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There I was, 14 years old putting my bright blue eye shadow on (I’m cringing right now writing this). The good old days as we call them. I was never one of the popular girls and sure wasn’t into makeup. For goodness sakes, I played with barbies until I was 14 (Yes-14 Haha). Fast forward a couple decades. Still not really into the whole makeup thing but I had my usual routine, liquid foundation and some eye make-up. It wasn’t until I was a mother of a teenage daughter that I realized how little I actually knew about makeup.
My daughter has drawers full of palettes, brushes, contour, highlight, setting sprays and powders. She watches tutorial videos to learn all the tricks to applying it. So, what ever happened to the “ugly phase” our generation went through? I’m happy for them, that phase totally sucked. I swear, we had another version of puberty or something than the kids these days. These teenage girls look like they just stepped out of a magazine. Have you taken a stroll through Sephora lately? It’s overwhelming-so many shades and products. This one oxidizes and that one doesn’t. Say what? Is there some science to this? It appears so. I had no clue what to get or how to use it.
It wasn’t until a few years ago that it all clicked for me. A friend of mine had this palette with these little magnetic tins of colors in it. She says it’s “III Foundation”. Hmm III Foundation huh? What does that even mean? It means it is your main foundation, contour, highlight and cheek color in one (but only one layer of makeup). You put the colors in certain areas on your face and blend. The shading shapes your face-hence the term “contour”. It’s so easy that even a woman in her 40’s who was completely inexperiencedwith makeup (Me-I’m that woman) could do it. I still remember the first time I put it on. It wasn’t even about how I looked. I felt beautiful and confident in that moment. How is it possible that makeup can have that effect on a person. I was hooked! Been using it ever since. I refer to it as my, “Magic Makeup”.
If you are inexperienced with make-up like myself, you might want to check it out. I’m going to walk you through the application of Seint’s IIID Foundation. Remember, I am not a makeup artist. Others may do this differently. I am just sharing something I love and that was life-changing for me. This is the absolute basics that I learned. It’s cream based makeup which is very forgiving. If you put too much on, just blend it some more. Every time I wear this makeup, I receive compliments. I’m going to show you how to put it on with your finger! You put all the colors on at once and then blend. It’s called the Cheetah HAC (Highlight and contour)
- Start with the darkest shade (Contour). Dot your forehead along your hairline. Then dot a line coming from above your cheek bone to about half way down your cheek. Ok, stay with me here-put some contour on you pinky and slide it down the sides of your nose. A trick I learned is to hold a skinny brush or pencil on your nose and slide the contour shade down the sides of it. This will outline your nose. You can reshape your nose using the contour. If you look online, you can find demonstrations of this. Pretty neat! You can also put contour on your jaw line. Be careful to make sure it’s not on your face or it may end up looking like a 5 o’clock shadow-Not really the look we are going for.
- Use the lightest color (Highlight) next. This will go on your “T-Zone”. You will dot a straight line from the center of your forehead down your nose and then above and below your lip. Also dot under your eyes with this color. It will brighten up the under-eye area and help cover bags.
- Dot everywhere else with the last color (Main shade). Then take your blend brush and start tapping/blending the colors right where they are, NOT MIXING THEM. You can blend the cheek colors as well as the forehead area in the direction of your hairline. That’s it! You just did a full face of makeup in one quick application. It’s one layer of makeup but with all your foundation, contour and highlight.
- Dot a line of your cheek color on top of the contour dots. This is your blush. Even if you normally wouldn’t use blush-try it out. It really completes the look. You need the contrast of shades.
As you practice, you will get better and faster at applying it. Then you can add in all the fun stuff like illuminator and bronzer. You learn more as you go. This makeup has been life-changing for me. I hope that it helps those of you who want to learn how to wear contour and highlight but aren’t sure where to start. I believe all women are beautiful but sometimes it takes a little something to make us feel like we are.
I love this makeup so much that I actually decided to become a Seint Artist. I wanted to help average women like myself discover that confidence that this makeup brought out. The discounted products are a bonus. If you have tried it, I would love to hear your thoughts. If you are interested in trying it, here is the link.
~Passionate Pisces
