How did you learn to apply makeup? How do you learn new techniques? Friends, family? Classes?
My best friend when I was a teenager helped me learn some of the basics of makeup, but I learned a lot by practicing over and over again and getting feedback from online communities.
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My aunt taught me a few very basic eye stuff but the rest I learned from Youtube.
i learned everything from online sources.
i remember getting so enthralled by smokey eyes and actually attempted to do one with a crappy claire’s eye palette. i perused an endless amount of makeup blogs and watched TONS of youtube videos. from there with was just trial and error on myself 🙂
Pretty much just practicing! And reading blogs. 🙂
Practice for very basic techniques. For more advanced stuff, YouTube has been so helpful. I’m a fairly decent artist, so I think that helped a lot, haha.
I’m 26, so there was no YouTube back when I was a teen and first learning. No gurus to learn from, even blogs weren’t really around yet… so it was a lot of trial and error. I think I was able to master each make-up item one at a time, because I started with concealer, then ventured into mascara, then to eyeliner and blush, etc. I definitely didn’t get good at applying makeup overnight.
Me too, Meg. I’m 26 and seeing everyone else mention that they learned from Youtube makes me feel old! When I was 14 or 15, my Mom actually took me to the Clinique counter for a ‘professional’ makeover. She bought me a brown eyeliner and eyeshadow quad, which felt so fancy. I also used to break into my Mom’s makeup stash before school and apply it, since she didn’t let me use a lot of makeup until I hit certain ages (ie. mascara at age 16, etc).
YOUTUBE videos.
not even kidding, and then i started reading online to see which products i wanted
Back when I was a teen, I learned to apply makeup from reading magazine articles and going to makeup counters with my mom. Now that I am an adult, I read beauty blogs and watch Youtube makeup tutorials to review basic makeup skills, learn new techniques and new looks.
Me too! YM magazine and 17 magazine(showing my age I guess…) was where I learned a lot of it. My sister taught me a bit with eyeshadow and since then it’s been Youtube and beauty blogs! Still learning new things!
same here
The Pixiwoo sisters on YouTube!
basic stuff from watching my mom or sister, then YouTube taught me everything else!
youtube
I learned basics from my mother-and she bought me the makeup kits but mainly I learned from Seventeen( my favorite beauty magazine when I was younger) and Youtube of course!
I read the makeup section of yahoo answers until I knew enough to convince my mom I could wear it without looking like a clown! Then later on came youtube.
when i was young i watched my mom apply eyeliner (only makeup she wore), and learned the rest from magazines and makeup artists’ tips.
I first learned through magazines when I was much younger, then beauty books, then YouTube, then I finally took classes!
It’s alot of trial and errors for me though I’ve learned quite a bit from you. I just love your blog.
The woman at the clinique counter and lots of youtube is how I learned! My mom only ever wore lipstick and blush, never anything else, so the rest is mostly self-taught.
Practice and Pixiwoo
Youtube, online sources, and good old trial and error!
I will let you know when I figure it out, I am seriously having a senior moment with cosmetic application. I’ve misplaced my color sense and confidence. I never figured it would have happened but there you are, like writer’s block I suppose…and yet I persevere! ;3).
Keep working at it! I feel like that after I haven’t done a really bold/bright look in awhile. I’m all thumbs!
I would read fashion magazines, and try to copy the looks in the editorials! At first, I was a total, deranged-looking hot mess, but as time went in I eventually figured it out through trial and error. Definitely not the best method, but it was (and is!) a total blast! I still do the same thing because I learn best from pictures, but now I actually have some knowledge! 🙂
Youtube
Trial and error at first (there were many disasters I can recall) because growing up neither my mom nor many of my friends wore makeup. When I started working for Chanel in ’07 is when I really learned the tricks of the trade. It completely changed all my methods of applying makeup.
Kevyn Aucoin’s Making Faces back in middle school (love that book!). Later on, youtube.
