Natural Look Makeup Using Smashbox & Benefit Cosmetics

Hi, everybody. So today I'm just doing a natural clean face look. Just something that really looks like I'm not even wearing much makeup if any. And I used quite a few products on my place... on my face! But not a whole lot. So. Go ahead and watch this video if you just want to see just a nice, clean, natural look. And let me know what you guys think at the end of the video. Okay? So I've already moisturized my face and cleansed it. Now I'm going to begin with a primer. This is my favorite primer. This is a well-known primer. Smashbox Photo Finish. And I use just a pea-sized amount for my entire face. For some people that may be too much. For some people that may be too little. Just use at your own discretion. I do put it on all over. First I just dot it on. Then I smooth it into my skin. This very important. When you put this on, smooth it onto your skin. Don't rub it in! It's not a moisturizer. This is a silicone-based primer. And rubbing it into your skin as if it were a moisturizer could break down the silicone. And then that could cause your foundation to go on splotchy. So make sure that you just smooth it onto your skin. Then whatever is left over, I do smooth a little bit on my eyelids. Under and around my eyes. And this is a new item from Smashbox that I love. It's their Undereye Hydrating Primer. This is great for people who love to use concealer. You know sometimes when you put concealer on under your eyes, how it seems to just like grab every fine line or wrinkle? So it makes your undereye area look super duper dry. So even though you've covered up any discoloration or dark circles, now it looks super dry. This has a little bit of illuminator in it. Just a tiny touch. So it helps to brighten the area just slightly. But mostly it's hydrating. It's slightly moisturizing. So I love using this underneath my eyes after I put on my primer whether I'm going to use concealer or not. Because if I'm wearing foundation, I'm going to be putting foundation under my eyes. And sometimes foundation can alsoe end up drawing attention to fine lines and wrinkles. The Perk-Up Artist! I really like this. I've seen some reviews lately from other people that don't feel it holds up to the expectations. But I love the Perk-Up Artist, because it "perks up" your complexion. It's not meant to be a 100 - you know - 100% full cover concealing kit. This is just literally meant to perk up your complexion. So I really like to use the yellow on any little blemishes I have. Because blemishes on my skin often times have a bit of a red hue. And so I've got a blemish right here. And I love to apply this best with the little brush that it comes with if I'm applying the yellow one. Because I find that just gives it the most coverage. I've had quite a string of breakouts lately. I've got a mass of little zits right there on my nose from wearing my sun glasses, and from allergies my nostrils are always more discolored. I often have broken capillaries just from sneezing, blowing my nose, rubbing my nose. I get allergies a lot. So, I'll be applying the yellow from the Perk-Up Artist. Quite a bit of it on my nostrils. Yellow is great for counteracting any redness. Green is also a great color for counteracting redness, but you oftentimes won't find green in makeup sets. Or in makeup period. You oftentimes won't find green skincare, because to be honest most people don't want to put green on their face. It just makes you feel really unattractive when you're using a green pigment to cover up a blemish that is already unattractively red. So, green or yellow are great for counteracting redness. And I'm listening to a little bit of music while I'm recording this so I may be dancing a little. OK. So, the Perk-up Artist. And I'll actually be grabbing that kit again later in the video. The foundation. I've been using this off and on for a couple of months. Since about - yikes - for about actually for about 6 months. I love this foundation. It's "Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow". I like to use a foundation brush. I'm going to use MAC 190 foundation brush. This is great for applying this type of foundation. I just start off with one pump. This is a water-based foundation. And I like to warm it up on my hand. I pat it into my brush. Although I want more of a natural look today, I do want pretty much full coverage. So first what I'm going to do is just press it into the areas I've already applied the yellow concealer. The reason I'm doing it this way is I'm building coverage. If I use small, short strokes on my face then the foundation goes on very sheer. But if I really tap it into my skin, it builds the coverage. And I want a full coverage today. So I love that this foundation has the potential to go on very sheer. So if you use your fingers or a sponge or a brush and you use sweeping motions, the foundation will go on very sheer. But if you use like stippling, tapping motions. If you really push it into your skin, it gives you great full coverage, but it doesn't look cakey. I love how it has a very glowy, dewy finish to it. But it doesn't have any luminescence. There's no mica. So it's not glittery. It's not shimmery. But it gives your skin that really fantastic healthy glow. So, I'm just going to tap that into my skin everywhere. You can already see the huge difference. It's really waking up my complexion. It's looks so dewy. It's looking so even-toned. This foundation makes me feel really pretty. So now I'm going to go ahead and use a second pump. So I really always like to start out with one pump no matter what. Even if I know I'm going to need more than one pump. I always start out with just one pump and take that one pump as far as I can go. That's a great way to keep yourself