so you don’t get clown cheeks with it. But an evenly built up application of a cool red blush would be great! I would say you would have more risk of an inappropriate look with a more baby pink, actually! You can experiment with warmer toned blushes, and see what you think. My suspicion is that it will be easier to work with the reds and rose-brown tones than the apricots for you, as you’re already getting enough of the orange family in the eyes. With a lot of brown and orange all over your face, there’s the risk of starting to look muddy. It’s fun sometimes, but think of the blonde bronzed beachy beauty look of Charlie’s Angels and Farrah Fawcett. It’s almost more a costume than a look on me.
lips - You can play with this a lot. I think great colours are raspberries, mauves, berries in general, warm pinks, cool reds, and the occasional cool orange, just for fun. Light pink is unlikely to do good things. The intense colours will flatter you with your hair and skin-tone contrasts.
bronzer/contour - Sure, but only for ‘extra makeup days'. I would find a cool soft brown powder (pressed or otherwise). Do not apply all over. Use it with a large soft brush on the temples, the hairline, and just under your cheekbones. Carefully apply at/under the jawline only if you can apply without it looking overdone - you don’t need more definition there, I might skip that entirely.
highlighter - Again this is an extra. Good spots for light application would be the cupids bow - middle above lip; top of orbital bone below your eye, just on the outer third of the face; and on the eyelids if you aren’t doing eyeshadow.
The above two - bronzer/highlighter are not too important for daily wear for you in my opinion, seeing what you do now. You would get a lot more mileage out of balancing your skin tone, then being able to use a great blush, and emphasizing your eyes. The going ‘too far’ you see with makeovers can be avoided more easily if you don’t apply these, or apply them gently, and alternate intense eye and lip days.
hair - I think it’s nice. AND I don’t think you need scarves for anything! other than fashion...
nose - It stands out in this photo only due to the redness at the tip. Ornaments draw the eye -to- the feature, not away, so unless that is your objective, I might avoid that as a strategy.

Please do post what you try! I'd love to see it. Good luck. :) /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

 
Oh my gosh, you guys! I love you!!!!!

I really, really, really and truly appreciate all those detailed tips you guys just gave me. You can't ever know how much it's helping me! It's just good to hear from someone who wants to help instead of just rushing me through a makeover, you know?

Ok, I'm going to take many of these tips to hand, will definitey post what I did with your tips!

I want to get a red-based blush, such as Tarte's Natural Beauty to try, since you suggested that instead of pink. I think it would be amazing. I'll also have to try out a more full-coverage concealer or foundation, and maybe one that matches my neck better, rather than my face. I might try a green base first, to cancel out redness.

Again, thank you so much, and I'll post back here when I get to try out my new look!

 
I'd just suggest a little more pop of color on the cheeks (but not overdone -- I think we fair-skinned girls have to walk a pretty fine line between 'glowy' and 'OMFG, when did I sign up for clown college?')

Also, make sure you don’t fall into the trap of getting an overly pink foundation because you see the pink in your face. Focus on your neck, and matching that, as once you have muted the redness on your face, you will find a truly matching foundation will have more yellow tones in it than you might have previously expected.

tightlining - OK, this is popular and many are doing it for good reasons, but you and I have what I would describe as ‘a bit smaller’ eyes with slightly downturned corners. I find tight lining can be a problem as it makes the eye seem smaller and can tend to enhance the appearance of droop at the corner. You want to use black/brown lines to your advantage. Lining the outer 3/4 of the upper lid above the lashes can have the effect of opening up your eyes and making you look less tired.

blush - Once the pink in your face is toned down, you will suit a red-pink blush beautifully. I would encourage you to try something like Alima Garnet - a fresh cool red blush.

Please do post what you try! I'd love to see it. Good luck. :) /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

Ok ladies! I totally took your advice, and boy, was it ever good advice! I'm so happy with my look and I didn't even use lipstick, mascara, or bronzer/highlight. Just taking a few of your suggestions to heart did wonders!

The best thing was to use a blush color more suited to my face- with reddish tones rather than pink. And also to use more of it!

Also, I took your advice and used a more yellow-y foundation and I really like what it's done for my face!

I also stopped tightlining and tried my hand at a cat eye instead.

