Makeup tutorials, beauty tips

One of the coolest things about having my skin back after that horrible acne, is that I can use highlighters again. I’m not at all about that over-the-top highlighting style, but I still apply quite a lot of it on my face.

My highlighting style makes my skin look glowy and like the light hits it in just the right spots. The key in making highlighter work for you instead of against you (been there!) is to use the right product for your skintype, apply it in the right spots and to not go overboard with it. Though to be honest -it happens to the best of us – sometimes it’s so hard to resist all that sparkle.

In this post I will show you step by step how I apply highlighter on my face, I will show you my favorite highlighter and give some highlighting tips, including the best highlighter for textured or oily skin.

How to highlight your face

The idea in highlighting is to highlight the high points of your face. To make you look glowy and beautiful. Depending on your glow-level, you can highlight all six of the places mentioned here, or if you just want a subtle glow, you can leave your nose or jaw untouched. I don’t necessarily always highlight my face like this, but when I want that glowy look, these are the spots I hit with my brush.

Cheekbones. Highlighter goes on the highest point of your cheek and it should be blended so it doesn’t look just a straight streak on your cheek. Blend it upwards towards your temples and to your cheeks – I always make it blend with my blush too.
Bridge of the nose & tip of the nose. If you like your nose and want to accentuate it, you can hit it with some highlight. My nose is quite straight and petite and I like to make it look even straighter and cuter by applying some highlighter right on the bridge of it (make sure you make a thin straight line!) and a touch on the tip of it.
Cupid’s bow. Probably my favorite place to highlight. I remember highlighting my cupid’s bow with a white eye pencil when I was younger and my friend was like: ‘whatcha doing?!’ and I couldn’t really explain it to her, but somehow I knew it made my lips look bigger and better. And it makes my cupid’s bow accentuated, which I like.
Jaw. I could probably skip this one, but I like to do it just to draw attention to the center of my face – since my face is square-shaped. Having highlighter kinda all over my face makes the whole makeup look more put together, if it makes sense.
Inner corners.
You’ll probably add some light shimmery eye shadow on your inner corners, when doing your eye makeup, but here’s an idea: use the highlighter you used on your face! Again, it makes everything match together beautifully.
Brow bone. The same applies here, as in number 5. But when it comes to brow bone highlighting, there’s an important thing to remember. If your eyes are very hooded or very deep set, applying a lot of highlighter on your brow bone might make your eyes sink in even more. Then again – a tiny touch of highlighter on your browbone can lift up your eyes. If your eyes are very hooded/deep set, matte highlighter (a light color) could work better. Experiment with this and see what works for you! I have deep set eyes and I applied the highlighter on my browbone too, but I applied just the tiniest amount.

+ forehead

My forehead is the only place, I don’t touch. It just so happens that it glows naturally, all by itself. If your skin isn’t as oily as mine, you can hit your forehead with a little highlight: try applying it right in the center or above your brows.

I look like I could kill, but I’m just very focused here. I made this so you can clearly see, where the highlighter exactly goes on my face.

My all-time favorite highlighter

I have a lot of highlighters and I use all of them, but there is one product, that is above everything and it is Zuii Organic’s Diamond Sparkle Blush in the shade Berry. I own that product in almost every color, but that is the one color that is just perfect for light complexions. It is light pink color and it reflects light like no other. I always – always – use this on brides too. It’s a perfect product for wedding makeup. I also have my own name for this product, I call it the magic dust.

This highlighter is a loose sparkling powder, which might look intimidating at first. It’s so sparkly. But the sparkles are actually quite fine, so this product works for anyone, no matter the age. It looks gorgeous on your skin. If your skin is very textured, you can either try this or the other other product, mentioned below.

Zuii Organic Diamond Sparkle Blush, Berry* (25,94€, ecco-verde.com)

Highlighting tips

Highlighter can be your enemy, if your skin is super textured and has some problems. Sometimes shimmery products can emphasize the problem. I know it’s boring to just leave the highlighter out, so there are options! One product, that I’ve found work for me well, was Maybelline’s Strobing Stick. I have a whole post about it, since it was a breakthrough for me, when I had skin problems.

If you’re all about that extra glow, try applying your highlighter on slightly wet skin. First spray your face with a setting spray or some other moisturizing spray, let it sit with just a second and then apply your highlighter. Extra-glow guaranteed.

Use a fan brush to apply your highlighter. A fan brush is great for cheekbones or for bigger areas. It makes blending easy and it applies the highlighter lightly.

Use a smaller brush for details. For details, such as nose or cupid’s bow – use a smaller brush! That way you don’t accidentally give yourself shimmer whiskers or widen your nose. I actually messed this up in the photos, sorry!