Mostly trial and error and a lot of experimentation before I washed my face clean for the night! My mom wore makeup every day of her life, but never really taught me how to wear it; she just kind of threw the basics at me. I had some inserts that came with palettes, magazines, and a Kevin Aucoin book, and that’s how I ventured into more complex techniques like contouring!
I finished make-up school and worked in MAC as a make-up artist 🙂
My mother taught me the basics then I expanded my knowledge by reading magazines, books and just practicing on my own. I have recently started watching You Tube vids to learn new techniques or brush up on forgotten ones.
I learnt it all from YouTube. But at the beginning it was just instincts and looking at photos.
I learned by myself… but I really got into when I discovered all the gurus on Youtube ^^
Primarily through your blog! Five years ago I started to wear makeup, and I had 1 foundation, concealer, mascara and 1 eyeshadow (MAC – Jest). I wanted to try other shades, but really had no idea about what shade combinations I could use, and how to apply them, and WHERE to apply them. Then I found your blog and found looks I liked that I thought would work with my skin tone. To learn more about technique (with brushes, etc) I turned to youtube, and also cosmetic brand websites.
So – THANK YOU for giving me more confidence and inspiration, Christine!
Aww, thank you!! 🙂
Hi!
I didn’t have the luck kids today have with youtube beauty channels to learn from. Only when I was 17 (I’m 28 now) I bought my first liquid eyeliner after a friend convinced me it’s a good product (I believe it was Revlon’s).But only at 22 after I started a new job that forced me to wear make up, I took a 45 minutes course in a local professional-MAC-like brand that really was helpful to me (and to them,I ended up buying a lot products from them..), and since then I went back for more tips from their make up artists\good-salesladies and I only discovered the youtube gurus about 3 years ago.
youtube. i’m pretty sure the very first make up video i watched was by pursebuzz
Just by practicing. With every make-up session, I got a little better.
I wish we had blogs and Youtube back in the ’80’s, when I was a teenager first experimenting with make-up. I would have probably saved me a lot of frustration.
self-taught from watching youtube and learning from makeup tutorial blogs!
I’m 26, no youtube, no blogs in my teen years… I was told the basics by my mother, who apply only the basics, (and my friends, too at that time) and then as I was not satisfied with that, it was all experiments, practice, trials, maybe errors… Later I started watching yt videos, the last 3 years and because I liked it I have attended a couple of MAC seminars.
from practicing until it looked right and from watching Carmindy on
What Not to Wear!
No such thing as watching U-tube back then or reading blogs like Temptalia…yes, I’m dated. Learned from makeup artists at dept store counters…but even then they put too much makeup on…didnt look natural. Basically practiced at home…and as long as I didnt look like a clown then I didnt remove the makeup and tried it again. Makeup today looks more natural and less harsh than back in those days due to better formulation.
I’m mostly self-taught as I usually copied a look from a pic. Other than that I was interning as a makeup artist for a week when I was 14, but that week we were mostly doing special effects.
I’ve always used makeup but I didn’t learn how to correctly and skillfully apply until a year or so ago.
I learned solely from watching videos by you, Jen from Frmheadtotoe, Xteener, and xSparkage ^__^
By myself and got good at it. Then I discovered Youtube and got even better!
i’ve always liked makeup, so since i was like 11 i played arround with some cheap stuff. thereafter, i’ve been practicing and polishing my skills. i collected adds from magazines and just recently started to watch some videos on youtube and following blogs like yours 🙂
I went to beauty school. I really did not know anything about makeup before that time. Ice blue shadow and chocolate brown lipstick. Yep, it was that bad! 🙂
Yep I did the same thing with the ice blue shadow and chocolate brown lipstick LOL!!!
i learn by copying what my mum does but i end up experimenting on my own and i remember it was horrible color combo! (dark purple on lid and blue on brow bone and red lips lolx)
Then I late teens i got serious into makeup by lining my eyes – sounds simple but it was disasterous at first and friends make fun of me but nowww…. im happy to able to beautify myself on my own without any help, you know what i mean?
