Speaker 1: Like, have you ever just wondered, like, why do some days your mascara, you pop it on and it looks, like, really, really good, your lashes are separated, and then some days it just doesn't look great and you've got, like, one giant fat lash because it's all clumped together? Hello, guys, and welcome back to Stepping Up. I'm doing something a little bit different today, but I've always wanted to record this episode. Now, I'm doing a bit of a throwback, and if you didn't know, in a past life of mine, I actually was a makeup artist and I ran... a really successful makeup artistry business. I would do weddings every weekend and I was booked out for like years in advance and it was so much fun and I really, really loved it. So I have done a lot of faces, like hundreds of faces. I have played with a lot of makeup. I've learned a lot of things over the years and I thought I would do a really quick fun episode giving you my best makeup hacks and from, I guess, an ex-makeup artist that will actually really help you, not just for like your full glam, this is for like your day-to-day makeup. And this is the stuff that no one really teaches you. And this is honestly the stuff that I picked up, not so much like in the actual makeup course idea, which was a whole year in Sydney, but it was just from other artists and things that you learn along the way. Before I get into giving you guys the makeup tips, I just want to say like, have you guys ever thought obviously if you're like a millennial, that it's just kind of unfair that, you know, Gen Z and everything, they got to like have, you know, they got TikTok, they got YouTube and all those things to teach them how to do makeup. Like we, who remembers using that Maybelline mousse and it would just like melt off your face and then we'd put concealer on our lips. And I remember like I plucked the shit out of my eyebrows because I actually got bullied a little bit in high school because my eyebrows are really thick naturally. Like I just get them waxed. I don't get them tinted or anything like that. which thank God they grew back, by the way. And I remember when I started going out nightclubbing, I'd go out and I'd wear like thick silver glitter on my eyelids. And it's kind of funny that I'm like, I guess I kind of consider myself girly and I obviously, I was a makeup artist and all that type of stuff, but I never wore makeup in high school.
00:02:10
Speaker 2: Like, sorry, that's a lie. I wore makeup from a little bit from the age of 16.
00:02:14
Speaker 1: So That's when I started wearing makeup and I was very much so like growing up through school and that I was very much a tomboy. In high school, I obviously, I got a little bit more girly, but I, yeah, I never wore makeup. Even my formal, so my year 10 and year 12 formal, I did my own makeup, which was just like a bit of powder.
00:02:32
Speaker 2: Like I never.
00:02:33
Speaker 1: Like I don't even think, I don't remember wearing mascara to be honest with you. So it's kind of funny how, you know, after I went to uni and that I ended up going to do makeup, but it's just, it's not really fair, but I'm here. I'm like going to be like your older sister or younger sister or whatever, helping you guys get your makeup tips and hacks. So we don't have to repeat our past mistakes again. So this is where this episode is going to come in. So whatever you are now, it doesn't even matter, but I'm going to be really helping you out with technique and just hacks and tricks and placement that will actually, honestly, change the way your makeup is going to look and feel for you. Now, of course, you don't need makeup to be beautiful. I tell this to my girls all the time, but if you are someone like me, I really do enjoy putting on my makeup in the morning and just feeling good for the day. And these are also the things that I do, obviously, on myself every day as well. So hopefully, if you guys think my makeup doesn't look horrific, then let's get into it. Now, the first thing you need to do before anything, and this is honestly, if you can do one thing out of all these tips, it is this. I want you to find out your undertone. Now, it's not as hard as what it sounds, but everyone tends to be either more leaning towards warm, cool, or you can be a bit neutral, which I'm a bit more warm neutral. Now, this makes such a difference when it comes to makeup. I'm sure in the past you've maybe, you know, popped on some bronzer or put on something and it just doesn't look quite right. You're just like, it just doesn't look good. But then sometimes other colors look super good on you. And that's also because of your coloring. Now... You don't need a professional just to kind of work out if you are.
00:04:07
Speaker 2: More warm leaning or cool leaning. I'm going to help you out with that now.
00:04:11
Speaker 1: There's a bit of like a myth as well where they say to look at your veins. So they usually say if you have blue veins, you're more cool leaning. And if you're green veins, you're more warm leaning. But that's not accurate at all. So I want you to look at things like I want you with like any makeup on. I want you to like get a mirror and go stand out near the sun. like where the natural light is coming through the window and see if you more lean towards like a peachy color or are you more like a rosy pink. If your skin leans towards more yellow, a peachy color, then you are warm. But if it leans towards more rosy pink, then you are cool toned. Now, If you still are not sure about this, you can also think about what jewelry tends to look best on you. Do you find that gold really brightens you up and brings out your best colors or does silver?
00:05:04
Speaker 2: So if you tend to look.
