HOW TO TAKE YOUR EVERYDAY LOOK FROM ORDINARY TO EXQUISITE

This is not my usual kind of topic, mostly because, even though I love style, I'm more into clothing than makeup (fashion than beauty products). I was vain enough to convince myself that I am beautiful enough and just need minimal makeup to enhance my looks. (I still need minimal makeup, not minute, lol). What makes this post even all the more weird for me to write about is this; I am one of those girls who can get up and go without a stitch of makeup. I can get to work then remember to make up after 2 hours of getting to work. However, a few months after I got married, something changed (no thanks to my hubby because he loves me without makeup). I don't know why. All types of  makeup except plain colorless lip gloss pisses him off.

Before and after photos of my makeup kit. I must say I've improved

Anyway, so I got back to work and everyone is complaining about how dark and ugly I look. I realized that I had neglected the way I looked. I was already taking on the scraggy housewife's look (happens to the best of us). I decided then to go back to my "normal" routine of facial care (this normal care started a couple of months to the wedding so I could look radiant on that day). So, I'm trying my best to apply all my facial treatments, (2 of them to be precise), and people are still asking if I changed my foundation or bathing soap. Not until someone asked me if I changed my body lotion did I remember that indeed, I had. You see, I use one of those lotions that you push down the top to let it out of the nozzle. They are extremely difficult to pack. So instead, I decided to pour the lotion into my petroleum jelly container (with some petroleum jelly still inside), which has a more secure lock and much more easier to pack. I used it like that for another 2 months and I totally forgot that petroleum jelly totally makes a dark person darker. 

The moment I realized my mistake, I went straight ahead and corrected it. I also continued my facial scrub treatment every night. Then things began to get better. I still wasn't getting those compliments (vain chic that I am), so I decided to up my game a bit. I still had all the makeup I bought for the wedding but I was saving them and whatsoever little makeup techniques I picked up from my makeup artists for special events. A week after I started applying my makeup properly, people started saying this like "oh you look sooo nice" "there's something different about the way you look", "wow it's good to be married", "kudos to your hubby", "are you pregnant, you look so beautiful", "oga dey try oh". And I'm like "yea, thanks to the hubby". (In my mind, "you don't know how much work goes into this").

As I was trying to prepare this post at work (got some free time), the orderly walks in, sees me and all my makeup and says "so this is what you do and come out looking like a baby!" And I smile at her while my mind is screaming "BUSTED!!!". LOL. Anyway, my lesson learnt, is take as much care with your face as you do with your clothes. With that ladies, I'd tell you how I do the trick. Below;

Before and after making up

• First, make sure you get very good makeup. Don't just buy anything in the market. There are a lot of fakes out there.
• Next, get good makeup brushes. It's not enough to apply makeup with your fingers. They could smudge all over the place. 
• Basic essentials of makeup are; foundation, compact or loose powder, concealer, eye and lip pencils, mascara, liquid eyee liner, lipsticks, lipgloss and blush. 
• Primer, eye shadow, false lashes are secondary in my book.
• Next make sure that your face is clean and attack the brows first. These are extremely important, if not the most important because they give you the look you desire.
• Personally, I don't like brows too thin or too thick, so this is how I create mine. Luckily, I have enough hair on my brow so I outline the shape I want with a concealer, (you may look scary to a child initially). Smoothen out the concealer with a concealer brush till it is barely visible. 
• Then remove any brow hairs outside your desired brow shape with tweezers.
• Then, apply your foundation, making sure to apply over your ears and neck, especially if you are dark skinned because you dont want to show up with two-colored body. You can also use the foundation to further hide the concealer lines. (I like to look as natural as possible). I also apply my foundation before filling in the brows so I don't smudge the dark color of the brow pencil all over my face. (I wonder how I manage surgery sometimes).
• Now that you've got the brows properly outlined, fill it in with your brow pencil, preferably brown. You may also use black.
• Next, the eyes, I like my eyes dark, somehow I think it makes me look fierce. A colleague of mine once called me piercing eyes. Said he felt like I could see his soul. Anyway, these days I also try out other colors like green and blue (was told that black make the eye look small and mine are tiny). Quite confusing. To get the black piercing eyes though, take your black eyeliner and apply it to the inner part of the lower eyelid. Do the same for just above the upper eyelid. Use the liquid eyeliner to further line the top of the upper eyelid, close to the lashes.
• Next, apply black eye shadow and then finish off the look with your mascara. If you love lashes, then fix them before starting your eye makeup. 
• Makeup for lips is easy, lip liner then lip stick and gloss and voila! You are done and looking effortlessly fabulous without the help of a makeup artist too.

I hope you had fun  reading this, until next post, keep looking beautiful. 

Cheers.......