My Mother never wore a stitch of make-up(gasp!) so everything I learned was self taught. My old college roomate was really into make up and I used to hover while she put it on : )
Trial and error, beauty magazines, and I still learn tips from online tutorials.
I started with youtube!
You Tube has been a blessing for beginners. I learned a lot from YT and by reading beauty books by makeup artists.
the Internet taught me!
My mother taught me the basics, I learned the rest through some vids and most of all by practising on myself, my sis and a friend of mine.
I have always loved makeup since I was like 3 years old but I learned about makeup thanks 2 youtube.
It has been my makeup school! 😀
I used to read stacks of magazines as a teenager. I would study the runway pics and take little bits and pieces as inspiration for my “look”. I love reading articles and that’s probably why I just love blogs, especially yours Christine for ALL the details. I just recently started watching you tube and I’m hooked!
A lot of practicing and YouTube. When my mom first let me wear makeup she gave me some of her own and showed me basic makeup application.
I watched videos on YouTube and got interested. That started me out, then I just kinda did trial and error on myself to see where to put whag
I first learned how to apply makeup by looking at my mother put on her makeup. Over the years I received tips from various makeup artists from Department Store high end brands. Blogs and YouTube really showed me how to apply makeup. Thank you bloggers and YouTubers :)))
“Back in the day” it was from trial and error and magazines like Seventeen. This is WAAAY before youtube. I remember hanging out with my best friend, Ruthie, and pooling our “stuff” and basically playing with makeup. Mind you, most of my teen years were when the very natural look was in so no one my age wore much makeup and it was older women who did and it was pretty much older women that most makeup was pitched to (except companies like Mary Quant and a few others). I just LOVE youtube and all the videos available for different looks or ideas for using colours and products I have. Even though I’m in my 50’s, I just love using the ideas, and not just those from gurus targeting the older crowd!
I learned a lot from magazines, but sadly I didn’t know much until I found the youtube community. I used to spend hours in Sephora reading products and asking questions, but I didn’t know much more than face powder, eyeshadow, mascara, and gloss.
I’ve learned alot from youtube, but I feel like I’ve learned the most from the blog bubblegarm. I have the same eye shape as her so it definitely helps to see how she applies her eye makeup, and I feel like her techniques have worked.
I read magazines and taught myself through trial and error.
I looked at pictures in magazines and tried to recreate them. Eventually I found the YouTube beauty community, and that filled in all of the holes!
I learned from just good old practice! I’m 20, and I’ve been wearing makeup since I was about 13. However, over the last year or so I’ve improved even more with the help of YouTube tutorials.
100% Youtube
I started learning from magazines at a very young age (seventeen, cosmo girl, etc), and also from TV shows! (such as, “what not to wear” or any type of makeover show). Youtube tutorials have been helpful too. But mostly, it’s just a lot of practice!
You tube gurus 😉
Trial an error. My friend Yoli expanded my horizons on diff products and their uses. Oh and YouTube gurus!
Well as long as I can remember I loved makeup. My mom used to give me her products she had hit pan on. I had my own drawer and I’d sit next to her when she was getting ready and copy her. Then when I was 13 she took me to the clinique counter to learn. My aunt also worked for mary kay so she taught me some. I learned a lot from magazines. I was also in dance and theatre. Every semester we did a class on stage makeup. Which is how I learned some crazier things. Now I watch a lot of YT.
At the beginning I learned from Youtube a lot and also from some websites. I did a lot of searching. I sometimes, talked with friends about makeup. These days I practice and create something new by myself. It’s fun when you’ve already learned some basics. Then it’s only practicing and have fun with it.
