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If you've never used makeup before, it can be quite intimidating to start. There are many different makeup products, colors, shades, tools, brushes, and techniques. You might watch a makeup 101 YouTube video "tutorial" where the beauty guru has a glitter cutting crease washed in 2 seconds, while you're nonetheless wondering what brush to use showtime.

This is normal. It'due south totally okay to non know where to starting time! There are a LOT of things you can larn almost makeup, merely information technology's very normal to be overwhelmed when you're beginning.

Makeup Glossary

Here are my all-time suggestions! If you want to learn nearly makeup 101 for beginners and where to start, keep reading.

Why do you want to wear makeup?

The reason you want to wear makeup could determine the type of products you should use – and could be completely contrary of what someone else needs.

For example, stage or dance makeup is very different than natural "no-makeup" makeup. These ii makeup styles will require very different makeup products to accomplish two singled-out looks.

If you desire to start learning makeup to be creative, do intricate eyeshadow looks, have assuming colors, for full coverage, or for stage makeup, check out these articles after y'all finish reading this i:

  • 7 Tips for a Perfect Cut Pucker
  • $100 Full Face of (GOOD!) Makeup
  • Best False Eyelashes for Beginners
  • Most Blinding Highlighters

Not ready for more intense makeup quite yet? That is OKAY!

Nigh people want to learn the basics of makeup awarding before jumping into more than "intense" makeup styles. It's totally normal if you simply want to learn a few simple makeup styles to vesture to schoolhouse, work, or special occasions!

Makeup 101, makeup for beginners. The beginner's guide to get started with makeup!

Agreement your pare type and intendance

The first pace in our mini makeup 101 course is understanding your skin.

Skin Types

Before you lot even buy any makeup products, yous should understand your pare type.

At that place are a few main skin types: Dry, oily, normal (neither dry nor oily), and combination (which is a combination of 2 of the other types, often meaning you have oily and dry patches on your skin simultaneously).

Your skin type tin alter over time, depending on your age, location or climate, and the time of the year. In the winter, near people tend to be more than dry than they are in the summer. Likewise, hot summer temperatures often cause your peel to become more oily.

Your peel type is important to understand because dissimilar makeup products are formulated for dissimilar skin types. For example, mattifying products are cracking for oily peel, and hydrating or dewy products are great for dry skin.

Knowing your skin blazon volition help y'all choose makeup products that will work all-time for your individual needs.

Skincare

It is every bit essential to sympathize the importance of skincare.

Knowing how to properly cleanse your peel and remove your makeup is a key factor and something you must larn. Why? Sleeping with makeup on or wearing makeup for multiple days is very bad for your skin!

Any time you wear makeup, you should have it at the end of the solar day. Yous should come up upward with a skilful two step cleansing routine to ensure you lot get all the makeup off your skin, every single day. Yes, every twenty-four hour period. I recommend using an oil based cleanser, and so a water based cleanser. An oil based cleanser will remove makeup effectively, and oil cleansing is very hydrating for your skin. The second cleanser will remove any traces of oil left by the first cleanser.

Exfoliating your pare is also important. The process of exfoliating (both chemically and physically) removes expressionless skin cells that are on the top layer of your skin. If you put makeup on summit of the dead skin cells, it will look super patchy, flaky, and overall bad.

Chemical exfoliating tends to be more than gentle on your skin and is recommended past many professionals. If yous must use a concrete exfoliant, avoid rough ones such as apricot or walnut scrubs which cause micro tears in your skin. Instead, opt for a more gentle saccharide scrub. It's recommended that you exfoliate your skin 1-3 times a week, just the frequency of exfoliation will depend on your skin's sensitivity, the products y'all utilize, and how gentle y'all are.

My 2 favorite affordable chemical exfoliating products:

The Basic Makeup 101 Products

You tin alter this shopping listing based on your own comfort level and budget. These are my bones product recommendations, which does Not include every type of makeup production – but this list makes a perfect first "kit" of makeup.

Foundation or BB Cream

Foundation can be liquid, cream, or powder. Information technology covers the entire face to even out your peel tone and cover imperfections.

