Fast and Easy Evening Make-Up

Look Sophisticated and Sexy In Ten Minutes

Oct 14, 2008

Evening make-up does not have to look heavy or take hours to apply. Here's a simple, sophisticated look that can be achieved in a very quick time!

Perhaps you got a last minute invitation, perhaps it's a spontaneous night-out, or perhaps your commute home took twice as long as it usually does. Here's a sophisticated look you can achieve in ten minutes, but will look like you took five times that long!

The Tools For A Sexy Evening Look

foundation, concealer and powder
soft rose-coloured powder blush
shimmery pinky-beige cream highlighter
black mascara
black eyeliner pencil
shimmery pinky-beige eyeshadow
shimmery chocolate brown eyeshadow
rosy nude lipliner
rosy nude lipstick
sheer, non-sparkly rosy nude lipgloss

In the section below you'll find the steps to create the look, and tips to tailor it to suit your personal tastes. Specific product suggestions and alternative shades are also suggested where applicable.

Achieving the Look

This may take you longer than ten minutes the first few times you try it, but eventually you'll be able to get this down in ten minutes or less. Practice when you have the time (and before you have to use it in a rush) and you'll learn what colours and tricks work best for you.

Base:

Apply foundation where needed to even out redness or unevenness in your skin tone. Use concealer on any blemishes, undereye circles and spots that your foundation did not cover effectively. Blend well.
Apply a small amount of cream highlighter to the apples of your cheeks, blending it up towards the outer corners of your eyes. Suggested products: NARS The Multiple or MAC Cream Colour Base in Shell.
Dust loose powder all over your face (except the apples of your cheeks) to set your foundation, concealer and to help reduce natural shine.

Cheeks:

Sweep the soft rose blush to the apples of your cheeks, blending up towards your temple. The powder blush will help to set the cream highlighter. Suggested product: Benefit Boxed Powder in Thrrrob.

Eyes:

Start by curling your eyelashes with an eyelash curler. Doing this before you begin to apply any make-up will make the application easier and allow you to better see the effect what you are applying is having.
With a newly sharpened black eyeliner pencil (you want the thinnest line possible) line both top and bottom inner rims of your eyes, working into the lashline itself. With a small eyeshadow brush, soften and blend the liner out slightly.
Apply your pinky-beige eyeshadow to your browbone and your chocolate brown shade to your lid up to the crease, blending the two well. If the chocolate brown shade is too dark for your tastes, you can layer the lighter eyeshadow colour over it to soften the effect. Suggested products: Bare Escentuals in Vanilla Sugar and Cocoa.
Apply two coats of mascara to your top and bottom lashes.

Lips:

Line your lips with a sharpened lipliner and fill in. If you don't normally use or need lipliner, you can skip this step but if you choose to use it, make sure to use a lipliner that matches your natural lip colour as closely as possible.
Apply two coats of your lip colour, blotting after each with a tissue. Your lip colour should match your natural lip colour and the lipliner shade.
Finally apply with a non-glittery, rosy lipgloss. Suggested products: MAC Lipglass in Florabundance or NARS lip gloss in Chihuahua.

Alternative Tricks

For an edgier look, layer the black eyeliner with a dark coloured pencil such as green, purple, grey or navy.
For a more subtle look, forgo the chocolate brown shadow.
If your skin is medium to dark toned or olive toned, try using coppery, peachy shades of blush, lipliner, lipstick and lipgloss, it will be more flattering than a champagne/silvery shade.
If you prefer, you can skip either the lipliner or lipstick steps. All three lip steps together create a 3D, long-lasting, natural effect, but depending on the natural tone of your lips, you may choose to skip one or the other.

The copyright of the article Fast and Easy Evening Make-Up in Make-up Application is owned by Catherine Solmes. Permission to republish Fast and Easy Evening Make-Up in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.