00:05:05
Speaker 1: Better in gold jewelry, you are warm leaning. But if you look better in silver, you usually are cool toned. Now, this is what is really important about this is because with me, for example, because I'm warm, If I use a cool toned bronzer, I'll pop it on and it starts to look really muddy on me straight away. And then sometimes things can look gray, like a gray kind of color. And that's just because it's cool toned and I shouldn't be using it. And the same with lipsticks. If I use a lipstick that's cool toned, I kind of look a little bit dead. So it's like something so simple as this, as figuring out your undertone and that's how you can work out then, okay, what colors is best for you to grab? This is like, this literally will save you with foundations. So for me, because I'm warm leaning, if I grab a cool toned foundation, it looks like a pinky color on me.
00:05:57
Speaker 2: It just doesn't look right.
00:05:59
Speaker 1: And then for other people, if you are obviously cool toned and you grabbed a warm foundation, it's going to look yellow on you and look not right. Now, the next thing that is probably one of my most simple, but it really is going to just change the game for you getting ready in the morning. Because my, what I really hate is I've always just hated mascara and I think we all know it's one of those like fiddly last steps of our makeup. A lot of us hate it because, A, because it smudges all over us and then it ruins everything, which stay to the end because I'm going to be giving you the best hack to get that off without ruining your makeup. Or B, it makes your lashes like clump together and it just doesn't look great. Like some days, like have you ever just wondered like why does some days your mascara, you pop it on and it looks like really, really good. Your lashes are separated and then some days it just doesn't look great and you've got like one giant fat lash because it's all clumped together. Now this is because you should warm up your mascara before you put it on. So when you warm it up by literally, you could pop it in your bra, you can like sit on it, whatever. You can use the hairdryer. When you warm up the formula, it will stop it from making your lashes clump together. Now, this is just a game changer and it's going to make it a lot faster to put your mascara on as well in the morning. So that is my second hack. Now, moving on to foundation. This is a big one because have you, especially if you've got light hair, you would hate getting foundation all in your hairline. Now, the best thing you can do with foundation and any like complexion type coverage is to you start from the center of your face and work out. This is because by the time you get to the edges of your face, like where your hairline and everything is and near your ears, you want the foundation to not have much product left. So that's why it's always best to start in the center of your face. But when I say this, it is good to apply your foundation in sections as well. And also, you don't have to apply your foundation evenly across your skin in terms of thickness because that's when it's going.
00:08:01
Speaker 2: To look really cakey.
00:08:03
Speaker 1: So make sure you are like, like less is more, right? And this is the same kind of hack with the mascara. I want you to pop your foundation, pump a couple of pumps on the back of your hand and your hand is going to warm up the foundation. So then it's going to blend so much better for you and it's going to like melt into your skin.
00:08:20
Speaker 2: Now, this is definitely for my acne girlies.
00:08:22
Speaker 1: If you struggle with acne and just like covering your acne up, the best thing you can do before you even put your foundation on is get your concealer and And I want you to dab that on your pimples and things like that and any imperfections. And instead of then blending it, I want you to leave it for like 10 to 15 minutes because it's going to let it get like thick and dry, like it dries up on that area. So when you are going to blend it, it's not going to move around and then it's not going to like make the imperfections come through again. You know, it's so frustrating when you put concealer on and then you try to blend it and then it's not even covering your pimple anymore. So that is the best hack you can do. I love the NARS Longwear Concealer for this especially. So yeah, pop on your concealer, leave it for 10 to 15 minutes, do your eyebrows, do your hair, and then go back into your makeup again. Now, I know everyone is obsessed with lash serums at the moment, and if you are someone that really struggles to grow thick lashes, this hack.
00:09:23
Speaker 2: Is going to be the best.
00:09:24
Speaker 1: Now, I love this so much, especially for when I have an event and I do not want to wear fake lashes. This trick I'm about to tell you about, it will really make your lashes look very thick and you won't feel like you need to wear fake lashes but it's also something you can do for every day so it's not like too full on. Now this is something I used to do for my clients all the time especially even with fake lashes and this is So when you have sparse lashes, the thing that really gives that away is the flesh colored gaps between your lashes. Now, all you have to do is grab your favorite eyeliner. That's obviously safe for that area and like your waterline. And you're going to fill in those flesh colored gaps between your top lashes. So the best way, like I like to kind of like put my finger on my upper eyelid and push back a bit, and then I can see the top lash line better. And then I just grab pencil and i fill in the top lash line and this is just going to darken the roots of your lashes and that's going to give you that fake lash effect without having to wear bloody fake lashes that feel like you want to rip it's like you know when you take fake lashes off at the end of the night and it feels like you've just taken your bra off we don't have to do that anymore this is one of the things i see most commonly with people and i used to do it as well But if you want to really lift your face, especially if you're someone 30 plus and you just want to like lift the face, lift your features up, apply blush near your cheekbones, like on your cheekbones. Now, I know we're so used to having blush on the apples of our cheeks, but if you're having blush lower on the face, it's going to drag your features down. So applying blush on your cheek, like I literally apply my blush like on my cheekbones now, and it lifts your whole face. And with blush, it doesn't just have to stop on the cheeks.
