Author: HairWeavings Editorial Team

As I think we’d all agree, the most flattering look for our face makeup is a natural look – a look where all of our face products blend together beautifully and seamlessly. But I’m sure that most of us have had the experience of applying blush, contour or highlighter that ends up looking patchy or streaky, downright unattractive, and ages us. And while these products can do wonders for our complexion, a “gone wrong” application can do exactly the opposite.

So, today, I’ll first cover some general tips on how we can apply blush, contour and highlighter perfectly every time. And since the cause of a less than perfect makeup look can also boil down to the formula of the product and how we apply that formula, I’ll also share with you some no fail application methods that can banish blotchy and streaky looks for good.

First, Exfoliate!

First let’s cover some general tips that can make quite a major difference in how our makeup looks. The first tip is to exfoliate our skin to get rid of dead skin cells once or twice a week before applying our makeup. If we don’t exfoliate, and we apply makeup over dry and flaky skin, our makeup will look streaky and uneven.

However, if you have rosacea, you should NOT exfoliate your skin.

Prep Your Skin

Second, we need to prep our skin with moisturizer because dry skin and makeup are not friends. Even if you have oily skin, use a moisturizer – but be sure it’s oil free.

Third, consider applying a face primer. Face primers do a wonderful job of creating an even surface on which makeup products can be applied. And many face primers help with other challenges as well – such as large pores or redness. If you have oily skin – a mattifying face primer or oil-absorbing foundation can be a lifesaver. That’s because the natural oils in our skin can cause other products to look splotchy and streaky.

Fourth, be sure to use a foundation brush or sponge to even out foundation. If our foundation is thicker in some areas than in others, we’re definitely asking for trouble when we apply other products over it since the foundation won’t absorb into the skin evenly.

Blend for a Natural Look

Fifth, the three key words for blush, contour and highlighter application are “blend, blend, blend.” This helps the products look natural, so they don’t look like they’re sitting on top of our face.

Sixth, consider using a setting powder or setting spray. That’s because as our makeup fades throughout the day, it can start to have the dreaded double “S” look – splotchy and streaky.

Seventh – clean your makeup brushes weekly. Excess makeup and oil from our skin can build up on the bristles which can be very detrimental to our makeup look.

Eighth, we may need to say goodbye to old brushes. I know it’s hard to give up an old friend which has been there for us on countless occasions over the years, but it may be time to part ways. If the density or shape of the brush has changed, it’s time to make friends with a new brush.

Be sure to check out Elise’s YouTube channel which specifically focuses on makeup tips, techniques, and product reviews for those of us 50+. Don’t forget to subscribe!

Choose Wisely

Ninth, we need to avoid being too heavy handed with our application of the product. We want to take the Goldilocks approach of not too much and not too little, but just right. We can always blot or pat away excess product with a sponge – or pat over it with foundation, but it’s far easier to add more of a product than to take away some of the product.

Ten, make sure that you pick a shade that works with the undertone of your skin since blush, contour and highlighter aren’t a one-size-fits-all proposition. Applying a product that’s too bright, dark or the wrong shade can age us.

And eleven – as we all know – blush (especially) can disappear after a few hours of wear, so we need to layer our blush for staying power. There are several ways to do this. We can layer powder blush over cream or pat on cream over powder or liquid blush. Or, we can apply a layer of cream or liquid blush, then press a makeup sponge with setting spray on it over the blush and then apply another layer of blush.

How to Apply Different Product Formulas and Saturation Levels

Now that we’ve covered general tips, let’s focus on one of the most crucial things that determines how polished – or how poor – our face makeup looks. And that’s how we apply particular product formulas.

Deciding how best to apply a product is determined by two things: first, the formula of the product – in other words, is it stiff and more challenging to blend out – or is it soft and blendable. And second, how intense or saturated the product’s color is.

Product Formulas

If the formula of a blush, contour or highlighter is stiff and doesn’t blend out easily, avoid applying it directly on your skin from the applicator. Instead, put some on the back of your hand or in your palm and pick up the color with a brush.

Rub the brush over the product several times to make sure you get an even distribution of the product on your brush and then rub the brush against the back of your hand or your palm to remove excess product. Then apply the product on the outer part of the face first and then move toward the center.

This is because the brush will deposit the greatest amount of product where we first place it on our face. And we don’t want to have the greatest amount of product on the center of our face.

In the video I’ll demonstrate the difference between a stiff formula and a softer, easier to blend formula with these two products: Wet and Wild contour stick and Em Cosmetic’s contour stick. As you’ll be able to tell, the Wet and Wild product is quite a bit stiffer and harder – whereas the Em Cosmetics product glides on far more easily.

