beauty basics Archives - Illuminate Beauty

Oily Skin Care Tips

JoEllen — Mon, 07 May 2018 13:00:59 +0000

Oily Skin Care Tips

For all you oily skinned girls out there, this is for you!! Oily skin is a blessing and a curse. A curse because your skin is almost always a little shiny. But a blessing because that just means you’ll age better! Managing your oil is key to your beauty routine. So here are some oily skin care tips to combat oily skin so you can feel confident and beautiful!

Step 1- Basic Skin Care

You must, must, maintain a good skin care routine! That means cleansing, toning, and moisturizing daily. Yes, you need to moisturize! It sounds counterintuitive to moisturize your skin when you are oily. But your skin needs to drink just like your body needs water to stay hydrated. If you don’t moisturize, then your sweat (sebaceous) glands will actually overcompensate and produce more oil. And that’s no bueno. This is the best skin care system around!!

Step 2- Exfoliate

It is so important to exfoliate your skin and oily skin loves a good exfoliation! Exfoliating will help slough off the dead skin cells and move circulation and blood flow in your face. It’s my favorite step in the skin care process. You can find a great recipe here or one online here!

Step 3- Weekly Mask

Another way to combat that oil is to do a weekly clay mask. Clay is great for absorbing excess oil. If you just take the time to do a mask regularly, it will help regulate your oil production and leave you lookin gooood.

Step 4- Prime Your Face Before Makeup (face & eyes)

Girl, if you have oily skin then a primer is a must! Before you put your makeup on, put a dollop of primer on that beautiful face of yours! Focus on the areas that are most oily, like the t-zone (forehead, nose, chin). This one is our fave! If you’re like me, then your eyelids also get oily throughout the day too. Simply put a very small amount carefully on your eyelids and rub in well. Then you can apply your makeup just like normal. If I don’t put eye primer on my lids, then I have a huge crease of makeup by the end of the day. And that is not cute. So, if you want your makeup to last on that oily face all day, then a primer will be your best friend. This is a great eye primer option. Not only should you put a primer on before applying your makeup, but it’s a great idea to spray your face with a setting spray. This will help your makeup last. Just a few spritzes goes a long way and gets you through the day. This Maskcara setting spray is amazing! And there you have it! Simple steps to combat oily skin. Go ahead and try it and thank me later

*This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase an item featured in this post, then we get a small portion from the sale. Thank you! It does not affect you at all.

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Beauty Basics Brow Maintenance

JoEllen — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 13:00:46 +0000

Beauty Basics Brow Maintenance

Raise your hand if you want beautiful brows! Brows can really make or break your look. Taking care of your brows is such an easy but important step in your beauty process. So here is a beauty basics brow maintenance tutorial for you so you can get good brows in your home!

Shape

First off, you want to make sure you have a nice shape to your brows. This may mean that you need to invest in getting them professionally waxed or threaded or tweezed. But trust me, it’s well worth the money to get started on the right foot! You will save money in the long run because you can maintain them from home.

Boundaries

Once your brows are a nice shape, you want to make sure that they stay within their boundaries. Brows have boundaries?! You betcha! Simply take a pencil or makeup brush and place it vertically along the side of your nose and the inner corner of your eye. You don’t want your brow hair to grow past this point. Next, take the brush and place it diagonally from your nose to the outer corner of your eye. Your brow hair should not grow past this point. Easy peasy right??

Tweeze

Now what do you do if your hair is growing past your boundaries? What if you have stragglers making their way away from the beautiful brow shape? All you have to do is tweeze! But you must do it properly. Take a good set of tweezers and grab a lone hair. You want to tweeze in the same direction of the hair growth. This will allow the hair to come out easily without breaking the hair. It will also prevent ingrown hairs. Do this with all the stragglers that are outside of the beautiful brow boundaries.

Trim

You have a nice brow shape, they have boundaries, and they are tweezed. Great! But you must also make sure they are trimmed! Just like you need frequent haircuts, your brows need frequent trims. You do not want long, out of control hair growing on your beautiful face! You only need two things: cuticle scissors and a mascara wand. Simply take the wand and brush the hair up. Then take your scissors and trim the excess hair growth. And that’s it!

By shaping, having boundaries, tweezing, and trimming your brows you will have beautiful brows to frame your face! I love me some beauty basics and this is basic brow maintenance that you can easily do in your home! Good luck!

*This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase an item featured in this post, then we get a small portion from the sale. Thank you! It does not affect you at all.Â

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Basic Skin Care Every Woman Should Be Doing

JoEllen — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 14:00:15 +0000

Basic Skin Care Every Woman Should Be Doing

Skin care shouldn’t be complicated. We live in a world that likes to over complicate things. There are tons of ways to do something, elaborate ways to doll things up, and bigger and better ideas to make something that is simple, complex. But that doesn’t have to be the case with skin care. Our skin is important and we need to take good care of it. But we don’t have to stress about the process. Let’s make it easy. Let’s make is simple. Here is what I think is basic skin care every woman should be doing to take good care of your skin.