I didn’t start really wearing makeup until I was in my early twenties, and back then, all I had was that MAC LiveJournal community because YouTube didn’t exist. So I guess I learned from you, Leesha, Josh, Brooke and Risa? 🙂 You were all a great inspiration!
youtube…
I actually was never interested in makeup and was one of those 14 year old girls who thought it was “fake” but then I clicked on one of Michelle Phan’s video and she kick started my obsession with makeup xD At first I just learned from her but then it expanded to many other makeup gurus and blogs. Now, almost 16 I’m still learning many neat tricks and I still do a lot of practicing and trial-error cuz my eyes, being naturally hooded is sometimes hard to work with.
My family honestly didn’t teach me a thing! My mum and sister don’t really ‘do’ makeup, and as for friends, not many of them even knew how to put on blusher! I was taught how to apply mascara when I was 10 by this friend who was 5 years older than me and lived abroad, the rest I got taught purely by youtube and experience!
My family honestly didn’t teach me a thing! My mum and sister don’t really ‘do’ makeup, and as for friends, not many of them even knew how to put on blusher! I was taught how to apply mascara when I was 10 by this friend who was 5 years older than me and lived abroad, the rest I got taught purely by youtube and experience!
Youtube!
Funny thing is, I was always “ANTI-MAKEUP, ONLY FAKE CHICKS WEAR THAT STUFF” (sorry for the caps, it was meant to portray how strong of an opinion it was) but after stumbling upon a YouTube video where this girl was applying eye makeup, I was in awe at how many steps and things to keep in mind there were. I honestly thought you just applied one color to your lid and you were done as far as eyeshadow was concerned.
So I kept watching and learning from many different YouTube gurus, till about a year later where I finally purchased my first neutral palette, and using all the knowledge that I gained over that year, I just began working with it. Of course, even though I understood how to do it, it was messy at first, but it got better.
And now I’m here, going through Christine’s 25 pages of looks, eager to try some of them now. Life is funny, but I’ve found that there’s a real art to this stuff.
My Grandma loved to play dress up with me when she babysat, through her I learned the basics. Then when I got my first job I learned tips from my co-workers in the cosmetic department as they often used me as model to drum up customers during the slow hours.
I learned pretty much everything I know from practicing, experimenting and getting feedback from online communities! 🙂
I learned mostly by trial & error pre need to show up outside in a look. Also, used to read how to’s in magazines growing up as well as really studying the model photos. I have a natural art ability since I can remember, so color and use of came pretty easy to me. Finding products that really worked for me took a lot longer than app did. I am older I think than most here – so all my learning came long before any internet. I am a 50’s child who very much was a hippie in the late 60’s…and contrary to what many of you might think, there were a ton of hippie chicks that did wear makeup – at least eye makeup. I tend to still study photos to learn new tricks as they come along. Love to help some I come across in friends who don’t know how – say smoky eye – find a way they too can do it – even if it means just one color smoke eye. It’s fun for me to help those more challenged at getting a look they want, taking the time to learn to enhance what they have, encourage ya gotta do your brows, and continue to always have a line up of brides/bridal parties, prom gals all having me to their makeup for them so they get the look they want for the big day/night – and make sure it will last and not fade.
I sure did not learn from my mom – I had to teach her shade/app and generally keep her from dating herself by not updating her makeup ways every 4 years or so.
Lots of practice and youtube videos.
Good question. I probably watched my mom and I remember reading a lot of magazines when I was a teenager that had makeup tips in them. It also took a lot of practice. I remember occasionally doing my mom’s makeup and I did my friend’s makeup before a high school banquet. Over the years I just figured out what I liked and what worked best through trial and error. I’ve had so-called makeup artists do my makeup for big events, but I always hated the way they did it and prefer to do my own makeup now.
no one ever taught me, my mom doesn’t and never has worn makeup, and she frowns upon it.
basically a lot of trial and error that makes me cringe now. it took me a long time to learn to deal with my super oily skin…it was so awful, i’m pretty sure i looked like a hot mess without the hot several times. it took me 2-3 years of wearing drugstore foundation to figure out that there were better choices at sephora for oily skin. it took me another year to discover mac and the concept of brushes. the internet helped somewhat, but most videos out there aren’t on basics, they’re on how to create some crazy smokey eye, which i still don’t really know how to do. occasionally i’d ask an associate at mac or sephora to help me out and they would give me some tips, but mostly trial and error. i don’t regret it though, because now that i know my stuff, if i ever have a daughter i’ll be able to teach her one of the few things my mom couldn’t teach me.