So I’d definitely recommend applying the Wet and Wild stiffer formula to the back of your hand or palm first and then picking it up with a brush to apply it. The Em Cosmetics contour is so creamy and easy to blend that it can be applied directly to the face from the applicator and then blended out. In the video I’ll apply the Wet and Wild Contour on one side of my face and the Em Cosmetics’ Contour on the other side of my face so you can see the difference.

Product Saturation

Now let’s focus on product saturation by comparing two different blushes: Rare Beauty’s Liquid Pinch Blush – which is very saturated – and the Afterglow Liquid Blush from Nars – which is not as saturated. Since the Rare Beauty Liquid Pinch blush is far more saturated than the Nars product, it will create a stronger blush look.

So I would definitely put the Rare Beauty blush on the back of my hand or in my palm, rub my brush around in it several times to get an even distribution of color and then apply it. But because of how light the color is and how much less intense the saturation of the Nars Liquid Blush is, I can apply it directly from the applicator onto my cheek and it will blend out easily.

Let’s also try different intensities of highlighter. My Wet and Wild Liquid Highlighter is quite intense and my Merit Beauty Highlighter in “Cava” gives a far softer, more natural glow. In the video, I’ll apply both of these products on the back of my hand so you can see the difference. I’d apply the Wet and Wild Highlighter with a brush since it’s so intense and I’d apply the Merit Highlighter cream stick highlighter – which is not as intense – directly on my face from the applicator.

But I must say that until we actually use a face product and know how easily it applies and how saturated the color is, it’s best to err on the side of caution and apply it with a brush or sponge rather than directly from the applicator.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Do you think that some facial makeup products age you when you apply them? What is your opinion on blush, contour and highlighter? Have you looked for tutorials that explain how to apply these two so that they give you a natural look?

Welcome to Lesson 29!

Today we turn back to p.69-70, to play Molly Malone (also known as Cockles and Mussels). We initially skipped it because it has some tricky rhythms, and I wanted you to advance a bit further before taking them on! Mid-February is a great time to start practicing Irish songs for St. Patrick’s Day (March 17^th) so let’s dig in!

[NOTE: If you are just joining us for the first time, you can find my previous Sixty and Me Free Piano Lessons on my Author page. You can join our lessons any time and move at your own pace!]

29.1 Counting and Singing Molly Malone (Cockles and Mussels)

In Lesson 16 I introduced you to dotted notes, and we started playing Dotted Quarter Notes, which are held for a beat and a half (counting “1 & 2,” “2 & 3,” or “3 & 4” in 4/4 time.) In Trumpet Tune, Largo and Sonata (p.54-58) we played Dotted Quarter Notes followed by Eighth Notes. In Molly Malone we are playing that rhythm again, plus we are playing Eighth Notes followed by Dotted Quarter Notes!

Instead of a long-short feel, these rhythms are short-long. To help you learn the difference between these two rhythm patterns, I am playing and singing the lyrics in my demonstration video below. Often the brain grasps rhythms better when we put words to the notes, so sing along with me!

29.2 Playing Molly Malone

Here’s a closeup of me playing Molly Malone. Once you know the notes and rhythms, try playing the right-hand melody along with me!

Now would also be a great time to review a couple other Irish songs, The Irish Washerwoman and The Three Sailor Boys (p.24) which I demonstrated in Lesson 5. Next lesson we’ll have more Irish fun with The Moreen on p.78, a beautiful Irish ballad. Have a great couple of weeks, and I will see you in Lesson 30!

Passion Practice

1. Play Exercise #1 in A-flat and E-flat, with hands together. Play the 5 notes of each position before playing the exercise to be sure you have the correct notes. Play each exercise once forte (loudly), and once piano (softly) with your eyes open, then closed, if possible.
2. p.69-70 – Listen to my video 29.1 and sing Molly Malone along with me. Once you are able to sing the words with the same rhythm I am using, you can start to count and then play Molly Malone. If you get confused about the rhythms, keep reviewing my videos 29.1 and 29.2 to help your ear guide your rhythms.
3. Chord Calisthenics #5, Appendix viii – Play each set of minor and diminished triads, in A-flat and E-flat, alternating hands. Also review these chords in the previous keys.
4. If you have time, review a couple Irish favs for St. Paddy’s: The Irish Washerwoman is a fun song that also exercises your fingers. You can print it from this page if you haven’t already. Also review The Three Sailor Boys, p.24.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

What are your favorite Irish songs? I love playing and singing The Wild Rover and Si Bheag Si Mohr, a beautiful piece by the 18^th Century harpist Tulough O’Carolyn. Do you go to an Irish pub for St. Paddy’s Day? Do you make corned beef and cabbage? Irish Soda Bread? Irish Stew? Or do you prefer to avoid the holiday all together? I love that Irish music is so melodic and fun to play. And Corned Beef and Cabbage is one of my favorite dishes!

