Krasey Beauty

As your resident beauty expert and former makeup artist, I feel it is my duty to keep you all informed on all things technique. Often are the times I receive your burning questions on how to apply makeup, and I am always happy to answer, but that doesn’t mean that the teacher can’t learn a thing or two herself. My beloved, my favorite, my precious (yes, I went there) makeup brand- Make Up For Ever- recently invited me to go back to school at their brand-spanking new makeup academy in Union Square. There, I listened in rapt fascination as Dany Sanz’s own protege, Flaurine, taught the class proper technique on face contouring, brow shading, and eye shadow blending. Read on for details, tips, tricks, and more Make Up For Ever-related musings!

First, the contouring of the face. Some of you may not know this, but contouring is the single most effective way to instantly define, angularize, and slim the face down, making it look like you have lost 5 pounds. Better yet, it is easy to do, once you know your face shape. First, take a look in the mirror, and decide if your face is round, square, oval, long, diamond-shaped, or something in between. Then, compensate for any of your structure’s shortcomings, by receding too-large areas with shade (powder 1 shade darker than your own), and bringing out areas that need to appear larger (with powder 1 shade lighter than your own). The goal is to fake an oval face, which is generally considered to be the most attractive.

As for products, I recommend Make Up For Ever’s contouring powder duos, which offer up several varations of dark and light powders that contour amazingly, blend beautifully, and wear like iron throughout the day.

Next, the brows can be the deciding factor in whether or not your face looks put together. Whether your brows are bushy or sparse, shapeless or too arched, there is a way to correct it by creating your ideal shape, with the use of brow finishing products.

Make Up For Ever’s colored brow set gel does brows right, so get some. No seriously, do it now.

Last but not least, eye shadow blending is a topic that is very near and dear to my heart. At its very basic core, any eye look can be effectively achieved with the use of one light shade, and one dark shade (the degrees of difference between the two are what sets the drama in the look), blending into one another until all harsh edges, boundaries, and borders disappear.

I recommend one of each of Make Up For Ever’s stellar eye shadows, and of course their eye brushes.

If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that in the world of makeup artistry, there is always something to be learned. For those in New York, who are looking to get into the makeup field, there is truly no better place to learn than at the Make Up For Ever Academy. For those not in NYC, please enjoy these tips. Oh, and be sure to check out Make Up For Ever at your local Sephora, because this is a brand with tons of treasures, just waiting to be discovered by you.