5 Great Makeup Artist Tools You Can Use

By Kathy, Makeup Artist

Kathy was born a long, long time ago in the Sonoma Valley in California but grew up in the South, which is where she resides currently. Her passion for makeup goes back to when she taught her babysitter to curl her eyelashes at the ripe age of six! When Kathy was 13, she received her own makeup set–she says she looked like a cross between Stevie Nicks and Rocky Horror, but “it was the 1970s, so no one noticed.”

5 Great Makeup Artist Tools You Can Use

I’ve decided that I have just one mission in my makeup writing life: to make makeup accessible. To do this, I’d like to start by giving everyone a list of handy tools. I use these every time that I do my own makeup or anyone else’s. I guarantee that everyone has some of them, though probably not all, so I’ll give some sources if you’d like to get them.

Baby Wipes

These are so useful that you’ll wonder how you got along without them. They can clean a work area, spot clean brushes, and even correct makeup mistakes. They don’t contain enough cleanser to remove more than a stray liner mark or tighten up an outer eye, but they also won’t bleed through your skin’s natural lines and destabilize what you want to keep while removing what you don’t. Get the ones for sensitive skin or the all-natural ones at your local grocery or drugstore.

Regular Tissues

Ever wonder why your makeup gets caked partway through your day? If you use foundation and concealer, you’ve added a lot of moisture to your face. This will combine with your natural facial oils and your setting powder to make a makeup mud pie. Try this instead: after you put on your concealer or color corrector, split a tissue into 2 plies and place one onto your face, folded in half, running your fingers out from nose to ear. Now, without removing it, take your hands away. If it’s still sticking to your face, flip it over and do the steps again. Don’t forget to separate the layers: most tissue is 2-ply and you only need one of them. Get these at any grocery or drugstore.

Small ELF Concealer/Detail Brushes

How can you not love something that does fine detail work, lines eyes, lines and fills in lips for $1? I’ve even used one to put glue onto a lash strip and cleaned it afterwards and it was still usable! Come to think of it, the one thing that I don’t use the ELF Concealer/Detail Brushes for is concealer.

Color Corrector

Have you ever tried to conceal under eye circles or a really vicious blemish only to have its color still show through? Put down the regular concealer and pick up the corrector! Makeup artists like them because it allows us to fix a problem instead of covering it up. You can get these anywhere from the mall to the drugstore. I got my Graftobian Color Wheel for $12.50, but the HD version is $23.99.

Spoolie Brushes

Have you ever been running late and, as you put on your mascara, your lashes gathered into thick clumps of lash unhappiness? Running your lashes again and again with the mascara wand will deposit more and more product, which only compounds the problem.  Instead, allow the humble spoolie brush to assist you.   Just pick it up and run it through the gloppy mascara and you, too, can get separated lashes.  Get these at anywhere from Sally’s to Sephora!