Stacey's Tips on How to Wear Business Makeup!

Recently, I have been asked by many women of what the appropriate makeup is to be worn in the work place. So, I decided to make this post to offer my tips.

When I say work, I’m referring to business meetings with colleagues or with clients or even just attending work.

Remember: This is work, not a party or some evening event. Dark smoky eyes, cat eyes or the combination of both, or any bright makeup, such as bright lips is a no-no as it’s considered evening makeup. You don’t want your makeup to distract your clients or colleagues as I’m sure you have many great things to say. As for these people, they will be focusing on your makeup rather than what you have to say. Also, you may or may not be taken seriously depending on the person.

With that said, you can still have fun with your makeup. I will first discuss colours, you can vibrant colours as long as it isn’t bright. Bright is distracting and again it’s more for the evening or simply not at a corporate place in my opinion. I would stick with neutrals. Neutral simply means any colour that goes with everything, such as brown, pink, red, anything from the white family.

Now, that colour has been discussed, let’s talk about styles of makeup to be worn. Since I said you shouldn’t wear a dark smoky eye, that doesn’t mean you cannot wear it at all. Replace the black with brown. Brown is more for the day as it softer with the harsh sunlight and black is more for the evening/night as it a bit harsher and perfect for this time of day. I like to incorporate a medium and light brown as my base for a day smoky eye with applying a touch of pale pink or medium pink or gold eyeshadow to the inner corners of my eyes, with tight black eye liner (which I will offer my tips on how to create in just a moment) and black mascara. That’s when I want to go for the smoky eye look, otherwise I opt for the natural look with very soft eyeshadow on my eyes or none at all with only tight black eyeliner and black mascara. Now for the tight liner technique, I prefer to use black eyeshadow not only is it natural, it’s long-lasting whereas pencil is not for both reasons; it’s not natural and it’s not long-lasting. Apply some black eyeshadow on a medium or small angle brush or even a flat eye liner brush, which ever brush works best for you, once applied tap some of the product off on a paper towel or the back of your hand (ALWAYS tap off any excess product regardless of whet the product is). This is where it depends on the person, some like to apply their eyeliner at the outer corner of the eye and work their way to the inner corner or vice versa, some prefer to begin at the centre and work towards the inner corner of the eye or the outer corner and then go back to do whatever they missed. There’s no right or wrong, it’s whatever best suits you. As for myself it depends on what eyeliner I’m using, for example if I’m using cake liner, liquid liner or an eyeliner similar to this, I prefer beginning with the outer eye working my way into the inner corner. If it’s powder I like to begin in the centre.

As for the rest of the face, you can wear blush or no blush. If you choose to wear blush try to keep it light in colour and with the application. Colours can consist of pink, peach depending on your complexion. On olive skin peach or apricot shades are natural, fresh and light. You can even contour as long as it is lightly applied and well blended. So, yes, brown blush can also be worn. Blush in general should be well blended. Here’s tip on how to apply blush: Begin by smiling, this way you can see your cheek bones and lightly sweep the blush from the outer part of your cheekbones working your way to the hair line. Once applied, take your powder blush, don’t add additional powder to your brush, and use what’s there. Lightly take your powder brush and sweep over the blush that was just applied. This technique blends and removes any excess product.

Now for the lips, you can wear pinks or reds as long as they aren’t bright. Bright colours contain a lot of orange in the undertone. Vibrant would be true to the colour with the perfect balance of blue and orange in the undertone. Wearing a true pink or true red would work very well, especially on olive skin tones or anyone who is a light medium in complexion. Light medium, meaning you have a bit more yellow than pink in your undertone, you almost have the perfect combination of both, so you’re practically a nuetral. Just like an olive complexion, you too can pull off any colour. If you want your complexion to appear more of a warm complexion you would wear warm colours, and you would wear cool colours if you want your complexion to look cool. In my opinion warm colours look the best on light medium complexions. One other thing, keep in mind about the acid in one lips. The acid in lips can make a colour once applied either be lighter or darker than what it should be or even disappear. For example, the acid in my lips absorb any pinky-brown colour from lip liner to lip gloss, to lipstick. Like I said, the acid in my lips absorb this colour. So, there isn’t any point in me wearing it. Now that colour has been conversed, how about style? Apply your lipstick as you normally would; now this is where you don’t need to tap off your product unless you want to. Followed by lip liner making sure the lip liner matches the lip stick. As for lip gloss, well the shinier the lips gloss the more distracting it is. Again, this product is not meant to be worn in the work force. You can wear lip gloss as long as it isn’t too shiny.

For business makeup, I am about keeping the makeup light, as well as the colours, going for the more natural look.

Have you tried any of these tips, tricks and techniques? Please comment below. I would love to hear from you!

Have a great day :).

do you feel fabulous today?