Here, see for yourself! (The only thing I wish I had left off was the navy cat eye- I should have just applied mascara instead!)

photo42_zpsdec49801.jpg


What I am wearing (put this look together at a Sephora after work today):

Foundation: BareMinerals BareSkin in Bare Linen

Blush: Tarte Natural Beauty

Eyebrows: Anastasia brow powder duo in Taupe (using just the lighter shade) and Anastasia's clear brow gel

Lips: Bite Agave lip mask in 'Champagne'

Eyes: Smashbox gel liner in navy

That's it! I didn't even do mascara, like I said.... I kept it simple, but what a world of difference for me! I love it! THe foundation cancelled out my read like whoa! And the red blush added back the natural flush I have, but only in the desirable places.

So awesome!

So, what do you ladies think?

I still have to experiment with my eyes!

 
Ok ladies! I totally took your advice, and boy, was it ever good advice! I'm so happy with my look and I didn't even use lipstick, mascara, or bronzer/highlight. Just taking a few of your suggestions to heart did wonders!

The best thing was to use a blush color more suited to my face- with reddish tones rather than pink. And also to use more of it!

Also, I took your advice and used a more yellow-y foundation and I really like what it's done for my face!

I also stopped tightlining and tried my hand at a cat eye instead.

Here, see for yourself! (The only thing I wish I had left off was the navy cat eye- I should have just applied mascara instead!)

photo42_zpsdec49801.jpg


What I am wearing (put this look together at a Sephora after work today):

Foundation: BareMinerals BareSkin in Bare Linen

Blush: Tarte Natural Beauty

Eyebrows: Anastasia brow powder duo in Taupe (using just the lighter shade) and Anastasia's clear brow gel

Lips: Bite Agave lip mask in 'Champagne'

Eyes: Smashbox gel liner in navy

That's it! I didn't even do mascara, like I said.... I kept it simple, but what a world of difference for me! I love it! THe foundation cancelled out my read like whoa! And the red blush added back the natural flush I have, but only in the desirable places.

So awesome!

So, what do you ladies think?

I still have to experiment with my eyes!
So agreed, you look fantastic and the changes made a world of difference. You look younger, more rested, and happy! With the adjusted emphasis on features and great skin-tone, your nose looks like a perfect part of the beautiful look - another plus!, and I wouldn't consider it something to hide or try to distract from at all. I'm glad you went for it with the red blush - we fair-toned ladies sometimes feel we need to stick with those lighter colours, which sometimes muddy up the look and make the blush obvious rather than enhancing beauty the way the red does if you have the guts to go there. And it was totally worth it! I often apply blush just like this (as you have done) as it is a youthful fresh look that is easy and natural. If you want to create a more sophisticated look for an evening out, you could alternatively focus the blush from the hairline from the top of the ear along the top of the lower cheekbone, with less product coming into the apples of the cheeks. For regular daily wear, with my personality, I feel this second look is overly pretentious for me, but it's handy to have in the repertoire and fun for an evening out or an event where you want to appear more sophisticated.

Your eyes look wonderful - they are opened up by the liner on the upper lid, which I think looks great. I like it! I don't think it's too much. I can't see if you did a cat-eye wing-tip because of the photo angle, but if you don't like that part, no worries. You could still use the liner in the same position without winging it out. I usually don't as it doesn't tend to suit my 'a bit' reserved personality. I'm guessing you used a light eye shadow/pencil/highlighter/concealer in the inner corner of the eyes to brighten them and that works well too. If that's just natural yay for you! Using mascara will further emphasize your eyes, but do make sure to curl/crimp the lashes so they work in your favour to open up your eyes. The liner/mascara is a subjective choice. Both together will certainly make you look more made-up, so you'll have to see if you like it or prefer a more minimal daytime look. I often will stick with the liner, and add more and smudge it up, add a touch at the bottom outer corner (never more than half of the lid below the lashes), and finish with mascara for the evening.

Your skin-tone is much improved with this approach and it gives you a more naturally tanned/healthy look already without the extra step of bronzer! And your hair now looks like it's definitely a part of what is positive because the redness in your skin is no longer disrupting that.

Congrats on the look. I look forward to see what further things you try!

 
You did a great job. I too would like to see you try doing your eye with a bronze shadow or liner, or UD's basics palette (browns). I have a similar complexion (pale with pink undertones) blue eyes and some red areas on my face. I love the color green but browns and coppers (and deep plums) look best on me. Also since you have awesome cheeks, I'd recommend trying a color like Chantecaille's "wind" or "winter bloom" cheek colors which look very natural on fair skin women (put in the hollow of the cheek rather than the apple, pucker your lips like a fish and you'll see where its supposed to go). I know Chantecaille isn't a common brand (nordstrom, neiman marcus), but maybe just google it to see the colors I'm thinking of.

 

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