Cleanse

You absolutely must, must, must cleanse your face every night! Do not go a night without washing your face with cleanser. You have just spent the day with makeup on your face and sweat, dirt, dust, and oil have all accumulated on its surface. See what I mean?! You do not want to sleep with that grim on your skin!

Simply take a cleanser and a microfiber cloth and wash your face with warm water. Splash your face with water and squirt some cleanser into the palm of your hand and gently rub the product into your skin in circular motions. You are removing all of that buildup from the day. Remember to focus on areas that will harbor more dirt like around your nose and on your chin.

Next, take a microfiber cloth and wipe off the cleanser. By using a microfiber cloth, you are ensuring that the dirt and grim is really off. The cloth acts as an extra grabber for removing all that buildup.

Exfoliate

This step does not have to be done daily, but only once or a few times a week, depending on the sensitivity of your skin. But it is still an important step that shouldn’t be missed! Exfoliating helps slough off the dead skin cells and product buildup. Have you ever noticed that your skin has some unwanted texture to it? Exfoliating will help smooth that surface and get it feeling oh so good! You can make a simple exfoliator at home or buy a great one. Either way, do it!

Tone

Toning is a step that is often neglected. Why do you have to tone?? Toning helps restore your skin’s natural pH level, reduces redness, minimizes your pore size, and refreshes your skin. Yes please! You can either squirt your face and let it air dry or you can squirt a cotton pad with the solution. Then take the cotton pad and rub it on your face. This is a great way to help remove any product that you may have missed during your cleansing.

Moisturize

This is the last step! Moisturize! Just like your body needs water to drink to stay hydrated, your skin needs moisturizer to stay hydrated too. Even if you have oily skin, do not skip this step! If you fail to moisturize, then your sebaceous glands will overcompensate and produce more oil. And you don’t want that. You want a youthful glow and moisturizing will help your skin stay that way.

And that’s it! With those simple steps (cleanse, exfoliate, tone, and moisturize) you are on your way to taking good care of your skin! Skin care shouldn’t be complicated. And with this basic skin care routine you can master good skin care habits!

Want to learn some other Beauty Basics? Click below:

*This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase an item featured in this post, then we get a small portion from the sale. Thank you! It does not affect you at all.Â

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Beauty Basics Illuminator 101

JoEllen — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 14:00:45 +0000

Beauty Basics Illuminator 101

Welcome to Beauty Basics Illuminator 101! What is illuminator and why should you wear it?? I’m going to show you why you need to do this very simple step in your makeup routine!

Why

Why do you need to wear illuminator? Illuminator adds some brightness to your face and makes it glow…in a good way! By adding a little shimmer, it will add a nice dimension to your face. It’s not a little girl sparkle shimmer, but a nice glistening glow that looks natural. You don’t want to appear flat and by applying illuminator you can add some easy depth.

Where

I like to focus on 3 main areas when applying illuminator:

Above your cheekbone- take your finger and dip it into the illuminator and simply apply it to the top of your cheekbone, focusing on the top part, nearest your eye.
Bow of your lip- add just a little bit of illuminator right at the part of your lip that is directly under your nose, the bow.
Below your brow- dab some illuminator just below your brow to make that area shine.

And that’s it! See how easy that step is?! You really can’t mess up! This is an easy step but one that just polishes the look off nicely!

Want to learn other beauty basics?

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Beauty Basics Blush 101

JoEllen — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 14:00:19 +0000

Beauty Basics Blush 101

I hope you’re enjoying learning about the basics of makeup! Onto Beauty Basics Blush 101! Our faces come alive when we add a natural flush to our cheeks.

Tips

You don’t want to add too much blush and put it in the wrong place because that will make look like a hot mess!
Focus on the apples of your cheeks- smile at yourself in the mirror. Find the squishiest part of your cheeks and that is where you want to place your color.
Blend upwards into your contour…by blending up you are creating a lifting effect. You want to lift your face up, not draw it down.
Don’t be afraid of color, the blush will blend out and look natural.

Blush is a really simple step in your beauty process. Practice and experiment with what works best for your face. You can master anything with practice!

Click here to learn about Highlight 101!

Click here to learn about Contour 101!

Not sure what colors you should wear? Click here to take the Color Match Quiz!

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Beauty Basics Contour 101

JoEllen — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 15:00:13 +0000

Beauty Basics Contour 101

Welcome to Beauty Basics Contour 101! This is my favorite step in my makeup process! The purpose of contour is to give areas on your face definition. It allows your face to have dimension and it gives it a 3-D effect. We were born with beautiful features and we should embrace them! And that’s what contour does for your face. It brings out that beauty!

