Fixing Mascara smudges
The best advice from all my years of doing makeup is to, Let it sit and dry!
If you it attack while still wet you will find yourself with smudging issues that are much harder to fix and will likely get a big long black streaks across your face. very frustration why you are in a hurry especially.
Quick tip:
Leave it to dry for a 30sec to dry and get a firm bristle makeup brush, clean mascara wand, or a cotton tip and buff/flick it off (even your nail can do the trick in a pinch) Problem solved!
OK I didn't wait long enough, now what do I do if it has already smudged across my foundation?
Try using a little moisturiser as opposed to makeup remover. The remover will strip all the layers of makeup layers off in one go (thats the purpose of it). However with a light touch the moisturiser softens and lifts “in layers” so you can remove the smudge and repair the base more easily. sorbolene good to use for this. I would recommend doing mascara before you powder your foundation. it is much easier to fix any mistakes when the base is still wet.
Another way to avoid the dreaded mascara dots is to do your eye makeup first. Most clients are surprised that I often do the eye makeup before their foundation. I do this for two reasons. One being that I work quickly and thus is more room for mistakes like smudges, dots of mascara or fallout. The second is I don’t like to waste time at the end of a makeup trying to repair my foundation if the dreaded happens. People move, and blink, and things just happen.
The eyes often require the most brushes and fine detail, adding mascara, false lashes and liner, sometimes shimmer or glitter.
I don’t want to have to try to clean anything up or patch foundation from anything that may drop during those processes. I find it easier to do all the detail work on the eyes, and brows before applying foundation just my personal preference, you do what feel easiest for you.
Prevention:
One way you can aid the cleaning process is to apply a thick coat of moisturiser under both eyes, try to get close to your lower lash line. This will do a couple of things to aid your application, firstly it will catch anything that may fall down from your eyeshadow application, and in turn will stop any staining from darker products or sticking of shimmer and glitters.
Secondly it will also work to hydrate the delicate skin under your eyes so you have a beautiful base to work with when it come site for foundation and concealer. Win Win really.
If you skip the clean up step you risk blending in fallen eyeshadow, glitter or mascara to muddy your carefully matched foundation and concealer.
Using a soft cotton round, preferably not the quilted ones as the edges and be quick scratchy. Fold it in half, and gently wipe from the inner corner all the way out to the temples. Fold in half again so the opposite clean side is visible and repeat. If you find that moisturiser didn’t catch everything and you need a little more help using a clean cotton round just add a small amount of gentle makeup remover, (Micellar cleansing water is great for this and its available in Woolworths and Priceline) and repeat the swiping motion under your eyes.
Under your eyes will be clean prepped and ready to apply foundation and concealer.
If you happen to try this technique, please let me know how you get on as I would love to hear your feedback. As always if you have any questions at all please don’t hesitate to ask, I will do my very best to answer them or at the very least I will point you in the right direction.
Warmest,
Kate