How I Apply Foundation

Next up in my series of basic things that absolute baffled me when I first started with make up is how to apply foundation. Foundation is pretty much the base for everything, and it can be weirdly intimidating. There’s so much lingo that I came across when reading about it on the internet that I got kinda overwhelmed. Buffing? Stippling? What does it even mean? I guess I’ll just smear it on my face. Anyways, here’s how I do it now that I’ve figured out what works for me.

I use MAC’s Face and Body foundation in N1 as my go-to foundation. It’s super thin, which I like. I don’t have many blemishes, and mostly just wear foundation to even out my skin tone, so I like using something with light coverage. If you have more troublesome skin, you might prefer something heavier. Either way I definitely recommend going to a make up counter or a store like Sephora to get color-matched if you don’t have a foundation that works for you yet. I guessed terribly when just trying to choose a bottle at the drugstore and having someone with experience look at my skin and give me suggestions (and samples to try out before I buy!) made such a difference. I’ll also include the rest of my basic face make up, Laura Mercier’s Secret Concealer in 1 and MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Light. These are the face productions that I use most days. I apply them with a Real Techniques Buffing Brush, a Sigma F30 Large Powder brush and a Sigma F70 Concealer brush (when I use a brush for concealer. A lot of the time I just use my fingers).

First, I start by prepping my skin. For me this just means spritzing it with toner and rubbing in some lotion, but if you have a more involved skin care routine, do it first. Then I squirt about a quarter sized circle of foundation into my palm. If I’m using a thicker foundation with higher coverage, I would use less. I dab the bristles of my brush into the foundation on my palm to lightly cover them. You don’t need to get all the foundation onto the brush at once. I go back and pick up more as I work. Then I very lightly dab the brush all over my face, holding the brush perpendicular to my face. You can see the little dots from the bristles in the close up pictures. This is just to get the foundation spread out evenly-ish, so that I don’t have a ton in one area and nothing somewhere else when I blend.

Now it’s time to blend. Using my brush, which doesn’t have much product left on it, I rub around in circles. I start on my cheeks and circle up and out away from my nose first. Then I work up around my temple, with long strokes to cover the whole area followed by little circles to blend it in. I continue to make small circles across my forehead and down around the other temple. When I get back to the middle of my face, I sweep my brush first up and then down the bridge of my nose. I make some circles around the sides of my nose and then go back and forth up and down the bridge some more. My nose is one of the places where streaks are most prone to showing up, so I spend a lot of time blending here. Then I circle around my chin and mouth, using the same technique I did for my temples and forehead. I bite my lips to the inside of my mouth and go over the edges with the brush. Last, I rub my brush back and forth in semi-circles under my eyes. Most of the time I do my foundation after my eye make up (especially when I’m wearing a lot of eyeshadow), so I have to be careful not to disturb it. After I’ve blended everywhere, I look in the mirror. If there are any streaks (which can happen if I haven’t cleaned my brushes recently), then I just blend them in with my fingers.

Now the foundation is done, but I always have dark circles, so I use concealer to minimize them. I dab my finger very lightly into the pot, because I only need a little bit. I use my finger to smear it beneath my eyes, starting in the middle and sweeping out and down (pretty much following the darkest part of the circles). I use my finger to blend it in. I make sure that I also cover the outer corners of my eyes which tend to be dark as well, and on to the top of my cheeks so there isn’t an abrupt line where the concealer stops. If I have particularly dark circles that day, or if I’m wearing complicated eye make up I don’t want to disturb, then I’ll use a concealer brush. I still apply the concealer with my fingers, I just use the brush to blend it. I use it like a paint brush, stroking down from my lower lashline.

Last, I set everything with powder. I lightly tap my big fluffy powder brush against the powder in the compact. I lightly brush this all over my face. Then pinch the bristles together at the base to make them fan out and brush one side of it against the powder in the compact. I try to pick up any of the dust that has been kicked up. The second time product gets applied more heavily to a smaller part of the brush. I take the fanned out bristles, which I’m still pinching at the base, and pat the powder underneath my eyes where I applied the concealer. I sweep the brush lightly over my face to make sure there’s not extra powder sticking anywhere, and I’m done! I’m ready to apply the rest of my make up.