If y'all're merely getting into makeup foundation might feel very intimidating, and that is normal. It tin be hard to find your foundation shade (though information technology will help if you lot read my guide on how to do that). Furthermore, you have to go used to wearing a layer of production on your entire face – if you impact your face a lot through the day, you'll rub it off.

After yous get the hang of it, foundation is super easy. In that location are many unlike levels of coverage, and so you can go a foundation that is sheer or fully covers your skin. Foundations come up in different finishes, assuasive you to choose a matte or a dewy finish. There are so many foundations out there that you can cull one that is perfect for your individual needs.

If yous're looking for a foundation, I advise checking out one of these:

BB Creams are PERFECT for beginners (or for me when I'k lazy, only desire sheer coverage, or when it's super hot exterior)!

Using a BB Foam or tinted moisturizer will give you a slight layer of coverage on your skin, without feeling heavy. You typically apply these products like you would a lotion, using your fingers.

Since BB Creams are sheer, it doesn't matter quite as much if the shade perfectly matches you – this gives you a little jerk room guessing your shade when ordering online.

My accented favorite BB cream is this one, but here are a few more options too:

Of course, if yous take great skin (or simply don't care and don't want to wear foundation or bb foam) you lot do NOT have to habiliment a foundation. I get foundation complimentary often, using concealer to spot-correct any discoloration and blemishes, but not wearing a product over my entire face.

Related articles about foundation:

  • Ultimate Guide to Foundation
  • How to Choose the Correct Foundation Shade
  • 13 Foundation Mistakes You're Making (and how to fix them!)
  • What is Tinted Moisturizer?

Concealer

Concealer, also known as cover upwardly, is used to conceal parts of your skin.

It masks things you are trying to hide, similar dark circles, blemishes, and secrets. Okay, maybe not secrets.

I use concealer nether my eyes to correct the purple-tinted discoloration from sleepless nights. I also use concealer when I break out to cover stubborn acne marks and hyperpigmentation.

Even if you don't want to utilize concealer a lot, I suggest getting 1 to have when y'all wake up with an unwelcome visitor (aka pimple) on your face up.

When I am wearing light makeup, I will skip foundation and Only wear a niggling flake of concealer. Information technology'due south super versatile and piece of cake to travel with.

Here are my favorites and recommendations for beginners:

Concealer hack: Use concealer to prep your eyelids for eyeshadow! Concealer is a bang-up alternative to a separate eye primer.

Related articles almost concealer:

  • Ultimate Guide to Concealer
  • xiii Best Concealer Tips for Beginners

Powder

Powder is very helpful product that is used to set your makeup in identify then it doesn't slide around or clothing off quickly.

When you apply a liquid or cream product like foundation or concealer, it can look shiny on your face up and move effectually because it is flossy. This is amplified when you take oily skin, because your skin'southward natural oils volition cause more smooth and slip.

Dusting a light layer of pressed powder or loose pulverisation on peak of your foundation and/or concealer will ready it in place and help it last much longer.

If you have oily skin, you lot might even desire to touch on upward throughout the twenty-four hour period by adding a little more powder in your T-zone (across the forehead and downward the heart of the face) or wherever you lot tend to be more than oily.

However, if you have dry out peel, powder might emphasize your dryness in a negative and noticeable way.

Instead of using pulverization over your entire face up, you tin try setting merely your T-zone. If powder makes your peel wait dry no matter what, you tin skip it entirely – but your makeup might not terminal as long.

Personally, I don't utilize powder very often considering I adopt a dewy wait to my skin.

Tip: If your skin looks dry out and powdery after applying powder, spray your face up with a picayune setting spray and gently press it in with a damp makeup sponge to lock the pulverization into your skin.

Here are a few great powders to try:

Related articles about powder:

  • Ultimate Guide to Setting Powder

Blush

Blush, blusher, rouge – whatever you call it, it'south pretty.

There was a phase where everyone seemed to retrieve that blush was only for old ladies. This isn't true! Anybody can wear blush, and a lot more people would love blush if they gave information technology a shot.

Do you know how you look healthy and happy when yous've spent a summery day outside and got a picayune flake of color flushed on your cheeks? Chroma can do that for yous, every twenty-four hours.

