Back-to-Basics Beauty Tips and Tricks

How to heal dry skin, ace eyeliner application, curl stick-straight hair, and master other beauty skills—each in three simple steps. 

Makeup Lessons

How to Apply Foundation

1. Smooth primer onto your face. This creates an even canvas and helps makeup last longer, especially if you have oily skin.
2. Put a dot of foundation on each cheek and your chin, nose, and forehead.
3. Blend from the center of your face outward, using a damp foundation brush or a makeup wedge for the thinnest coating. You can also blend with just your fingers— your body heat will help the formula melt into your skin for a more natural finish.

Extra credit: If your foundation tends to cake up, especially in the creases around your nose and under your eyes, smooth it out with a fingertip’s worth of eye cream.

How to Apply Highlighter

1. Form the letter C with your thumb and index finger. Place the thumb on your cheekbone and the index finger on your brow bone.
2. Remove your hand and apply a small amount of cream, liquid, or powder highlighter in the shape of that C, says Wende Zomnir, a cofounder of Urban Decay cosmetics.
3. Blend well with your fingers. If you’re afraid you’ve gone overboard, tone the color down by dusting a little loose powder on top, says Maggie Ford Danielson, a beauty authority for Benefit Cosmetics.

Extra credit: Highlighter can do more than give you luminous skin; it’s also handy for creating optical illusions. To make close-set eyes look farther apart, dab a bit onto the inner eye corners. If you want your mouth to appear more shapely, apply highlighter to the bow of your upper lip with a flat-tip brush. To make your face look slimmer, sweep it down the center of your nose.