Your Public Best - Lillian Brown [22]
One other type of base often used by actors, entertainers, and professional TV makeup artists is a creamy type that comes in a hard plastic tube that resembles a large lipstick case. This “stick” makeup is advanced by screwing up the bottom. It is applied with the fingers or a dry makeup sponge.
Generally speaking, the liquid bases, be they water based or oil based, provide the sheerest coverage; the pot-type and compact bases medium-heavy coverage; and the cake- and stick-type bases the heaviest coverage. Choose the type of base that is best for you by personal preference or skin type. And don’t be afraid to try new brands and formulas. Formulations are changed and improved upon all the time by manufacturers, and many women who have been using the same type of base for years are surprised at how much better they look in a new color and/or base type.
Contouring
Contouring is the art of playing light against dark to bring out the interesting or to de-emphasize the not-so-interesting features of your face. When you have chosen a base color, choose a couple of other colors—one lighter and one darker than your base color but in the same color family and of the same base type. Use the dark shade to diminish or blot out something you wish to recede. Use the light shade to increase or brighten something you wish to emphasize.
You can slightly change the shape of your face by defining your bone structure. The idea is to balance your features. If the nose is too long, darken its tip slightly. If it is too short or too wide, run a light stripe down its full length, darkening the sides. If you wish to shorten your whole face, darken up at the hairline and the bottom of the chin line, indenting the cheekbones. To lengthen the whole face, darken in front of the ears and lighten the point of the chin and the top of the forehead.
To sharpen the jawline and eliminate the look of a heavy neck run a line of dark base from ear to ear just under the jawbone. Stay two inches away from the collar or a neck scarf, carefully blending toward the base of the neck.
Any contouring you do must be subtle and nearly invisible. Cover the contoured areas with some base and translucent powder.
Contouring can also be done using a bit of blusher on a brush, but this is very tricky and must be done skillfully to be effective. Models, TV correspondents, and the like often use blush in this way—it’s usually quicker than using base colors and provides a healthy glow as well. To contour with blush, mix a small amount of powder blush and loose translucent powder on a large, clean, fluffy brush. Try brushing the mixture lightly on the forehead at the hairline area, in front of your ears at the hairline, and even a bit under your chin. When contouring with blush avoid the red shades and keep to the pink or slightly brownish-rose shades (for white skin) and the brown-burgundy shades (for black skin).
Circles under the Eyes
You may have inherited those circles under your eyes from your grandmother. Even so, you have to do something about them. One reason the circles are so conspicuous is because lights cast dark shadows under the eyes, and you must compensate for that. (TV lights are particularly guilty of this.) The other reason is that when you are tired, tense, worried, suffering from jet lag, your feet hurt, or you have been misquoted in the morning newspaper, it shows under the eyes first.
There are many good products on the market that aid in erasing those circles under the eyes. Try out several of them until you find something that is not chalky but is soft and creamy. I personally recommend the creamy types that come in little pots or tubes rather than the more waxy type that comes in a lipstick-like case.
Select a color one shade lighter than your base. Tap it gently into the delicate under-eye skin until you can no longer see it. Cover it carefully with a little translucent powder, and repeat the process. If you