Why Contour

Why do we need contour? Our faces have natural shapes and shadows. When we apply one color all over our face, we take away those natural features and we look flat and lifeless. Nobody wants that! Contour gives your face life and it makes you look feminine.

Where to Apply Contour

Everyone’s face is different, but in general, you should focus your contour on these areas:

Cheekbones
Jawline
Forehead along your hairline
Along the bridge of your nose

How to Apply Contour

Cheekbones: This part can be tricky, but you can master it because I’m going to give you some tips! Take your fingers and try to locate the bone above your cheeks. It is below your eye area and runs parallel to your jawline. Now once you’ve found your cheekbone, you want to focus your contour color right below that bone. There is a hollow part that your brush can easily fall into. You want to take your contour, start at your hairline, and draw a line with your brush just below your cheekbone, all the way to your cheek. The best and most flattering way is to end it like the curve of a “J”, cupping your apples of your cheeks. This will help lift your cheeks. Be careful not to add contour to your laugh lines because this could make it appear dirty and it loses the effect of slimming that area down.

Jawline: By shadowing your jawline, you are making that area pop instead of letting it melt into a double chin. You simply take your contour color and brush it along your jawline…that’s it! And then you can blend it and it will give you a nice shadowed affect.

Forehead: When you look at a ball, it is naturally shaded at the top and bottom. And so it is with your forehead. We want to give that shadow back to your forehead by applying contour just below your hairline. Depending on how long your forehead is will depend on how much contour you apply. Start with a small line and you can always add more. Once it is blended your face has more dimension.

Nose: Not everybody likes a contoured nose. But if you do, then it’s pretty simple! The bridge of your nose is right down the middle. You want to take your contour and add color right along the sides of your bridge. Not a lot, just a thin line. This will make your nose appear slimmer. If you have a larger end to your nose, you can also add contour color around the area to make it look smaller.

Contour is such a fun and easy step to add to your beauty routine! Gone are the days of the flat face look! Let’s embrace our beauty and bring it out! Contour is a beauty basic that you don’t want to miss!

Want to learn another lesson in the Beauty Basics Series? Click here!

Intersted in purchasing some contour to beautify your face? Click here!

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Beauty Basics Highlight 101

JoEllen — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 15:00:04 +0000

Beauty Basics Highlight 101

Welcome to Beauty Basics! As part of the Beauty Basics course, I am going to teach you all about highlight…Beauty Basics Highlight 101! My beauty routine consists of using the Maskcara makeup foundations (highlight, contour, blush, and illuminator). Applying your highlight color is an simple step to your beauty routine and you can easily learn how to perfect it!

The purpose of highlighting is to even out your skin tone, cover up blemishes and hyperpigmentation or hypopigmentation, and to brighten your face in the right places.

Areas to Focus

When applying the highlight color, I like to focus on 5 places:

Under the eyes
On the nose
Under the nose
On the chin
On the forehead

How to Apply

As you apply your highlight color with your brush, do so in a dabbing or patting motion. If you wipe the product, it can appear streaky. By dabbing and patting the cream into your skin, the product lays nicely on the surface and gives it a smooth and natural finish. It also gives more coverage this way.

More Than One Highlight

Some women may need to use more than one highlight color. Sometimes our necks & chests are different shades than our face or sometimes our faces have different shades in different areas. By using more than one highlight color, you can mix and layer to give it a more natural look. You want your face, neck, and chest to coordinate and appear similar in shade. If your neck and chest appear darker than your face, then you could apply a darker highlight on your chin to blend the two skin shades. And vice versus. You want one cohesive look. It is a flattering look to have a lighter shade under the eye area to give your face a brighter look.

Applying your highlight correctly takes practice. And figuring out the right shades takes trial and error. Your skin also changes shades throughout the year, so you may need to use different highlight colors during different times of year.

With these simple steps and with practice, you can master the art of applying highlight!

Intersted in purchasing Maskcara makeup? Click here!

Click here to see where to buy Maskcara makeup.

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An Introduction to Beauty Basics

JoEllen — Thu, 09 Nov 2017 15:00:42 +0000

An Introduction to Beauty Basics

Welcome to Beauty Basics! I am your Beauty Basics girl! I am an everyday girl that loves doing everyday makeup. Doing your makeup shouldn’t be something that you dread doing or that you feel inadequate about. It should be fun and easy and something that you look forward to doing! This is an introduction to beauty basics and how you can master these skills.

I am going to teach you the basics of makeup so you can grow confident and feel more beautiful in your skin. The Makeup 101 Course will cover:

Highlight
Contour
Blush
Illuminator
Blending
Eyebrows
Concealer
Eyeshadow

With practice and persistence, you can easily achieve these simple looks and graduate from Makeup 101!

Want to purchase Maskcara makeup? Click here!
Want to see another great makeup tutorial? Click here!

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