Viva la Revolucion: 11 More Makeup and Beauty Tips to Revolutionize Your Routine

Written by Sam

Beauty can be as brutal as the holidays are hectic. Freelance makeup artist and blogger Sam wants you to be ready for anything in today’s guest post.

So you’ve planted the documents in the dictator’s secretary’s desk, throwing suspicion off your rebel group. Now, onto phase two of the revolution. Take these tips to help arm yourself for the coming coup!

1. To achieve the perfect cat-eye: take a note card, and use it to form a line from the outside of the nostril straight through the outer corner of the eye on the same side. Wing your eyeliner out along this line; the note card will “catch” any extraneous liner, and the line it creates will give you the most flattering angle for your face.
2. Don’t like runny and goopy glosses? Grab a shimmery eyeshadow instead (gold, silver, and champagne are relatively safe choices). Apply your lipstick as normal, blot, then tap some of the eyeshadow onto the center of your bottom lip. Reapply another thin layer of lipstick, and blot again. You can continue this pattern as many times as you wish to achieve the desired effect. This method gives your lips a multidimensionality and shimmer without the runny mess that many glosses can produce, and will last all day without reapplication. Try using different shades of eyeshadow in combination with different shades of lipstick for fun effects.
3. Common acne myths: Toothpaste or excessive tanning will dry up pimples. The truth: Although both will initially make acne disappear, fluoride and UV rays actually encourage the growth of P. acnes (the bacteria that causes many forms of acne) and will only lead to larger breakouts later. Non-prescription remedies that do work: Pepto-Bismol, a paste made of crushed uncoated aspirin and water, or Hydrocortisone (only use in a pinch; as a steroid, this can cause thinning of the skin if used too often) applied to acne will dry them up, but not treat the cause permanently.
4. Want to give your hair incredible shine, remove product build up, and protect your color all at once? Look no further than your pantry. If you can stand the smell (it’s an acquired taste…), dilute pure Apple Cider Vinegar with water, 3:1. After using shampoo and rinsing, pour the mixture over your hair, and massage it in. Let it sit for two minutes, and rinse out with cold water. Use about half as much conditioner as you normally would after this. Blot dry with a towel, and let air dry the rest of the way.
   

   There’s a lot more where this came from. See how the beauty revolution began in Viva la Revolución! 20 Makeup and Beauty Tips to Revolutionize Your Routine.

5. Tired of that bright red pimple screaming “look at me!” from the middle of your face? Douse one end of a Q-tip with redness reducing eyedrop solution (make sure it’s not the stuff that’s tinted blue; hello, Smurf-zit!), and hold it firmly against the blemish for thirty seconds to a minute.
6. To get a perfectly straight and even line across your lids, first draw eight or so dots, relatively evenly spaced, across your lashline, as close into the roots of the lashes as possible. Now, just connect each dot, rather than trying to draw a single line across the entire thing. This way, you can also control the thickness as you go along!
7. Stubborn liquid or cream products sticking in your brushes? Fill a small Ziploc bag with corn starch and toss in your brush. Seal the bag, and shake vigorously for 30 seconds or so. Remove the brush, dust off the starch, and run your fingers through the bristles a few times to remove the remainder of the powder, and the product build-up along with it.
8. To prevent your powder from caking, blot over your foundation with a tissue before putting that puff on your skin. This removes excess moisture and product, and allows your powder to cling firmly and evenly.
9. Ditch that expensive eye cream and grab your tub of Vaseline. Apply a thin layer of this under your eyes before going to bed, avoiding other parts of your face, and wake up with plump, hydrated peepers.
10. Really want your lipstick to be bold, graphic, and true to the tube color? Dab a thin layer of concealer over your lips before application.
11. Need some pumped-up moisture for a dry head of hair? Apply a deep conditioning masque as usual, then get out of the shower (I know, I hate this feeling too) without rinsing. Hit you hair with a blowdryer on high for a minute or two, and wrap it up in a warm towel or some plastic wrap, and aim the heat at it again. Let the masque sit in your hair for 15-20 minutes (great time to get some work done! Aren’t you the little multitasker…), and rinse out with cold water. The heat allows the masque to more easily permeate the hair strands, while the cold water shocks the cuticle, forcing it to close, and trapping all of that lovely moisture inside.

This battle is going to be won with maquillage, not subterfuge, so prepare yourself.

Happy holidays!

Written by Sam

Sam is a 17-year-old, oddly tall guy whose love of all things skincare, makeup, and fashion started when he entered the modeling world at 14. Since then, he’s established himself as a freelance makeup artist in the theatre and fashion worlds, and started his own blog to preach the wonders of orange eyeshadow, Asian skincare, and designer fragrances to the masses.