Here’s the before and after. On the left, I’m wearing no make up at all. In the middle, I have on foundation, concealer and powder, just like I showed you in this tutorial. On the right, I’ve added blush, tinted balm, eyeliner, mascara and neutral eyeshadow for a very simple look.

How do you apply your foundation? What other make up basics would you like to see a tutorial on?

How I Wash My Brushes

This post will show you how I wash my make up brushes. It’s the first in a “how I do it” series focused on the basics, designed primarily for beginners. When I was just starting out, brushes were one of the things that most intimidated me. I didn’t know which ones I needed, I didn’t know what to look for when buying them and I didn’t know how to properly take care of them. Now that I’ve developed a good set of brushes, my make up applies so much better!

I use two products from Sephora for washing my brushes. The first is their natural citrus brush cleaner, which is a spray made by the brand Parian Spirit. It has a strong citrus smell and can leave bristles just a tiny bit greasy, but it gets the pigment out and dries super fast. I only use it for occasional spot cleaning. The second product is Sephora’s solid brush cleaner, which is a bar of soap with a little silicone scrubby pad. I used it for deep cleaning and it does a great job. My white brushes stay white, even when I use them with dark eyeshadows. This has a nice light vanilla-y smell that I really love, too. My brushes smell sooo good after I use it. Honestly, I like this so much that I actually stick to a once a week brush washing schedule, just because I enjoy using it and like the way my brushes smell afterwards. Before, when I was using dish soap and olive oil to wash my brushes, I didn’t enjoy the process and would always delay washing my brushes as long as I conceivable could.

I spot clean my brushes when I want to reuse a brush in the middle of the week. Honestly, this isn’t something I do very often. Most of the time I just rub my brush against a piece of tissue until no more color rubs off. However, sometimes I want to use a brush that’s full of bright or dark pigment, and that means spot cleaning. To spot clean, I spray 1 or 2 little squirts of the cleaner directly into the bristles of the dirty brush. Then I hold it upside down between my palms and rub it back and forth, like I’m trying to start a fire with a twig. I rub the bristles onto a piece of tissue until no more color comes out. Then I let it dry for a few minutes before using it.

When I deep clean my brushes, I do it in this order, starting with my eyeshadow brushes, then my blush and powder brushes, with my concealer and foundation brushes last. On the very rare occasion I attempt to use a lip brush, it goes at the end. I work my way from powder to cream products, starting with the ones that were used for the lightest colors and ending with the darkest.

I try to deep clean my brushes every week or week and a half at most. I like the process now that I’ve switched to a solid cleanser, so that doesn’t feel too burdensome to me. It only takes me about 15 minutes to wash about two dozen brushes. But if I go much longer than a week in between washes, then my foundation brush gets gross and starts leaving streaks on my face instead of blending nicely.

I deep clean my brushes using a slightly different method than the one suggested in the instructions. First, I get the bristles wet by holding the brush at a downward pointing angle under running water. It’s important to keep it pointed down so that water doesn’t get inside the ferrule (the metal part that connects the bristles and the handle). If water gets inside the ferrule, the glue that holds the brush together can deteriorate and the bristles can fall out. Then I rub the damp brush on the dry bar of soap. If it’s a big brush I make sure to rub it back and forth until there’s enough soap worked in. Then comes the fun part! I rub the bristles around in little circles on the pink silicone pad, which causes the soap to foam up. I keep rubbing it back and forth and in circles until the foam doesn’t have any more pigment coming out into it. Then I rinse the brush, keeping the bristles pointed down. I pinch the bristles to make sure all the soap is out. Sometimes I’ll brush the brush against the back of my hand to make sure it’s all rinsed. Then I gently squeeze any excess water out, shaping the bristles into the position I want them to dry in and lay them down on a towel to dry overnight. I also rinse off the pad and leave the container the soap comes in open overnight, so the bar has a chance to dry off too.

Ta da! Nice clean brushes. Seeing them laid out all nice and pretty and clean makes me happy.