What is the most essential step in creating a makeup look? That one step that ties it together?
Brows or lashes — very few (the lucky ones!) can get away without using something on the lashes, but I really think brows are essential, too, since they frame the look.
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brows and eyeliner!
A good, even base.
I’m with you Christine! If I had to pick just one I’d say lashes but the few times I’ve accidentally skipped my brows I spend the day wondering what’s “off” any time I look in the mirror.
I agree that lashes are important, but for me it’s mascara and foundation since I get red and it’s not a good look. Also, brows are non-essential since I have dark shapely brows already.
ahhh I have three answers..
For an overall, I think having beautiful skin helps bring a look together so easily. With the right foundation,blush, bronzer, what ever you fancy, having a stunning complexion really brings it all together.
When it comes to just eyes, Mascara definitely brings together your eye makeup look. I always think I look a little strange after applying eyeshadow and eyeliner, but when I add my mascara, everything comes together.
I also agree that eyebrows frame the look, and they’re one of my favorite things to do when applying makeup 🙂
Brows.
I must do my brows.
It’s irrational, but I’ve always felt like while wearing 5 pounds of makeup on your eyes, lips, and face made perfect sense, eyebrow makeup would be just unnatural and going too far – in spite of all the wild and otherwise unattainable aspirations I have for my brows. Must be because I don’t know how to do it without looking like somebody started a charcoal sketch on my face.
As for the question, foundation! It’s boring, but nothing makes sense without it on me.
Thanks so much for using this question, Christine! 🙂 I read it and thought, “That question sure sounds familiar!”
I am looking forward to reading the answers on this one because I think it’s so hard to choose just one, so I’m curious to see what others find to be important in making a look complete.
I think a well polished base really makes a look. If I’m not happy with the way my skin looks, or how the base looks, it throws off how I feel about the rest of my makeup. I also think paying attention to each feature ties a look together. I find it strange when only one aspect is made up and the others go completely untouched. (Within certain limits because I can understand wearing just concealer or base, or just mascara, or just lip balm, but when eyes are full on made up and nothing else is, I get a bit confused, lol.)
I also agree brows and lashes are super important, especially in pulling together an eye look. My lashes are invisible without mascara, so it’s a must for me. Blending in beauty makeup is pretty darn important in pulling things together, too.
Restraint! I think knowing when enough is enough is key!
Thats an awesome answer!!
Agreed 100%
Mascara, for sure!
I think the most essential step in creating a makeup look would be a fresh, clean, smooth, primed face. Nothing worse than flakes of skin in the winter months.
I’d also like to add … The correct foundation, concealer and powder. Foundation lines are no fun.
For me, the most important step is my mascara. I go nowhere without wearing my mascara. But I agree that the eyebrows are essential, too.
xoxo
My lips are an unfortunate corpselike white-mauve. No matter how much other makeup I have on, I just do not look right unless I have some sort of lipcolor, so that’s the most essential step for me!
Definitely brows! My skin is good enough that I can forego foundation. But no defined brows would make me look awful haha!
a good complexion! i have naturally very thick brows and long eyelashes,so no brow pencil or filler for me ever! though i like to brush my brows n keep em tidy.
Concealer and either liner or shadow (each can “double” as the other in a pinch). Some may be aghast but I rarely do anything at all to my brows and I rarely wear mascara because of the smudging issue – it’s just too much work.
Perfect base and brows 😀
If I have to pick ONE thing, brows. I have naturally very sparse eyebrows so even if I’m not wearing anything else on my face I have to fill them in so that I can go out looking human (instead of a frog). If I can be slightly greedier, then lashes and eyeliner. Anything else is really just for fun!
Skin care and hydration. Without it, you have so much less to work with.
definatly mascara.
Nothing can look good without an even complexion. So I’d say foundation or at least a good base, and concealer.
For me the most important step is concealer. If I don’t hide my dark circles, nothing else will look good.
For me personally it’s a good base (foundation+concealer) and brows.
Definitely brows! I also like a great primer to set the tone for a smooth foundation.
Lashes
eyeliner
My skin.. i’ll never leave my house without i’ve done my blush, concealer because of my ugly skin 🙁
definitely foundation. i could give it all up (begrudgingly of course) as long as i still had my foundation. lipstick is a close second.
i’m guilty of never doing my brows and rarely putting on mascara though…i just don’t see the point. i’m probably doing it wrong, but it never really does much for me.
Smooth, clear skin is essential. If you have clear skin, you are more than halfway there. You can enhance features and create new looks, instead of covering up in an attempt to fake good skin. I speak from my acneic experience.
I think there should be balance between the face and eyes, for instance if I’m doing any blue/teal shadows on my eyes then I go for peachy tones for the cheeks and lips. I try to have a nice balance of cool to warm ratio just so I won’t look clownish or washed out. I also feel brows are very important because they frame your face and lashes if you so choose to use them can make or break a look depending on if you are going for a more softer or dramatic look.
brows!! I love brows!!
Eyeliner is definitely the most essential for me. I think it really makes my face come together even if I don’t have time to do mascara, blush, foundation, etc.
Precision with all make-up application. Whether it’s blending shadows, concealing, liner.
But for one make-up product, for me it’s a flawless base since I have uneven skin.
I usually only wear foundation, concealer and blush to even out my skin and make me look more fresh, and funny enough I have never used any products for my brows! Mascara is also something I only wear when I dress up and not on a daily basis, so for me the essential step would be the “base” of the look.
