How to build your make-up bag for $5 a week for beginners- Week 2 Blush

Let me start off by saying I am good at a lot of things. I have a lot of underutilized skills. That being said one thing I have never been very good at is the traditional beauty skills. When I was growing up, our appearance was not something we focused much on. We want to give you the education I never had and help you build your make-up bag for $5 a week for beginners, this week we focus on blush.

As I get older, I recognize the importance that your appearance really can have. Even if you are the smartest or most capable person in the room, if you don’t have the mainstream appearance it is much harder to get your foot in the door without.

Maybe you are like me and never really had someone show you the ropes. The internet is a wonderful and weird place; there are literally millions of makeup tutorials. There are even more products available. Because you are so inundated with information it is hard to sift through to find what really works for you.

The other down side is, so many tutorials I have found focus only on products that are high end, and therefore out of reach to those who do not have the money or access to the stores they come from. If you are literally just learning and need to practice, you don’t want to spend a years worth of allowance on a product that gives you a pea size amount that you may ‘waste’ in your mistakes.

The last issue we see come up a lot is how to know what is really ‘good’ for your appearance. There are many who strive for the less is more, while others so drastically change your look it is hard to recognize yourself. We all love a dramatic makeover in the movies and television, but it is often impractical in real life.

For all those reasons we wanted to provide a quick resource for those of you who have never been in the know and for those of you who maybe need a look refresher. So without further ado, build your make-up bag for $5 a week for beginners.

Our Method- build your make-up bag for $5 a week for beginners

What we are going to start with is $5 and 5 minutes. We will start one item at a time. Each item will be approximately $5 and should be able to be obtained easily from any of the big box/pharmacy stores. The item will come with a short tutorial to explain how to use it. Each makeup application should take less than 5 minutes total. Every week will build then on the previous week so each week we will reveal the next item to add to your makeup bag. The look will end up being cohesive and professional.

Some weeks we may suggest things that are a little over the $5, other weeks our finds will be under. In the end the average should stay around the $5, but make sure since they are widely available to take advantage of as many sales and coupons as you can to make it work.

We want to highlight your best attributes, not hide who you really are

As a disclaimer I want to stress that we are using makeup to highlight our best features. If you are looking for a program that radically changes your look into someone that is not you, this is not your program. If you want to the be the BEST VERSION OF YOU, then stay tuned.

Week 2: Blush

Blush is magical because it can give you the appearance of both health and youth. Youthful healthy skin actually has a small amount of rose color to it because it is balanced and has great blood flow. What blush also does is give depth and curve to your face. It is another great tool that can be easily mastered to highlight your own best features. By accentuating your bone structure it can also help the face appear both slender and well defined.

Best bets to start with…

If you are just starting I would like to make the following three recommendations in order of my favorite to least:

• Covergirl Instant Cheekbones Refined Rose (230)
• Covergirl Instant Cheekbones Purely Plum (220)
• Covergirl Instant Cheekbones Peach Perfection (210)

The reason I feel these kits are the best to start with is because they are universally flattering. They can be used in a professional setting if you are entering the work place. The colors are not too obtuse so as to call much attention to you. The shades are very forgiving as well if you make a mistake. More to the point though, they help bring out your natural beauty by flattering all the things you already have been blessed with. Price point for these cannot be beat, and the color schemes give you some choices on how best to proceed.

Selecting the right shade…

I listed these three in order that I think they are best appropriate, but you should make your own determination based on what you think is most flattering to your own tone. The refined rose is a personal favorite of mine because I think it has the most natural look and is more subdued. When I was younger and danced, our dance company specifically called out this as the shade we were required to use on stage for those reasons. If you are a little more confident or want a more noticeable contribution to your look then I would lean more towards the plum. The colors are a little bit stronger. I love the peach to give a summer glow, but you need to be careful with orange undertones as that can make some people with fairer skin appear more fake and well orange.

How to get started…

Before you start you want to locate the rounds of your cheeks and your cheek bones. To find the rounds of your cheeks look in a mirror and give the biggest toothy grin you can. Your face should go up and almost form two round circles below your eyes, from just under your nostrils to just above. I would say I have a rounder than average face so my actual cheek rounds are about the size of a ping pong ball. Then you want to find the rest of your cheek bone by pressing very gently on your face. Start near your ears and push on your skin until you find the bone and trace it lightly to your cheek rounds. Follow the golden rule of blush: never apply blush on your face lower than the tip of your nose or higher than the bottom of your eyebrow.

If you are just getting started, select the middle shades in your collection. You want to rub your brush over the color until it is evenly coated on the bristles. Then moving along your cheek bones from your hairline closest to your ears and ending at the cheek rounds sweep the single color over. After that you can add a tiny accentuate sweep over the cheek round itself. If you apply too much to the round or select too dark of a color, you start to enter clown territory so tread lightly. If the blush appears to stark of a contrast or streaky make sure to blend it well, by rubbing softly on the area to smooth out the appearance.

If you start to get more confident, move to the lightest color, found all the way on the right. You will do the same as above, sweeping the color over the bottom of the bone. With the lightest color you can then coat your brush, and sweep the color from the corner of your eyes to your hairline across the top of the bone.

Once you feel comfortable with that, you can next add to the above steps, also utilizing the lightest color, make swipe straight down the center of your nose.

If you are feeling even more confident, then you can do all the steps above and this time coating only a small edge of the brush with your darkest color, found all the way on the left, make one small swipe underneath the cheekbone, but ending before you get to the cheek rounds.

Some of the backs of the blush also include instructions and diagrams to help.

You have now mastered eye shadow and blush and are on your way to building your make-up bag for $5 a week, for beginners.

Missed the first week? No worries, click here to catch up: How to build your make-up bag for $5 a week for beginners- Week 1 – Wish You Would Have

Let us know what you think? How did the second week go? We love to hear from you!