How to Make Your Make-Up Last

The days are getting longer, the sun is getting brighter and the mercury is rising. It's about time! Late April and May are great months for hair and makeup in New England: comfortable 65-80 temperature range and when it's not raining, it's breezy and generally dry. Hence, spring is my favorite season.

But for those humid days, especially when we get into the heat or rainy days, it can be hard to make your makeup stay still. Or sometimes, when you know you're going to party until dawn, you don't want to worry about multiple touch-ups. So here are some of my time-tested, tried-and-true methods to keeping your makeup looking fresh and staying put, come beach, concert, rain or sleepover.

1) Use a mattifying lotion for your face. Controls oil and keeps your powder and blush in tact. Try Neutrogena Oil-Free Shine Control Lotion.



2) Use high-quality mineral powder to set the lotion, like the Laura Mercier Mineral Powder. This is where you get what you pay for. Cheap powder cakes and doesn't last.



3) Follow the powder with a cream blush on the apples of your cheeks. Benefit Sheer Cream Blusher creates a subtle look that lasts. This won't rub off like powder blush can.



4) Cover your eyelid and crease with Clinique's Touch Base for Eyes. It works great as a subtle, tan shadow with a bit of shine - I love using it alone in the summer. But putting this on before any eye shadow will make the shadow last a lot longer and prevent creasing. I prefer Canvas Deep!



5) Liquid liner takes practice, but lasts much longer than kohl or pencils, in my opinion. MAC makes a good liquid liner, but believe it or not, my sister got me a $1 liquid eyeliner at the drugstore that lasted too - so check it out for yourself. Maybe the cheaper liner works fine!



6) If you want shadow, cream is best to avoid creasing and fading. Nars and Clinique make great cream shadows. It also blends really well, and sometimes I just love doing all my makeup with my fingers. Feels like kindergarten!



7) Finish eyes with a serious waterproof mascara, like L'Oreal Voluminous Waterproof Mascara. You'll need to wipe off a LOT of excess from the brush to avoid overapplying, but it's worth it. Only makeup remover will get this stuff off.



8) For lips, no lipstick or gloss is impervious to fading. Two great options are a lip liner, applied to the whole lip, then topped with gloss, or a lip tint like Benefit's Benetint. Both will last through eating, drinking, and kissing! Bonus - the Benetint doubles as a cheek tint! And it's practically idiot-proof!



The important thing to keep in mind is no makeup matters without a good canvas. Keep your skin clean, exfoliate regularly, and moisturize. This will help makeup settle beautifully on your face and last longer. And of course, less is more. The more sparingly you use the products above, the better they work.

Except the liquid eyeliner. If you're going all night, girl, swipe that stuff on and shake your sultry ass all night long :-)

Happy raging,
Hayley

PS: I'm going to UConn's Springfest this weekend, with Flo Rida and Method Man. Not my typical show, but it should definitely be interesting. Update to come. Have a great weekend!