Fashion & Beauty Ethos: Flawless Foundation Tutorial >> Video

This tutorial demonstrates how to achieve a flawless finish using a MAC 187 stippling brush and Revlon Colorstay. I have different techniques for sheer coverage, as well as mineral makeup applications that I will share with you over the next few weeks. This is my technique for medium to full coverage foundation application. 

Step One: Prep face with rosewater, as it helps to tone skin and offers a healthy glow. Allow water to sit on face for 15 minutes so that your skin fully absorbs the moisture and properties of the rosewater. 

Rosewater can be found in most ethnic grocery stores.

Step Two: Apply moisturizer and allow the moisturizer to set for about 15-30 minutes. Again, this allows your skin to fully absorb the moisturizing properties and nutrients in the moisturizer. I like using heavy moisturizers under my foundation as it keeps my face soft, smooth, hydrated and glowing.    

Step Three: Apply makeup primer, my favorite is MAC Prep & Prime. Primer helps your foundation better adhere to your skin, and also helps it stay put. It also helps minimize large pores [temporarily of course] and fills in wrinkles to give the skin a youthful, even glow. Make sure to apply a nice thin even layer all over your skin; don't forget your jawline and neck area. 

 Step Four: Add a small amount of foundation to the back of your hand, stipple and swirl the brush in the foundation to warm up the foundation a bit. Warming the foundation helps it to blend in better with your skin lending more of a natural appearance. 

Step Five: Begin to lightly stipple the makeup all over your face with your foundation brush. Stippling lends to the flawless, velvety, airbrushed finish. It's ok to apply more foundation to your brush as needed. - Use more foundation in the areas where you need more coverage [dark spots, circles etc].

Step Six: Begin to lightly buff out your foundation to even out your coverage and blend out any dots or lines from stippling. This ensures a warm seamless finish. You don't need to apply a lot of pressure, a light sweeping motion will do the trick.

Step Seven: You may notice your skin is now all one color. It's time to add a little depth and dimension to your skin for more of a natural appearance. I like to use Mineralize Skin Finish by Mac for this purpose. Apply the powder with a powder brush; my brush of choice is the 150 by MAC. 

Step Eight: To save all of your hard work from going down the drain, set your makeup with a translucent powder. Cover FX makes a great translucent powder for women of color, if you find that regular powders lend an ashy look to your brown skin, give Cover Fx a try! - I apply this powder in a gentle patting motion.

Step Nine: Set your makeup with Fix Plus spray by MAC. This is favorite of mine and lends a radiant lightly dewy glow!

Tools Used:

• Rosewater - Can be found in most health food, and ethnic grocery stores
• Cetaphil Moisturizer - Available in most drugstores like CVS, Walgreens and larger stores like Target and Wal-Mart 
• Revlon Colorstay [color 44] - The perfect inexpensive foundation for Oily/Combination skin [they have various formulations from normal -dry] that offers seamless buildable coverage. You can go from medium to heavy coverage with this product.
• Mineralize Skin Finish [deep dark] - Adds a nice glow, and creamy finish to your skin. This product can be found in all places MAC makeup is sold
• MAC Fix Plus - Sets the makeup which helps it last a lot longer. It also adds a bit of a radiant glow. - Again, this product can be found in all places MAC makeup is sold. 
• Cover FX Translucent Powder -  The perfect lightweight powder to set makeup, extend the wear of the foundation, and offer a silky smooth, velvety finish.