Product list for the full face

Pandhy’s loose mineral powder, Sandra
Zuii Organic Concealer, Beige & Fair
Everyday Minerals Concealer, Multitasking
Jane Iredale ContourKit, Cool
TooFaced Sweetheart Blush, Candy Glow
Zuii Organic Diamond Sparkle Blush, Glow

mad4eyebrow Brow Filler, Blonde
Clarins Joli Rouge Velvet, Deep Red

Guys, I have breaking news.

It’s about eyeshadow application. I finally learned the trick on how to apply eyeshadow to my deep set/hooded eyes. My eyes have a very little of visible lid space. Just a small gap. So applying the dark eyeshadows on the ‘crease’, as typical, has never worked for me. Actually, the typical rules in general haven’t really worked for me. With deep set or hooded eyes – you have to do things a little differently.

And even though I’m a professional I’ve struggled with my own eye shape. Getting it sometimes right, but most of the time just kind of shooting in the dark, not understanding the logic behind my actions. Okay, I made it sound super serious. But it is! It’s life and death here – eyeshadow, life and death.

So let’s get to the visual part of it. I’m gonna teach you exactly how to apply eyeshadow for hooded eyes, deep set eyes, monolids or just for eyes, that have a little of visible lid space. This trick is also a bit universal, so it works for anyone, who wants to make her/his eyes appear bigger.

And might I just add, humbly of course, that this is the best eye shadow trick I have shared on my blog so far.

The ultimate makeup trick for deep set or hooded eyes

Forget about the crease

As you can see, with my eye shape, my crease is super low. Those grey dots in the first picture show you my crease. I’ve parted ways with it a long time ago – deepening my actual crease just makes my eyes look smaller and even though my eyes are just the right size, I don’t want them to be any smaller. So, forget about the crease.

Follow your natural bone structure

How to apply eyeshadow for any eye shape? Follow your natural bone structure – just like you do with contour and highlight. It’s no different from that really! It’s all about playing with the natural contours of your eye and putting the shadow where it naturally occurs. Which, in this case, forms right below my brow bone. These photos are a bit dark on purpose, because I wanted to show you the natural shadows that occur on my eyes. I marked it with grey dots in the second picture.

Find your natural shadow – it’s right below your brow bone

To get this absolutely right, you need to find the exact spot. You can find it with your finger – you can feel where the bone ends and the eye sinks a little. Or you can go to a room, where the lighting is a bit dim and see, where that shadow forms on your eye. You can see it super clearly that way, as you can see from these pictures. Lately I’ve actually taken my makeup brush, walked to our hallway (where it’s that dim lighting) and drew on that eyeshadow exactly where that shadow hits me. Then I’ve just gotten back to my makeup table – it makes the eyeshadow application so much easier, once I have those ‘boundaries’ on.

The reason this makes any eyeshadow look better, is because it looks more natural. Since we’ve been following our natural bone structure, the makeup kind of looks as if it belongs there. Right? Even the blending looks softer this way – almost as if the bone structure would give it an extra boost (spoiler alert: it does).

Here is a close up to show you exactly the trick. See how high you can actually pull up the eyeshadow? It’s nowhere near that natural crease or fold.

Now here is a very simple eye shadow tutorial using this trick.

Simple eye shadow tutorial for deep set & hooded eyes

Contour the eye by following your natural bone structure. Use a matte shade. Create the ‘crease’ where a natural shadow occurs. That is where your color should be the darkest. Fill in the color in the outer corner and blend well, so that the contour looks soft and nice. Apply some color to your lower lashline as well, but it keep it subtle (unless you like the drama).
Apply the lid color all over the lid all the way to the fake crease. Blend the edges carefully, so that, again, it looks soft and nice. But don’t let the shimmery color (if used) get to your crease area, because that color should be matte.
Apply the inner corner highlight, liner, and mascara. I did a soft blended liner with black eyeshadow.

The best eyeshadow palettes
*Norvina palettes
*Urban Decay Naked Palettes
*Too Faced palettes

The base for my eyeshadow is always*Urban Decay Primer Potion. It keeps the eyeshadow locked in place all day.

The best eyeshadow brushes
*Zoeva
Zoeva is my absolute favorite brand for brushes. They’re high quality and make blending so easy!
*Coastal Scents 22 brush set
There are also affordable brushes, that are great. This set is what I bought for myself as my very first brush set and I still use it a lot.

I hope this post was as helpful to you, as it was for me to figure out this thing. Let me know in the comments!

And hey – happy Valentines’s day! I’m gonna do a little date night thing with Risto, eating dinner at home in a candle light. So cheesy, but so lovely.

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How to highlight your face & highlighting tips