from using too much makeup. Because whenever you start just pumping it out right away. You know 2 or 3 pumps at one time? What happens is you usually end up using all that makeup. As opposed to being like, "OK. That's too much makeup. I'm only going to use what I need." People oftentimes just end up using too much, because we would rather use too much than waste the makeup. So to prevent that I do just start with one pump. Use it up until I really can't get anymore use out of it. Until I'm not getting anymore coverage I want. Then I'll go to that 2nd pump. So for this look, I actually only end up needing about two pumps from this. But like I said, I'm going for full coverage today. So for now, I'm just still kind of dabbing iit in. Building that coverage. I'm avoiding my eye area for now until the very end. That way I don't apply too much foundation. That way it doesn't get really "creasy". I just have those kind of eyes that always crease under my eyes no matter what I do. That's just the way it is. I've made peace with creases under my eyes. I've made peace with creases under my eyes. I'm OK with it. Just every once and a while, I have to... [CHUCKLES] Oh, I just wanted you to see the difference. You can already see the difference just with the foundation on. That it just brightens up my entire complexion. This has great coverage. Like I said, I always want to wait until the last, until the very end to apply under my eyes. Then whatever is left which is very little at that point, I'll just very gently smooth it over my eyelids a little. Just smooth it over my eyelids a little bit. So like I said, this is a very natural look today. So, I'm actually not going... I'm going super duper natural with makeup look today. I'm not going to be wearing any eyeshadow. No eyeliner. I'm not even going to fill in my brows. I really want this to be like a natural me but improved look. Oxygen - "Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow" - Longest name for a foundation ever. [CHUCKLES] Is the one I'm using. I do love this foundation. It has excellent coverage. I just want to look in the camera so you guys can see the difference. So now I'm going to go ahead and set my foundation. I'm going to go ahead and use Urban Decay's Razor Sharp Ultra Definition Finishing Powder. This kind of has an annoying packaging. So what I do is I actually pull the sponge out. Then there's another little sifter sponge. I take both of those out. And you can see it has a couple of holes in there. I twist it open and shake it. Then I realize I closed it. [CHUCKLES] When I meant to have it open. There we go. So I flip it over a little. And here's the powder. That's way too much. But I'm only going to use a tiny bit. I'm just going to tap my brush in there a little bit. I'm going to grab the lid again. I'm going to put the brush in the lid and just swirl it around. So it really just gets all that powder evenly distributed inside the brush. Go ahead and tap off. Then I'm going to just like tap this into my skin. Instead of smoothing it onto my skin, I'm just going to tap this into my skin. Again just to help set this and I really want to reduce shine. Because lately I've been, just this year for some reason my skin has been super duper oily. I just want to tone down some of the dewiness of this foundation. So if you have oily skin, you can still use this foundation. It is oil-free. It's amazing. I do love it. It's actually quite lightweight. Although it has really excellent coverage. And it has SPF 25. I like that my sun protection is built into the foundation. But, yeah. You can wear it without powder or with. Going to pick up my "Pick-up" - excuse me! My "Perk-Up Artist" again. And I'm actually going to go ahead and use the concealer in the middle. Going to go ahead and use that one. I'm going to use that under my eyes. I'm going to use my ring finger and just rub my finger right in there. Then I am going to dab it in under my eyes. So this doesn't really give a lot of coverage, but it does "perk up" [CHUCKLES] your appearance. I do like the way that it makes it slightly dewy underneath my eye. Again so it doesn't look all dry and wrinkly. So, obviously this color is - I want to say it's a "one-shade-fits-most". But if you look at my face right now, you can see that slight difference. How my right eye, my right eye - your left - is very bright. It's just perked up. And then I'm just going to switch hands here. And I'm going to use my other ring finger just to keep my palette clean because... Since the other finger has already been on my face and in the palette, I'm switching hands and fingers here. But using my ring finger and just tapping it in. That's all you do. Tap it in. It's very easy. I wouldn't recommend like swiping it in, because that's going to wipe off my powder, my foundation. Just tap it in. And it just gives it a nice, subtle illuminating touch right under my eyes. I'm actually going to come back to the Perk-Up Artist again one more time later. Hold on one second. Moving stuff around. Oh, I wanted to clean off my fingertips before I touch anymore stuff. Alright. So moving on. So, I'm not quite done here. And I'm going to go ahead and use the "brighten" portion of the Perk-Up Artist. They recommend using it around the eyes and around your mouth area. I actually like to use it right on the bridge of my nose. Right on the bridge of my nose. A little bit in between my eyes. Just because I have a rounded nose. You know? I have African-American features. And this helps to give me nose a little bit more dimension so it's not too flat. Just adds to that healthy glow that I'm looking for. And I like that it doesn't look pink once I just tap it in. As you can see, it's just nicely reflecting light. Going to go ahead and add a little dab to