Your Public Best - Lillian Brown [21]
The public should not see blatant, garish makeup first and the real you second. When attention is attracted to just the makeup, it is obviously too much. Some women go into beauty salons and come out looking like someone else. Obviously, this look cannot be maintained under public scrutiny. Makeup cannot transform you into something you are not; it is only temporary.
You don’t want your friends to say, “What beautiful makeup. Who did it for you?” or “You look like Greta Garbo.” Instead, you want them to say, “You look so beautiful!”
High-fashion makeup follows fads and endeavors to sell new products and “in” colors each season. But your face does not change very much with the seasons (unless you get a tan, of course). One season, the style is to apply white to the browbone; the next season it is rouge wandering up onto the cheekbones and temples; and the next season it is orangy lipstick.
It’s best to avoid excessive, attention-getting makeup altogether. Too much makes us wonder what the person is hiding, and we ask ourselves, “What does she look like without it?”
Whether you are an elected official, college professor, a management trainee about to be promoted, or a family finance investment counselor who meets with clients, you should be aware of these guidelines for good makeup. You should work out what is best for you and stick to it, presenting the same becoming, attractive look at all times. The only time you might want to change your basic look is when you are in evening clothes at some formal event.
Makeup is a highly individual thing. It is based on the bone structure and contours of your own face. However, there are some basic procedures involved in selecting and applying your own makeup, and this is what will be emphasized in this section.
As you read the tips given below, remember you are striving to look like yourself. You are enhancing your features, not distorting or obliterating them. You are bringing out your own natural beauty.
The basic procedure for applying makeup whenever you are going to appear in public is as follows:
1. Apply makeup base all over your face.
2. Eliminate the circles (dark shadows or hollows or puffy areas) under your eyes.
3. Contour cheekbones and, possibly, other portions of your facial structure such as at the jawbone.
4. Apply eye makeup.
5. Make up your mouth.
6. Use translucent, oil control-type powder lightly all over your face, concentrating on naturally oily areas such as the forehead and nose.
These steps are covered in more detail in the following subsections.
Base Color
Carefully choose a main base color that exactly matches or is slightly darker than your own skin tone. Base color that is even a shade lighter than your natural skin color can enlarge and fatten the face. It also makes a noticeable and unfavorable contrast with the true color of your neck and hands. When the color is too light, you can clearly see where the makeup begins and ends. The color must be a perfect match and must also be changed from season to season if your skin color changes. Between summer and winter, you may have to mix two shades together.
There is no such thing as one perfect base color for your face. A professional makeup person may easily mix three or four different tones to match the gradations of color in your skin. Using only one color can give a mask-like, flattened effect all over. Once you have chosen your base color, choose a couple of other colors—one lighter and one darker. Use the lighter shade under the eyes, and the darker one for contouring.
TV makeup artists call the makeup you buy at the department store makeup counters or drugstores “street makeup.” Most of these bases come in liquid form, while others come in creamy formulas in little pots. Another type comes in a compact formula, often called a combination base and powder formula. (This type of base is applied with a dry sponge.) Also cake-type bases are available, which are dry and must be applied mixed with