Foundation, mascara and eyebrows (I color my hair and I have to darken my brows to match my hair). That’s the minimum that I will do.
definitely brows, you’ll look completely different without brows. I have friends who have no brows after removing their make up and the results are quite…interesting…
Well, as someone that has to deal with acne discoloration, I would say the most essential step is having a good complexion. I could do my eyes perfectly and brows and put blush on, but without my foundation, I’d want to break any mirror I come across 🙂
brows! There have been times ive put on my eyeliner and it touches my laashes (liquid liner) and ill step out forgetting to put on mascara since my lashes are long and dark anyhow. I must do my brows if I dont i will regret it everytime i look in the mirror.
For me it is tightlining on the uppoer water line. It gives my lashes a little extra “umph” and pulls my whole look together. I usually use either a MAC fluidline, Milani Liquif’eye, or a MUFE kohl pencil.
This is my standing plan. It’s based on doing as much as possible at home and the rest at stoplights on the way.
5 mins: brush teeth and do brows
5 mins more: color correct and blot
5 mins more: Maybelline Color Tattoo and mascara or winged liner and mascara
5 mins more: foundation
In car and ***at stoplight***: powder, blush, lipstick
Really, I keep an emergency kit with me at all times. It makes life easier.
Blending! If everything isn’t beautifully and as perfectly blended as humanly possible, what is the point? 🙂
The most essential step, in my personal opinion is education. Mascara is great, but spider leg lashes? NO! Eyeshadow is great, but caked on, badly blended eyeshadow? Not pretty. Brows? A must! but brows that are overplucked, overworked and over colored is also not pretty. Eyeliner is great but when you look like you’ve drawn one big circle around the eye with a fat crayon? Education, even if its a via YouTube etc can be the difference between pretty and pretty hot mess.
I completely agree with this. I don’t wear foundation for ideological reasons, and I don’t use mascara or fill in my brows (I don’t need to), so I really don’t know how to answer this question…
But you’re completely right, nothing looks good if you don’t have the skill or you don’t know how to make all the elements work together.
Exactly! You can have all the money in the world and buy the most expensive high end makeup you can find, but if you can’t apply it, then whats the point? Everyone needs basic know-how and know-WHEN! I have a friend that INSISTS on these exaggerated high arched drawn on brows, thick BLACK eyeliner and orange lipstick. Doesn’t sound too back, right? But not for DAYtime and NOT for her skin tone! Her eyes are smallish to begin with, the heavy liner makes it worse. BUt there’s no telling her, she likes it..
To me it’s all about an even base. I experience redness and occasional breakouts, so for me a good foundation and sometimes correcting and concealing are key to feel comfortable and go ahead with the rest of the look.
Although I do agree that brows and lashes are usually the most essential steps, I will never start a makeup look without foundation. My skin is just too uneven and flawed to support a makeup look on its own. However, I hate not doing my brows and at least tight lining my lashes.
Brows are actually one of the steps I consistently skip, unless I want a very sharply defined look. Mine are already a dark color, so they tend to dominate my face if I fill them in excessively. I keep them plucked and shaped but rarely do I do more.
I agree that mascara is key, however. The only time I go without it if I want to soften the overall look around the eyes. For me, blush is also a biggie, since pulling out my pink undertone tends to play down how pale I am, especially in the winter.
I never bother doing my brows. 😐 They just look bad, no matter what eyeshadow I try with. They’re just SO dark!
100% curling my eyelashes and wearing lots of Mascara after that everything falls into place
I’d say dewy flawless skin.
A clean and moisturized face.
I must do my brows, apply my mascara, and have an even base on.
Mine is eyebrows. I have really pale ones and lived through the 60’s when it was fashion to have very thin ones. Then chemo a few times too did not help me. I can go with no makeup and feel I have an OK look many a day (depending on what I am doing that is)…but the brows always have to be on.
i have never done my eyebrows ever i only have 1 brow powder from clinique and it doesnt even work so i dont use it
For me it’s evening out my face, so that would have to be concealer, powder, and contour and highlight. I can go out with just this and it makes the hugest difference from not having makeup on. It just makes me more put together.
Skincare! The base for your base. Even a great foundation looks 100x better if you properly treat and care for the skin underneath. This is the one step that makes everything else better. And it changes my attitude to makeup too, when I’m embarrassed about my skin I try too hard sometimes to hide it, and basically hide myself too, but when I take the effort every morning and evening for my skin I feel free to do something fun and beautiful with my makeup, because the difference ALWAYS shows. The strange thing is that people who just see you on the street don’t know your skin and they don’t know the difference between a good skin day or a bad one for you, but they can see it in how much you apply, and how you act.
I didn’t feel like a real woman until I learned how to contour my eyeshawdow with dark colors. So I have to add knowing how to apply make-up or adopting a style that works for you. Other than that…mascara and foundation. And of course the right color foundation.
For myself i feel like i need to only have eyeshadow and bronzer and nothing else, but then again I’m only 14 haha!
Definitely brows. Since I started filling in my brows a couple of years ago I have rarely gone one day without filling them in. They make a HUGE difference in framing my face and pulling the look together
On a basic level, for me, an even skin tone is what makes my makeup look for me. I have uneven skin color due to acne and a few break outs. So getting an even complexion makes everything else look better.
In terms of a “look”, for me, my lips are the essential step. My eyes are pretty average, nothing spectacular, so when I’m doing a look I put the focus on my full lips. I love a bold statement with my lips so going with a bright neonish pink (Think Viva la Gaga + Nars Hotwire Pot) or a bright sultry dark pruple/pink (Mac Amp Violette + She who Dares gloss) really gives me an edge of confidence and really draws attention to my face’s best asset!
Definitely mascara for me!