couple other areas on my face. So since I'm not doing any contouring today. Just doing like a natural foundation look. I do want to go ahead and brighten up my face a little bit. So put a little on my cupid's bow. And then just tap it in. And then right there on my cheek, excuse me - my chin. Right below my lower lip. Just to brighten my face a little. So I love the Perk-Up Artist. I think it's a great little, you know, perk up kit. It's not so much a concealer kit. Oh, and then I like to use a little bit illuminator on my cheekbones. Just a little bit above my cheekbone. More like on my ... um... around my.. um. Just went brain dead. [CHUCKLES] But you can see where I'm putting it. [CHUCKLES] And in my highlight area. And I'll move my head back and forth so you can see how the light is grabbing this area now. It just helps to brighten my face a little more. Give me a little more of that luminescent glow without being glitter ball. Without being disco crazy. And again, just using my ring finger I'm going to tap this in. Just a little line. Just a little bit right under the eye too. Just right at the outer corner of my eye. Just going up in a straight line. Well, actually kind of a diagonal line. I just love the way this gives my skin just this healthy luminescent glow. It looks just kind of like, you know, the models in magazines. How they always have light reflecting in all the right spots; and this is how they do it. Just a little bit of illuminator in spots where you want light to catch. Alright. I'm actually just using my bare finger. I'm just wiping out some of the foundation that's in my eyebrows. Since I'm not going to define my brows today. Just going to keep them natural. I just wanted to wipe out some of the foundation. So, I use this almost everyday. This is Benetint. This is a stain. I love this color. Because I love blush, but I don't love touching up my blush. [CHUCKLES] I've had this for a year. This is not even a full size, and I've had this for a year. And I use it almost everyday. I just put a little stripe on my skin and then I tap it in with my ring finger. I always use my ring finger, because that's the lightest finger and it'll apply - the lightest and the weakest finger and it'll apply the least pressure. So that way everything always looks nice and natural. And I'll do the comparison again. You can see the side with and without. So you can see it's a very natural, subtle flush of color. And I love it. I use this almost every day for a just a nice beautiful cheek color that is very natural looking. And I just tap it in. What I also love about this look, is that every single time I do this look. Every day - not like hordes of people - but at least once or twice a day, somebody will comment to me, "Oh, my God. You have beautiful skin". And I always tell them, "No. It's just makeup and lighting". [LAUGHS] And it really is. Because I'm just a normal person like everybody else. But like I said, when I wear this foundation, when I wear this makeup, I feel beautiful and I think I have amazing looking skin. When I applied the Benetint, I did remove a little bit of my concealing from my blemish there. So I'm just going to take my makeup brush. Not even add any foundation to it because there is still foundation in the brush. And just tap it on. Now I'm going to put on a little bit of mascara. They're Real! from Benefit. I love this mascara. I'll do the side-by-side comparison in a moment. Go ahead and put this on one of my lashes. Of course, it's black. And it's just - there's been a lot of reviews done on this. I don't want to bore you to death with reviews that have already been done. But this really is a great mascara. It just instantly makes your lashes look longer. And I always like to build it up at the base and just pull through. So it looks thicker at the base and then just pull it through. And it looks nice and long. And I'll get closer to my camera in a moment so you can see the difference between my lashes. But this is a wonderful mascara. It is definitely one of my top favorites. Not my absolute favorite. I'll talk about that another day. But this is one of my favorites. Definitely in my top 5. Alright. Now I'm coming in close so you can see. Without. With. Big difference, huh? But it still looks natural. After all, they are my natural lashes. Just with a little color on them. So I'll go ahead and even that out. Okay. So, I'm almost done. I'm going to go ahead and apply a little bit on my lower lashes. I'm just going to sweep it across my lower lashes. Just hold my brush vertical and sweep it across my lower lashes. Just to add a touch of color. I don't want to really define them or exaggerate my lower lashes. But I do want to add a little bit of color. So I'm just going to touch the brush, holding it vertical, and just sweep it across my lashes. And that one picked up a little bit too much color. There we go. So I feel good about that. And now I want to go ahead and actually use Benetint on my lips. I love this stuff. You can use it on your cheeks. Use it on your lips. Anywhere where you want to stain. And of course, when it first goes on, it's going to be very wet. So, you know, practice with this. Use a steady hand. But in like a minute or two will dry, and I'll just have this natural flush on my lips all day. I can just freshen up my look with a little bit of lip balm or clear lip gloss. And that's it! This is my daily natural face look. OK! So, this is my look. Just a simple look. I hope you enjoyed watching this video, and I hope you learned something. Questions? Comments? Tips? I'm always learning too. I never stop learning. And, some of my makeup skills may be a bit old-fashioned, so I'm always looking to update and learn. So, please comment and subscribe. I'll see you guys next time.