How to get the natural look with make-up. Here's all the steps, from the begining.

Makeup for a Natural Look

This is how I cover up facial hair for an ordinary day at school (I'm a grad student and I'm not done electrolysis). Unfortuantely this doesn't work perfectly. There seems to be a trade-off between looking like you have tons of makeup on and being able to see the roots of facial hair at closer inspection. I've opted for the latter for a variety of personal reasons. I don't particularly like makeup; I only wear it because it's hard to pass otherwise. For this outline I'm going to assume you know virutally nothing about doing make-up. I'm also not sure how this advice might be modified for different races. My skin is white, so that's the experience I'm drawing from. Oh, and when I say "face" I'm including your neck. Here's my tips for wearing makeup for a natural not-wearing-any-makeup look:

What to Buy:

Pancake Makeup: (usually comes in a plastic container about the size of a thin roll of masking tape)

Foundation: (comes in many different style containers, frequently looks like a cross between a dixie cup and a cylinder, it usually shows the color through)

Powder: (the thing you see women take from there purses; they'll pat thedisk and then their faces with a little pad) (sometimes powder comes 'loose' instead of packed, that works too)

Blush: (little rectanglular case typically with one large rectagular of color and a mini-brush

Lipstick: (the cylinder shape)

Disposable Wedges: (they're white foam wedges that are usually in a plastic bag. they're arranged in the package so it's a book-like shape)

Blush Brush: (looks like a painter's paint brush. the brusles should be very soft and poof out. the poofed brusles should cover the area of a man's watch head)

How to choose Colors:

Pancake Makeup: buy two colors, one slightly lighter than your skin tone and one tone (nearly) perfectly matching your skin tone. You'll probably have to experiment to get this right. The key is a perfectly matching pancake make-up will blend into your skin without making a line where the makeup ends. My advice for shopping is to first try and find your near perfect tone; most people first choose one that's too light. After experimenting, this might become your light tone.

Foundation:try to find your nearly perfect shade the same way you choose pancake makeup. yes, you'll probably start by choosing something too light. And, by the way, you can mix colors when you apply it to your face.

Powder: choose a light shade matching your skin tone. that is, if your face has a yellow feel get a light yellow. if your face has a pinkish feel get a light pink. you can also get translucent for any skin tone.

Blush: okay this color choice is more complicated. shave closely and go do something really, really embarrasing and have someone take a picture of your face while you're blushing! or, if you want to take the easy way out, shave closely and go on a jog and then take a face photograph. The key is both of these activities will bring a lot of natural color into your face. From your photograph look at your skin colors near your cheeks (your shaved so you can see the skin clearly) and choose two tones: a lighter and a slightly bolder tone.

Lipstick: choose a color near your lips natural color; or you can use a clear lip gloss.

How to apply the Makeup:

Preparation:wash your face and hands. then put a non-greasy good skin mosturizer on your face. wait for it to be absorbed.

Pancake Makeup: soak a wedge in water, squeeze it out, rub it over the lighter pancake makeup. apply it just to your facial hair region. now do the same thing with your perfect tone pancake makeup but apply it to your entire face.

Foundation: with yout fingers, blend it into your face. you should be able to see the makeup and you also should barely be able to see your facial hair.

Powder: pat the puff pad on the pressed powder and the pat it around your face. that should soften the appearance of your face and set the other makeup.

Blush: Throw away the little brushes that came with the blush; it's really difficult to apply brush with them (that's why you bought a blush brush). rub the blush brush over the blush that's closer to your naturally skin tone; blow off excess blush from the brush. now smile like you're saying "cheese" and hold it. Notice how your cheeks get big. Apply the blush delicately from your poofy cheeks back into your hairline. It's barely visible but you're trying to restore the color all the other makeup removed from your face. Now put some of your stronger shaded blush on the bruch and just lightly make one light stoke from your cheek back. It should also be barely noticable. If you've tried using those little brushes that came with your blush, you can probably see streaks of blush on your face. That's really unnatural.

Lipstick: apply it very carefully so it doesn't go outside the line of your lips.

Other Things I don't do: I don't really like makeup so that's all for me. Some people also like eyeshadow but I feel it always looks fake and ugly. I also don't polish my nails, but you might want to. I'm a grad student so we're more casual than business people. You might want to look at the other women in your environment for cues on how much makeup to wear.