Taking a fluffy brush with a minor amount of blush and sweeping it from the apples of your cheeks to your temples, and fifty-fifty across the tip of your nose, is an easy and quick way to add together some color to your peel. It makes you expect happy, vibrant, good for you, and glowing!

These are awesome blushes that I love:

Related manufactures about blush:

  • Ultimate Guide to Blush
  • Anastasia Beverly Hills Chroma Trio review

Makeup 101, makeup for beginners. The beginner's guide to get started with makeup!

Pocket-size Neutral Eyeshadow

You don't take to wear eyeshadow every day, simply information technology's likely that you would employ a pocket-sized neutral eyeshadow palette a few times a year, correct?

Eyeshadow palettes are a great way to get a few awesome quality eyeshadows for a great price – if you lot brand sure you buy quality products.

Grabbing an eyeshadow palette with a couple shades of brownish and a champagne or aureate shimmer is truly all you need to glam up your expect, especially when you don't unremarkably wear whatever eyeshadow.

Colourpop eyeshadows are truly some of my favorite eyeshadow palettes, particularly for beginners because they are so affordable!

If you want, you can as well lucifer your desired eyeshadow to compliment the color of your optics. I recommend checking out my commodity about the best eyeshadow palettes for beginners for a more in depth look at what makes an eyeshadow palette great.

Kailey'due south picks:

Related articles almost eyeshadow:

  • Ultimate Guide to Eyeshadow
  • Best Eyeshadow Palettes for Beginners
  • Best Eyeshadow For Every Middle Colour
  • seven Tips to go a perfect cut crease

Mascara

If y'all only want to use a unmarried makeup product to transform your look, choose mascara.

Mascara is a dark brown or black liquid practical to the eyelashes. The mascara coats lashes, making them appear darker and bolder. Different mascara formulas have dissimilar goals, such as making your eyelashes appear longer, curled, or more voluminous.

Y'all tin go to the drugstore, grocery store, or look online and be overwhelmed with the endless unlike mascara options in forepart of you. There are at least l different mascaras in my local Walmart alone!

These are my top ii mascara recommendations for beginners:

If you want to larn more than about why I recommend these particular mascaras, I have an entire post about the all-time drugstore mascaras for beginners! They are both affordable, accessible, and work for a lot of people.

Related articles about mascara:

  • Ultimate Guide to Mascara
  • Best drugstore mascaras for beginners

Brow Product of Choice

If you've never washed your eyebrows earlier (shaped them, filled them in, etc) you probably think you don't want to.

Until you do it. Then you lot always take to "have your brows on" like me, haha!

Brows are super of import. They truly frame the face more than any other characteristic, and the appearance of your eyebrows will transform the rest of your face and makeup.

I have a lot of information about brows, including shaping, products, and more than in this post: The Ultimate Guide to Brows.

For beginners, I definitely recommend forehead gel as the easiest production to effort. Using tinted brow gel will keep your eyebrow hairs in place, add a bit of book, and add together color which will make them seem more full and groomed. Brow gel is applied with a tiny applicator that looks similar a miniature mascara wand. Information technology's pretty fool proof, and whatever product yous accidentally get on your skin tin can be easily wiped away.

If you lot have thin patches in your brows that you want to fill in, a brow pencil or pulverisation is the answer for you. Apply a light hand and a shade lighter than you think you lot demand – your brows volition be more shaped, symmetrical, and look the way you want them to look.

Some people love using a brow pomade (a gel-type formula you use with a brush), just in my opinion it's a lot harder to get the hang of using a pomade. Because of this, I recommend starting with a pencil or pulverisation before trying out a pomade.

Here are some of my favorite affordable brow products:

Lip Products

Lipstick is the near popular lip product, but there are many types of makeup items you can apply to your lips. Here are the principal ones:

Lipliner: Used to line the outer perimeter of your lips and as a base of operations for other products, but tin also be worn lonely. Helps preclude lip products applied on top of liner from smudging and feathering. Comes in a pencil form and typically lasts much longer than lipstick, making an awesome base for your lip products.

