As a girl with two older brothers, I can tell you that learning about Make-Up is tough. The only person you have to look to are friends your own age (who aren't always making the best make up decisions themselves) or your mum.
When it comes to Make-Up, my mum and I are completely different, but there are a few things that she taught me that have stayed with me over the years, and they really work. Some of them are pretty standard things but they are rules that I just never break.
1. Lipstick makes a fantastic quick-fix blusher.
I'll be honest with you, I own about 4 different blushers and none of them ever give me as good a result as when I do this little trick. I apply my foundation, apply my lipstick and then I use the tiniest dab of lipstick and to smear onto the apples of my cheeks. It takes a fair bit of rubbing - and it can look ridiculous if you don't blend in properly, and the bolder the shade the smaller the amount, but overall it really does look good.
2. Suck your cheeks in and apply blusher to your apples.
It makes you look like a fish for about 30 seconds, but my mum always taught me that blusher should only go on the apples of your cheeks. It seems like such a simple and obvious thing but when someone goes really badly wrong with this rule and gets trigger happy with the blusher brush, it really can look dreadful. Even if your face is the most washed out pale colour ever, it's still better than using too much blusher and looking ridiculous. Stick to the apples and you can't go far wrong.
3. Baking Soda To Whiten Teeth
I'm lucky that when it comes to teeth mine are naturally quite white. I work in Cosmetics and I see people spend hundreds of pounds on their teeth - getting them whitened, buying a self whitening kit. A little bit of baking soda is a cheap and cheerful way of doing this. If you look online you can hear all kinds of reasons about why you shouldn't do this and how this has gone wrong for people - what you need to remember is to not be an idiot. Of course if you put baking soda on your teeth every day then you're going to wear away the enamel on your teeth. Of course if you leave it on for ridiculous amounts of time it won't be good for them and of course if you feel any slight burning or tingling then you should wash it off. The reason this goes wrong for people is because they don't use their common sense. If you put a little bit of baking soda on your toothbrush, brush for a few minutes and then rinse, and maybe try it every few weeks, your teeth will gradually get whiter. I've done it before, people I know have done it before and my mum did it when she was younger - her teeth are fine.
4. Always match your foundation to your neck
One of the best ways to test a foundation to your skin is by matching it to the colour of your neck. Really this is just good sense - foundation is designed to make your skin look better, you want people to notice your complexion - not your make up. If your face is a different colour than the rest of you then you're not going to look as good (something my mum tried explaining to me when I was 13 and convinced a bright orange face and chalky white neck were an acceptable combination). Whenever I'm trying out a foundation now I always test a small blob onto the side of my neck and rub well to see the end effect, before I purchase it.
5. Preparation H for baggy eyes
For as long as I can remember my mum has kept a tube of Preparation H in the house. It's one of the oldest beauty tricks in the book. Ideally, if you're eyes are puffy and tired looking, then long term you want to be looking at getting more rest, staying better hydrated and checking yourself for allergies, but short term - nobody wants to walk around with puffy eyes. A tiny dab of Prep H reduces the swelling by restricting the blood vessels. Mother knows best!
If there are any little tips or tricks that your mums taught you, please feel free to comment and discuss :)
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