Obviously, working for beauty giant Estee Lauder gave me experience and taught me a few beauty tips and tricks. My experience in the wonderful world of beauty is a fascinating one, and truly, all I know I attribute to my years of ‘on the ground’ training! While at Lauder, I worked with the indie brand of Prescriptives – best known for custom blend foundation, powder, and lipstick! Prescriptives was the original makeup artistry brand of the Lauder Cos, the first to sell artistry brushes such as a foundation brush to achieve a professional application from the comfort of home! Most know of MAC as the makeup artist’s brand, but I am here to proudly say – Prescriptives paved the way for MAC as a Lauder brand! Excuse my pride for a moment! Here are my top beauty tips by experts!
What My Experience Taught Me From Working For Estee Lauder and Kate Spade Beauty
It is hard to narrow down all I learned in my years of experience at Lauder and Kate Spade Beauty to just 5 things, but these 5 are stellar highlights I still use today!
- How to properly apply mascara!
- How to choose and apply your Basic Face of foundation, concealer, and powder!
- Why brushes are a crucial piece of your makeup collection!
- What skincare product is a MUST in your arsenal!
- How to properly apply your fragrance -thanks to the experts, Jo Malone and Kate Spade!
Beauty Tips By Experts: Let’s break it down, shall we?
1. Oh yes, there is a proper way to apply mascara!
2. How to choose and apply your basic face of foundation, concealer, and powder!
This was a 4 page article I wrote for Instyle Magazine, so I will do you a quick favor and only hit the bullets!!
- First, you need to decide if you have a cool or warm undertone. The easiest way to determine is to answer a couple of questions: do you tan or burn in the sun? Now look at the veins at your wrist: if your veins look greenish, you probably have warm undertones. People with blue or purplish-looking veins usually have cooler undertones. Deep skin tones tend to be cooler. There really is no such thing as neutral: color is either warm or cool – look at a color wheel!
- Once you decide on an undertone – then look at the level of pigment in your skin. Are you light/medium/deep?
- Beauty TIP: A great way to determine your undertone is to purchase an inexpensive foundation close to your level of pigment ( light/medium/deep) in both a warm and cool shade – stripe on your cheek next to each other – the one that adjusts and blends in the best is our undertone!
- Most online beauty companies now have great chats and interactive quizzes to determine your correct shade: an online beauty consult is complimentary and always a great idea!
The Absolute Best & Affordable Beauty Buys on Amazon
3. Why Brushes Are A Crucial Part Of Your Makeup Collection
The brushes that come with your compacts are like spare tires – only for emergencies! My experience has taught me that every beauty routine needs a minimum of 2 brushes: a Buff Brush and an Eye Shaper Brush! Tricia Sawyer, Sharon Stone’s makeup artist for 20 feature films, taught me all I needed to know about brushes! A good buff brush can be used to apply liquids, creams, and powders – you can use the brush in a stippling manner to build coverage or a standard brushstroke for sheer coverage! My favorite buff brush is Morphe M6 Pro Flat Buffer Brush at morph.com.
An Eye Shaper Brush will help streamline your eye shadow application – it will be angled beautifully to allow a perfect application of your shaper, crease color! Angle the point of the brush down towards the nose and then swipe in a windshield, back and forth method! You can also use this brush for your all-over eye shadow color and for blending! My favorite Eye Shaper brush is Trish McEvoy’s Brush 23, Angled Crease Contour Brush!
4. What Skincare Product Is A Must From My Experience
Exfoliators. Exfoliating your skin is a MUST DO! Not exfoliating your skin and applying serums, moisturizers, etc., is the equivalent of watering the grass without raking the leaves! If the skin is not exfoliated, nothing works or looks good – especially your makeup! Because of this, I recommend both a chemical exfoliation AND a physical exfoliation!
Chemical exfoliation happens through products like AHAs, Lactic, and Glycolic acid! Chemical exfoliators literally dissolve the dead skin cells and loosen them so they can be swept away with your cleanser!
Physical exfoliations are scrubs and manual exfoliators! They slough off your dead skin cells by polishing the skin surface. Never use apricot kernel scrubs, as they will tear your skin and pores!
Chemical and physical exfoliators work beautifully together as chemical exfoliators work to loosen the bond between dead skin cells, and physical exfoliators sweep the dead skin cells away! Exfoliated skin glows and readily accepts all serums and moisturizers! Think of a muddy lake ( not exfoliated skin) vs. a crystal clear Bahama water (exfoliated skin).
5. How To Properly Apply Fragrance
It is common to spray fragrance on your wrists and then rub your wrists together – but DON’T! As a result of this application method, you break down the fragrance rather than allow it to travel through the natural stages of the top note, heart note, and bottom note! Fragrance notes are essentially the different scent layers that make up the final fragrance. These scents are split into three distinct elements: top notes, heart notes, and base notes. Together, the top, heart, and base notes work to create a beautiful fragrance. Beauty tips by experts: If you rub the fragrance, you will literally change the fragrance as you mix the notes with the oils from your skin!
The best places to apply fragrance are your pulse points which will naturally warm up throughout the day, encouraging the release of the fragrance. Pulse points are the inside crook of the elbow and back of the knees! I like it right under my hair at the top of my neck too! However, if you live in an intensely hot and humid climate, avoid spritzing skin altogether and apply to clothing as your natural oils will heat up and alter the fragrance resulting in a rancid odor!
It’s A BEAUTYful World
I’ve been a part of this BEAUTYful beauty industry for 35 years, and through my experience, I’ve learned beauty tips by experts to help you find your personalized beauty routine. With my Beauty Superhero Setup, you don’t have to feel overwhelmed and confused. I take the guesswork out of makeup products, application techniques, and skincare secrets to save you time and feel more empowered to know where to start.