Bullet lipstick: The archetype, twist-up lipstick in a tube. Often a satin finish, only available in more glossy or matte varieties. Transfers onto other objects (straws, glasses, people) when your lips touch them.

Liquid lipstick: Applied with a doe foot applicator as a liquid that dries down on your lips. Longer-lasting than a traditional bullet lipstick. Usually matte, and transfer-proof (or at least somewhat-transfer-proof). Can be drying on your lips.

Lip gloss: Shiny, glossy, and sometimes sticky. Lip gloss can exist clear or tinted, with or without glitter. Typically more than hydrating on your lips.

In that location are then many colors and types of lipsticks out in that location; your favorite volition depend a lot on your personal preference.

Awesome products to go you started:

The Basic Makeup 101 Tools

There are and so many makeup brushes and sponges out there, merely you really merely need a few to start!

Makeup Sponges

For foundation and concealer, makeup sponges are the all-time fashion to blend it out quickly and effortlessly. You can use a brush for these products, but I discover sponges to be easier to master.

Crawly sponge recommendations:

Related articles about makeup sponges:

  • How to use a makeup sponge
  • 10 Reasons why y'all should utilize a makeup sponge
  • How to clean a makeup sponge

Makeup Brushes

Brushes are where you lot can easily become carried away and buy way more than you need.

Truly, you could option out a few individual brushes designed for the few products you lot take. This is a dandy fashion to become if you lot know what shape brushes you like.

However, castor sets tend to exist more cost effective than individual brushes – especially when yous take none to begin with.

But in that location are so many sets – what should you look for?

Because y'all accept an eyeshadow palette and a few powder products (blush, powder, forehead pulverization) to apply, you will want a variety of face brushes and pocket-size eyeshadow brushes. Find a set that includes both and you'll exist set.

I personally actually like BH Cosmetics brush sets, equally well every bit elf cosmetics and wet n wild brushes. Here are my recommendations for beginners:

This prepare has everything y'all need for the products in this post, plus some extras (like the eyeliner castor!) for branching out in the future. They are very soft and good quality, too!

Hither's another selection: a small eye castor set, and a small-scale face brush prepare. Bonus! The confront gear up comes with 1 of the sponges listed above.

If you lot don't want to buy a whole brush set, I sympathise that equally well. Bank check out these individual brushes; they should embrace the few powder items listed in this post.

Elf cosmetics and wet n wild have some of the cheapest (all the same still good quality) makeup brushes on the market.

Related articles about makeup brushes:

  • Ultimate Makeup Brush Guide for Beginners
  • All-time Rated Makeup Brushes on Amazon
  • How to Wash Makeup Brushes with Dish Soap

Important Tips and Things to Learn

I call back we can all agree that this makeup 101 post is getting long enough! Here are some other awesome posts I've written that beginners should read:

  • The Correct Order to Apply Makeup – this mail service walks you through the orders in which you can use makeup products.
  • Cheapest Total Face of Makeup (only $55!) – this mail has more suggestions for all the products above, as absolutely cheap as you can get!
  • $100 Full Face of (GOOD!) Makeup – this postal service has slightly amend suggestions than the i above. If you have a bit more coin to spend, I propose going for these ones for sure!
  • Ultimate Sanitization Guide – makeup can become really dirty! It's important to disinfect it every now and again.
  • Makeup Expiration Chart and Tracker – unfortunately, makeup expires. This volition help you proceed rail of when y'all bought your makeup and when it will need to exist replaced.
  • Check out the makeup glossary – definitions for all the dazzler things you lot didn't even know existed.

If you want or demand help choosing any makeup product, attain out to Kailey.

Yes, seriously.

I run this blog and I love helping people! Why else would I have written a 3,000 word post about where to first with makeup?

Ways to inquire me questions:

  • DM on Instagram
  • DM on Facebook
  • Email at kailey@beautybrainsblush.com
  • Comment below!

I hope you establish this makeup 101 guide helpful! If you have any questions or comments, make it touch on with me and get out a note in the comments.

Makeup 101, makeup for beginners. The beginner's guide to get started with makeup!

What did you larn from this article?

xoxo, Kailey