About Jaclyn Mussehl Expertise I can answer questions about makeup and skin care, including: reducing shine, the pros and cons of different formats of makeup (such as cream vs. powder), choosing the right makeup for you, sun protection, tips for application, and how to control acne. I am willing to help people of all ages, and I am especially interested in helping teenagers, because I know that *I* could have used some makeup help when I was younger - it would have saved me from looking silly on more than one occasion.
NOTE: I do not work for any cosmetics or skincare companies.
Experience Experience in the area I am a graduate student in my mid-20s who has always been interested in makeup. Through a lot of trial and error, as well as from reading books and magazines, I have learned a lot of tips and tricks about applying makeup. I have suffered through oily skin and breakouts ever since puberty, so I am well experienced in dealing with these problems (which can only be treated, but not cured).
Organizations belong to I do not work for any cosmetics or skin-care companies. I just have an interest in makeup.
I apologize for the fact that I frequently list myself "on vacation." I'm going to graduate school right now while working full-time, so if a lot of work piles up and I think I'm going to be too busy to answer questions for a while, I have to list myself as "on vacation" - otherwise I would leave people waiting too long to get an answer to their question.
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Makeup & Skincare - I am just starting my career. How should I wear my makeup? (Asian, never worn much before)
Expert: Jaclyn Mussehl - 12/13/2003
Question Hello! I have some general make-up questions, and I was hoping you could help. I am in my early 20s with my first fulltime job, and I am at a loss at what make-up I should wear (I've never worn much before, except for light coverage lipstick). I am Chinese, and I have trouble choosing eye shadow colours to make my eyes seem less small. Perhaps its my eyeshadow application techniques, but the only colour I've been able to wear without looking weird is a safe, soft white!
Also, my full lips seem to turn any lipstick colours pinkish as well, which makes me a bit self-conscious because all I see in the mirror are huge lips! Any suggestions for lipstick tones that would help?
Thanks!
- Victoria
Answer Hi Victoria,
I apologize for taking so long to reply - I was sick with a viral infection over the weekend. Anyway...
As far as makeup for work goes, there are many options. To start, many women wear a foundation on their face, followed by powder. If you are new to makeup, you might want to start more simply. If you have oily skin, you can try just using powder all over your face - just about every brand of cosmetics makes a face powder. If you have dry skin, you can use a tinted moisturizer. Some good tinted moisturizers to try are: Revlon Skinlights Diffusing Tint, Cover Girl CG Smoothers SPF 15 Tinted Moisture, or Clinique Almost Makeup. Using a face powder or tinted moisturizer will help even out your skin coloring without feeling too heavy or looking too much like makeup. If your skin is normal or combination, you can try each of them and see what you like best.
If you are using just a powder or a tinted moisturizer, your natural color will show through, so you may not want to use a blush. If you decide to use one, the colors you choose are mainly a matter of personal preference. Most blushes come in varieties of brown, peach, pink and red. I would suggest starting out with a powder blush, because they are the easiest to apply and blend. I also suggest buying a separate makeup brush for applying brush. The brushes that come packaged with blush are usually much too small and still to do a good job. Some good brands of brushes that you can find at a drugstore are Maybelline, Prestige, and Revlon. Other good brands are M.A.C., Chanel, Aveda, and Bath & Body Works. Good brushes will be soft and have tapered sides, rather than being flat or square shaped. When you apply blush, you gently dab the brush into the blush and then tap it against the edge of a sink or garbage can to knock off the excess blush. It's always better to start off with too little blush and add more as you go along, than to start off with too much blush and try to remove it. Apply the brush across your cheeks in short, up-and-down motions, rather than side-to-side motions. This will prevent the blush like looking like a stripe across your cheek. When you are done applying, check it in the mirror to see if there are any noticeable lines or streaks. You can use your fingers or a cotton ball to blend more if you need to. Blending is so important with blush because you don't want to look like you have stripes or circles on your face. It should just be a gentle wash of color, without any clear lines as to where the color starts or stops.
When wearing eyeshadow to work, it's best to stick with the "neutral" shades, which are shades of brown, tan, grey, white, or pink. While it's tempting to try to use makeup to change the size or shape of our features, I wouldn't be too concerned about the size of your eyes. There really are no standard facial dimensions or sizes that determine how attractive one is, although it may seem that a lot of supermodels have large eyes. That said, if you really do want to make your eyes look bigger, I would stick with lighter colors. In makeup, darker colors tend to make things appear smaller, while lighter colors tend to make them look larger. Aside from plain white you could also try pale shades of gray, tan or pink. (But definitely try the pink out ahead of time, on a day when you're not going to work, because some shades of pink can make the eyes look puffy, or like you've been crying.) Something else you might want to try is using eyeliner, either on the lower lash line only, or the upper lash line only, or both. You might need to experiment to see which way looks best on you. Generally, it's good to stick with the same color family as your eyeshadow. So if you are wearing a pale beige eyeshadow, use brown eyeliner. Or if you are wearing light grey eyeshadow, try medium grey eyeliner. For a very soft look, instead of using a pencil eyeliner, you can use a regular eyeshadow, and just apply it to your lash line with an eyeliner brush. Most companies that sell makeup brushes sell some kind of eyeliner brush, which is a skinny brush with a very small tip - it almost looks like a tiny paintbrush. This gives you more color options for eyeliner - because eyeliner pencils usually don't come in a lot of different colors, but eyeshadows do. So now, any eyeshadow can also be used as an eyeliner!
I definitely wouldn't be concerned about having full lips, since that's something many women would like to have! Lots of Hollywood stars have paid lots of money for collagen injections to make their lips more full. But if you want to lips to be less noticeable, you could try using lipsticks that have a brownish tone to them. Brown tones are less obvious than reds or pinks, so you might find those colors preferable. You could also try using lip gloss, which gives your lips a sheer hint of color. Just about every brand of cosmetics makes a lip gloss, so you could try experimenting with a few drugstore brands to see if you find any ones there that work for you.
Some makeup companies classify their lipsticks into "warm" and "cool" tones. Pink or pinkish-red lipsticks would be cool, but lipsticks that are brown, peach, or brownish-red would be warm. So if you are concerned about the color turning pink, choose ones that are called "warm" rather than "cool." You might want to check out the websites of the companies that you are thinking of buying lipstick from - some of them may have a description of the different shades and tell whether they are warm or cool.
I hope I was able to help you a little bit. There are also some good sources of information that I can recommend. For basic information about applying makeup and choosing colors, you can try these two books (which you can probably find at the library). Both authors have a natural, classic approach to makeup, which would be very appropriate for work:
"The Beauty Bible" by Paula Begoun
"Bobbi Brown Beauty" by Bobbi Brown
For some great photographs of different makeup looks, to help give you ideas, you can try these two books (also probably available at the library):
"Making Faces" by Kevyn Aucoin
"Face Forward" by Kevyn Aucoin
And when you're choosing which products to buy, you can try the book "Don't go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me" by Paula Begoun. She reviews thousands of products from different companies, rating them on how they live up to their claims, what kind of ingredients they use, ease of application, etc. You can also visit the website www.makeupalley.com. This is a *great* website where you can read reviews written by regular people who have used these products, and also write your own review. You can search for products by brand, type, name, or look at just the top products in different categories. The only drawback is that you need to register with the website, but it's free to do.