I’m 29 so I also didn’t have the internet or YouTube to teach me. I obsessed over Allure and other fashion type magazines and just tried to copy the pictures. I remember getting a Seventeen with Gwen Stefani on the front when No Doubt first came out, she had the white shadow, thick black liquid liner, blood red lips and I would sit at my mirror and try to make myself look like her. I also bought ‘Making Faces’ by Kevyn Aucion (he was always in Allure so I admired his work) and tried to learn from that too.
I’ve learnd almost everything from youtube !
I taught myself the basics( eyeliner and mascara). Then a former teacher had a girls makeover day , where she taught us how to do makeup.
I have learned it from magi mania, you and Youtube. Everything Day i looked
Years of practice, since I was a kid and making myself look like my favorite characters from “Cats” (uh…don’t judge) with crappy makeup my mom didn’t use anymore. I also watch YouTube tutorials just for fun, but there are quite a few tips and tricks I’ve learned from the Internet.
I learned how to apply makeup from online sources, YouTube, and trial and error.
The makeup artist where my mom worked help teach me the “proper” way to apply makeup. My mom had taken me to the mall and the SA made me look like a dragqueen so then we went back to the salon and the makeup artist toned it all down and showed me the proper way to wear color. Thank you Carol. Without her I would have no love for makeup. She made me feel beautiful.
From as far back as I can remember, maybe age 2 or 3, I had an Aunt who was in her twenties then. This was the early 70’s. I used to sit and watch her put on her makeup everyday and begged her to put it on me. I remember what she used where and by the time I was 12 or 13 I could do a heck of a job of it myself. I thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world and I wanted to look just like her. She was glamorous, and would adjust her makeup palettes according to season and outfits. She is now a bit older and still very beautiful. I’m so glad I had her as a guide.
One word: YouTube. ^_^
Mostly from women’s magazines. (I grew up pre-internet.) Also, books like “Color Me Beautiful”.
myself!! trial and error, baby!!
but I also enjoy watching youtube videos and beauty blogs
Honestly, I’ve been learning from youtube, lol. I have experimented with eye products (shadow, liners, etc.) for a few years now, but I started wearing full face makeup within the past year. Watching videos from Homlique and DestineyGodley has helped me learn which face products work best for women of color.
my mom and aunt taught me a few basics but i really learned from watching makeup gurus on YT.. i learned to apply full makeup when i was about 18..
Mainly from youtube and blogs, and trial and error. youtube saved me so much error
, though. I reall appreciate the tutotials and demos.
My Mum paid a Clinique consultant to come to my house and show me how to properly apply make-up after I started borrowing my friends (before I knew how bad it was to do that) and made myself into a hot mess.
I learned everything I know about makeup by watching YouTube videos. Before that, I only knew how to apply eyeliner. I also learned a lot by practicing and trial and error. As the years go by I am getting better and better at my makeup application!
I haven’t learned yet:-)
Definitely learned everything from youtube and beauty bloggers 🙂
YOUTUBE! You can learn very specific makeup application techniques (i.e. applying different kinds of eyeliner to falsies, to contouring, to smokey eyes) as well as recommendations for good products. Whenever I want to try out a certain look, I search Youtube on what the makeup gurus have done. 🙂
Youtube is the best teacher! 😀
youtube makeup gurus and makeup books.
I’ve always loved makeup. My mother was an artist which gave me my creativity but I preferred to makeup faces instead of art canvases. I practiced on myself and anyone who would let me until I was old enough to learn properly at the Napoleon Makeup Academy. I’ve been applying makeup ever since and loving it. I’m lucky that I make a living from it but can honestly say that your techniques will get better the more you practice.