00:11:17
Speaker 2: It's really beautiful.
00:11:18
Speaker 1: Like when you're wearing a really beautiful natural blush, think about, so obviously when we're wearing blush, we're recreating that flushed look. And when we're naturally flushed, if you are a supermodel, and see, I just get flushed on my nose like Rudolph, but let's just pretend we're perfect at the moment. You would get it in other areas of your face. So I will put blush on my cheekbones like yep quite high and then I also pop some on my nose and even a tiny bit on my forehead and even chin and this is also where you can take it a step further and this is what's going to really make your mornings go even faster is my favorite product to wear on my eyelids is my face products so I will just use my normal fluffy cheek brush like my blush brush and I will when I'm finished putting my blush on my face, I'll use the leftovers and pop it on my eyelids. And because the brush is fluffy, it actually deposits the product on your eyelids to be more diffused. So it looks like it's already been blended by like an eyeshadow brush. So that is like the best hack and I tend to do that most of the time now. I also do it with my bronzer. So use your face products on your eyelids and don't forget blush isn't just for the cheeks. Now going back to colouring and it is another mascara tip but this is I feel like mascara is one of the pain points but have you ever thought that maybe black mascara isn't the best colour for you? So for me I'm fairer. I'm my color analysis type is I'm a light spring. So I have, you know, blue eyes, I have lighter features. So for me, black has always really looked quite stark on me. And I used to always think like I would, even when I was a makeup artist, I would just be like, I wish I could pull off a really dark smoky eye. And it just, it was just too strong for my features. But honestly, if you are a bit more fair, if you've got lighter features, switch to brown mascara and watch how much it opens up your eyes and it just looks so much more natural but it still makes your lashes look thick and amazing so definitely give that a go now here's a bit of a lip lining tip because remember like when Kylie Jenner started really over lining her lips and then She said she hadn't got lip filler and all the things, but we're not here to discuss Kylie's choices in life, but lip liner is so amazing. And as you guys know, I actually got lip blushing done the other week and it was so, so good. I love it, which I'll do another episode on that later. But when you are lining your lips and you want to overline them to make them look fuller, only overline the cupid's bow. Because if you're overlining the edges as well, that's when you get that like frog look mouth look and it doesn't actually make it look fuller and natural so if you do want to overline your lips a little bit just overline the cupid's bow and just the bottom which is also in the center and also you can contour your lips with lip liner so you can do a darker tone lip liner on the edges and then in the center you can also do like a lighter color and that can also be to do with lipsticks as well Now to my final tip for this one, I've got so many more makeup tips, but these were my favorites and I wanted it to be a really, just like a light and easy episode as well for you guys.
00:14:33
Speaker 2: But with your mascara, when.
00:14:36
Speaker 1: It smudges on your eyelid and you've just like finished your whole face, you've popped on your mascara and then you're like, my life is ruined, leave it. Do not touch it because you know what happens when we try to take it off? it smudges and it makes it worse. So if you leave it to dry, you can literally get your finger or a cotton tip or even like a spoolie, like the mascara spoolies, and it will flake off.
00:15:02
Speaker 2: It's that simple.
00:15:03
Speaker 1: So all the times we've ruined our makeup over the years, you've just got to leave it alone. So makeup artists, like for myself, like when I would do weddings, I would constantly, like it happens, because you really want to put a lot of mascara on their lashes. So you can get it under their eye, you can get it wherever, but you just leave it. Because imagine if we had to start again, leave it alone.
00:15:23
Speaker 2: Don't touch it. It will dry and it will flake off.
00:15:26
Speaker 1: Anyways, guys, I hope you enjoyed today's episode.
00:15:28
Speaker 2: I know it was a little bit different.
00:15:29
Speaker 1: If you want more makeup hacks and things like that, maybe I could do, I was thinking of doing like a monthly favorites episode because I.
00:15:36
Speaker 2: Feel like it's like, I don't know.
00:15:38
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of us are just wanting like the old school content again.
00:15:42
Speaker 2: And it's just like, I don't know.
00:15:43
Speaker 1: I love watching people's favorites and it doesn't have to always be products, but I can also throw some tips in each month as well. Anyways, guys, I'll be back in your ears next Monday and I'll see you then.
00:15:54
Speaker 2: Bye.