The Prom Series: Makeup

I feel that recently, my blog has moved slightly away from makeup and beauty and entered more into the fashion world due to my holiday OTTD's and the prom series as I have been talking about dresses and shoes. However, an important part to prom is your hair and makeup. 

Today I'm just going to touch on the basics and what I think you need to consider when choosing your prom makeup, but as part of the prom series, I hope to post more tutorial based posts such as applying fake eyelashes and the perfect tan.

This post is more for the people who are considering or going to be doing their own prom makeup rather than going to a makeup counter or artist. I will be doing my own prom makeup and so I hope this will help me to clear my head and think about what needs to be done.

I will mention here that I think that whatever brand of product you use in your trial should be what you use on the day so that you know how the product works and what look it gives. Also as you have probably guessed, I recommend that you do a makeup trial before the day.

The benefits of the primer will be that it will help your makeup to last through the evening and on into the night. As well as using a face primer, I recommend that you use an eye primer to keep eyeshadows in place and stop eye cremes from creasing in your lid. Good eye primers are the Urban Decay Eye Potion for eyes and the Benefit That Gal primer for face.

Next you will want a long lasting foundation which is matched to your skin tone. Make sure you take note if you are going to be having a spray tan that your skin tone will be a few shades darker and so you will need to consider mixing colours or adding a touch more bronzer than usual.

Your foundation should also be in a suitable finish; matte, shear glow etc. I'm hoping to use the NARS shear glow as everyone seems to love it and say how amazing it is. It also gives a glossy, dewy finish too.

For your concealer, you don't want to lighten your under eye area too much as this can look strange in photos, although you don't want bags under your eyes or pigmentation. Choose a concealer which will give you maximum coverage and a reasonable amount of colour. I recommend Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer or Benefit Boi-ing.

Next is eyebrows. Make sure that you have tied them up in reasonable time (the day before or morning of your prom) and be sure to have a suitable colour to fill them in with. This could be a gel, pencil or shadow. I recommend the Two Face Naked Eye palette in the shade Velvet Revolver for red heads and darker blondes. A good brow setting gel is also a must to comb through and hold the hairs in place. 

The next thing I recommend to do, is to powder down your face to get rid of any shinyness and to 'blot' your eyebrows (I tend to do this before adding a setting gel). My fail safe powder is the Rimmel Stay Matte face powder.

Next up contouring, bronzing and adding blush. This is all very optional (as is everything else) but you should add as much or as little as you want or as it necessary for your skin tone. 

I usually begin with an all over bronze, using my NARS Laguna bronzer and Bare Minerals Flawless Face brush which gives me an even coverage. Next I will contour my cheek bones using my Real Techniques contouring brush and my NARS bronzer. Add the bronzer gently to the hollows of your cheeks, building up the coverage so that it is even. Finally I will add my blush, usually NARS Desire blush using my Real Techniques buffing brush. I apply this to the apples of my cheeks and gently buff it into my bronzer so that it is all blended evenly together.

Once your 'base' is done, this is a good place to stop and have your hair done or do it yourself. This means that you can clip back your hair to get right into your hair line when doing your make up, and not worry about messing your hair. Then it will also have a chance to set whilst you do your hair.

Once your hair is done, then you can move onto your eyes. To start off with I would apply any eyeshadow, cremes, liner ect that you may want to include in your look. At this moment, I am unsure what eye look I will be having, but I'm pretty sure it will be simple and natural with minimal colour and eye product. However, I recommend all MAC eyeshadows for great pigment and coverage and also the Two Faced Naked Eye palette for subtle browny, gold colours.

Next I will curl my lashes and apply one coat of mascara using my Rimmel Scandalous Eyes mascara and leave it to dry. I will trim my fake lashes so that they fit my eyes and will add the glue onto the band. I think I will be using Millie Mackintosh's fake lash brand, although I need to have a look at the different styles, otherwise Eyelure is great! I will be posting about how to apply fake lashes so I won't go into too much detail now, but make sure to put some lash glue in your bag incase they come unstuck during the night!

Once the lashes are on and in place, you can leave them to dry - make sure they have dried properly before applying mascara! I will add a number of coats of mascara to blend the fake lashes and my lashes together, and because I like the big, bold lash look. At this point I will also begin to use my Benefit They're Real mascara.

Once your eye look is finished your look is almost complete! Now is the time to make sure your happy with everything and make sure you have no mascara under your eyes or on your lids, that your lashes aren't too clumpy and that you have no excess shadow product under your eyes. Now is also a good time to add a mineral veil - I swear by Bare Minerals Mineral Veil for a glossy, airbrushed finish.

I haven't forgotten about highlighting I just like to leave it until last so that it doesn't wear off or become too shiny. I like to add Benefit Watts Up highlighter stick to the tops of my cheek bones and blend it in. Then I add Benefit Girl Meets Pearl liquid highlighter to my brow bones. Make sure if you have created a smoky eye look then you have highlighted with a light eyeshadow before you began!

The very last step to your make up is adding lipgloss or lipstick. Make sure to brush your teeth before hand so that you don't get your lip product all over the place! Also take with you whatever you have used in your bag so you can reapply during the night!

This is also a good time to add perfume! An amazing find is the 'Travelo' perfume bottle. Its small enough so that you can carry it in your hand luggage when you fly, but you can fill it up with your own perfume. Because its so small it is really easy to put in your bag to take with you to prom!

Lastly, I recommend taking blotting papers with you in your handbag so that if you get a bit shiny during the night then you can touch up. A mini mascara and a powder compact is also a good idea.