Our Makeup Tips to Help You Achieve Glowing Skin

Makeup and skincare are a dynamic duo 一 together, they help us feel confident, beautiful, and radiant. However, sometimes your makeup could be taking away from all of the hard work you put into your skin. Certain kinds of makeup products and makeup methods can be clogging your pores, irritating your skin, or simply making you look more dull than what you would look like with no makeup! Here are our most valuable tips to make sure your makeup and your skincare are complimenting each other, not fighting each other: 

1. Avoid full coverage foundation on a daily basis. I know, it’s hard. If you have insecurities about your skin, you may feel inclined to conceal them to feel more confident. However, full coverage foundation will only make your skin insecurities more prominent. Foundation can trap oil and dirt that was in your pores from being released. Especially If you have oily, acne-prone skin, heavy foundation can cause breakouts, which is hurting your complexion rather than helping it. Additionally, if you have wrinkles on your face, a heavy, full coverage foundation can potentially cake around your wrinkles, which will only make them look more prominent. 

What we recommend: Opt for a lighter foundation, such as a BB cream or a Tinted Moisturizer. Personally, I use a SPF that has a sheer tint to it, which provides some coverage and smooths my all around complexion. Most importantly, you must wash off your makeup at the end of the day. If you don’t wash off your foundation, it will continue to trap dirt and oil in your pores, which will only make the problem worse.

1. Don’t go crazy on the powder. Powder can help set in your makeup, but too much of it will only make you look dull. While all-things-matte may have been trending in 2016, 2021 makeup is all about having a dewy, natural glow. 

What we recommend: Apply a light layer of powder to your face in sweeping motions, rather than patting it on. Unless you have oily skin, powder likely isn’t even necessary to achieving a long-lasting, even complexion. For normal and drier skin, a setting spray may be more beneficial to achieving a long-lasting glow. 

1. Be careful and clean with your makeup brushes! Over time, makeup brushes will grow infested with dirt, oils, and harmful bacteria. If you are consistently having breakouts, your makeup brushes may actually be at fault: your brushes pick up the bacteria from your face and stay there, resulting in essentially applying the bacteria back onto your face when you apply makeup. 

What we recommend: Makeup brushes of course seem like the obvious choice for applying makeup, (I mean, that’s literally their entire point!), but if you are never going to wash them, you’re better off just using your fingers. In order to keep your brushes clean, you should be washing them at least once a month, but the more frequently you wash them, the better. While there are cleansers made specifically for cleaning brushes, if you don’t want to invest in one you can use your face wash! Simply rinse your brushes in lukewarm water and then gently massage the cleanser into the bristles. Then, rinse it out, squeeze out the excess water, and let the brushes dry off the edge of a counter! Letting them dry on a flat surface can cause them to become misshapen. 

1. Bronzer is your BFF! If you apply SPF every day, (which if you aren’t, get on that), you know how difficult it can be to get that natural sun kissed glow. However, protecting your skin from the sun does not mean you can’t achieve that glow you desire! 

What we recommend: Continue to apply SPF every day. Apply bronzer on or slightly under your cheekbones, on your temples, and around your hairline. To avoid it looking too unnatural, make sure you are blending it properly and using a bronzer around two shades darker than your skin tone. If you want to achieve a full-body tan without facing the harmful effects of the sun, you can use a self-tanner! I personally love Isle of Paradise Self Tanning Mousse to achieve a full-body glow. Also, if you miss the freckles you used to get before you were SPF-obsessed, I’ve seen great results from people who put bronzer or self-tanner on an unused toothbrush, then lightly dabbed their face with it to achieve the look of natural, sun-kissed freckles!

While these makeup tips will certainly help you get the flawless complexion you crave, the best advice we can give you is to give your skin the love it needs. Perfecting your skin will indirectly perfect your makeup look, or may even stop you from feeling like you need face makeup at all! We are not against makeup by any means, we just want you to feel as confident in your skin as you can be! Finding the serum that is right for you and sticking to the big three一cleanser, moisturizer, and SPF一are the most important steps to achieving the radiant, glowing look we all desire.