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Reading, by its very nature, is a charming experience. Who hasn’t been carried off to a distant land or found solace in books? All humans are hard-wired for stories, and it is in the realm of magical realism that stories blend the ordinary with the mystical, the mundane with the extraordinary and the supernatural adds a unique layer to the everyday.

In novels of magical realism, miracles and uncanny events, like levitating off the ground, are portrayed with the same matter-of-factness as any other aspect of life. This natural immersion encourages and invites us to accept the inexplicable as an integral part of the universe.

Celebrating Whimsy

The fantastical and inexplicable are unmistakable traits and show up in many ways through the characters, the setting, sometimes the political climate, and a heightened awareness of otherworldly events and activities.

But within these stories, whether it is the innate abilities of clairvoyance in the character Clara of the novel House of the Spirits, the witchery and curse of the Owen family in the Practical Magic series, or the gnome filled Catskill mountains of Washington Irving, the doors of possibility are opened wide, and magic is welcome to run wild and free.

These novels, characterized by magic presented as commonplace occurrences, especially among and within the lives of women, are viewed as part of the native world and just as natural as woman’s cycles following the phases of the moon. Importantly, there is no explanation of these fantastical events as the plot continues logically, but it drapes the reader in a cloak that says, magic is normal, marvelous and common. Celebrate it!

The origins of this genre are in cultures that have a close kinship to charmed living. For example, there is the Native American oral literature tale of a girl who transforms her sisters into stars to keep them from being eaten by a bear. They become the constellation the Seven Sisters.

In the Celtic Fianna warrior tales, Fionn mac Cumhaill sucks his thumb to ease a cut and gains the wisdom of the salmon. He also marries a woman the Druids had turned into a deer.

Strega Nona in Italian tales has a pasta pot that never runs empty and Baba Yaga lives in a house with chicken legs. The world of mythology, history and enchantment often mix with the mundane.

Magic, the Mystical, and Books

In the early part of the 19th century, the Romantics embraced, celebrated and were fascinated with intuition, emotion and nature. In the tales of Rip Van Winkle and the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving, steeps his stories in Dutch folklore, American history, dwarves and ghosts.

Nathaniel Hawthorne embodies his heroine Hester, and her fairy child Pearl, with almost preternatural gifts as she struggles to survive Puritan society in The Scarlet Letter. The poems and short tales of Edgar Alan Poe sing with magical realism. For example, the angels are jealous of Annabelle Lee.

Magic has been afoot for as long as humans have drawn breath and has probably predated us for even science has now proven that trees can communicate. For readers, can you imagine baking emotions into food as is depicted in Like Water for Chocolate? Or children being telepathically linked to India’s independence in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children?

Toni Morrison’s critically acclaimed novel Beloved is centered around a mother who is haunted by her child. Sherman Alexie and Louise Erdrich often marry elements of magical realism and Native American culture into their literature. These writers shaped and influenced my own writing as well as world view.

Appalachian Magic

While my novel Across the Blue Ridge Mountains is rooted in Appalachia and one young woman’s struggles and triumphs, Appalachia is no stranger to magic as it was brought over the waves with the English and the Scotch Irish.

Purposefully, I infused my story with the subtleties of magic, whether it is women with the sight (intuition and psychic abilities), Mary being able to catch trout with her bare hands and charm birds, or Luanne being able to find morel mushrooms when the fairies are hiding them.

Also, all my women characters follow their intuition, even when it sometimes takes them down the wrong path. But like many settings of magical realism, it is also the story of marginalized lives, for ultimately, the families in my book are maligned and forced to move from their homes to make way for Shenandoah National Park.

Subtly, magical realism often takes on these indignities of political, economic or cultural inequality. Perhaps the beauty of enchantment also allows us to read the literature of magical realism as subversive texts, and by the way, practitioners know that magic can also be seen as subversive!

Magical realism can often correct imbalances of power and can be used as a way to subvert dominant forces. Like a spell, magic has power, and magic realism can act and be read on many levels, but ultimately, it honors intuition, imagination, the ability to see beyond the veil and to tap into all that is unsaid and lies hidden to the mortal eye. It reminds us that enchantment has always been there all along if you know where to look.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Where do you find enchantment in everyday living? Are you inspired to read some books in this genre? Can you think of some stories from your own life that contain a bit of magic?