New Day Your Way

Creating a Canvas

Every makeup artist will tell you the importance of starting with a clean palette of smooth, even skin. "Create a flawless canvas with foundation or concealer, and everything that follows will look better," says Eve Pearl, Emmy award-winning celebrity makeup artist. Unfortunately, few of us use it correctly, either using too much, or choosing the wrong colors. Until now. Pearl's tips on how to make your face a masterpiece will have you working with a professional palette in no time.

Coverage Rules

The goal here is to enhance your beauty, not obscure it. Not everyone needs foundation, although most of us could benefit from a little, even if only applied to a few places. But first you need to decide how much coverage you do need.

For a light natural look opt for a sheer foundation or a tinted moisturizer.
Moderate coverage is a good choice for those of us with some discoloration, a few acne scars, maybe some freckles, or broken blood vessels.
Heavy or full coverage foundations offer the most camouflage-they're good for covering burns, birthmarks, bruising, melasma and scars.

How to Do It

Dampen a sponge, which enables a much thinner application, leaving the skin underneath still visible. Or spot-treat your skin by applying it only to places you need it, such as under the eyes and over redness or veins.

Seasonal Changes

Remember, your face may be your canvas, but it's still attached to your body. We've all seen women with a face one shade and a body totally different. Try not to get into the rut of using the same color and texture all year round. Your skin changes with the seasons: at times it's dry and at others it's oily; sometimes it's slightly darker or redder, and at other times paler.

Leave your Hands Out of It

Matching the color to your skin tone is essential, but testing the shade of a foundation on the back of your hand is useless, because your hand is rarely the same color as your face. Instead, test colors on the side of your face between your cheek and jaw line, until you find the color that seems to disappear into your skin.

Now Use Your Hands

Foundation can be applied either with your fingers or with a makeup sponge, or both. Dot liquid foundation on your T-zone (across the forehead, down and around the nose to your chin) and, using your fingers or a makeup sponge, blend the makeup out toward the hairline, cheeks, and jaw line. If using a cream or wet/dry foundation (this starts out as powder and then goes creamy when applied with a wet sponge), glide a makeup sponge over the foundation to pick up a light coating, and apply to the T-zone area, blending outward all the time.

Your Canvas is Ready

Don't forget to blend down to your neck, but remember also to prime your eyelids, the corners of your nose-and over your lips, too. This is a great trick for holding your lip liner or lipstick in place for longer, and preventing lipstick from bleeding into any lines around your mouth. If you feel you've got too

Eve Pearl is a four-time Emmy Award-winning makeup artist, currently the personal makeup artist to Meredith Vieira with NBC's Today show and Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

much foundation on, simply blot it with a tissue. This will eliminate excess oil and moisture, giving a soft, matt finish.

How to Choose Colors that Suit Your Ethnicity

African American women tend towards oilier skin, which can turn foundation darker than it starts out when it's first applied. They should choose shades a bit lighter than their skin tone and stay with shades that have warm honey tones. Avoid overly yellow or olive shades, since they will have a tendency to turn ashy and gray on the skin.
Caucasian women have a tendency toward red facial pigmentation, which accounts for why they flush and their skin can become red and blotchy. They need a foundation that contains yellow pigment to balance out the redness, and they should stay away from pink or orangey tones.
Mediterranean/Latin/Asian women have a tendency toward a more olive tone, so olive/beige/neutral-toned foundations with a yellow undertone work best.

Eve Pearl is the author of Plastic Surgery without the Surgery... the Miracle of Makeup Techniques.