Imperfections Covered!
by Selma Yalazi
January 2006

No one is born perfect and even if we were we would never know about it because for one reason or another we all find something “wrong” with us. Thanks to creative make-up techniques we can enhance our best features while down playing others. But we have to remember that the art of disguising what we want hidden is exactly that, an art. Practice makes perfect, so try these techniques out a couple times before going public with your new face. Also look at yourself with different sources of light to make sure your application is even. I remember in high school I had the most beautiful and fashionable friend in the world but she always had “the mask” when it came to foundation. So rules of thumb don’t spackle and blend, blend, blend. Its always better to start with a light touch and add on more if needed, then to use too much cosmetic and to waste time tissue-ing it off!

• To lower the forehead use a color about three shades darker than the rest of the face. Apply along hair line and blend downward.
• To make the forehead appear higher follow the same steps above but use a shade of make-up three shades lighter than before.
• Narrow a forehead by shading the temples and blending onto the front plane of the forehead.
• Create the appearance of a wider forehead by adding highlights from temples to hairline and blending

Chin & Jawline

• Round off a square jaw by shadowing the part that needs rounding. Carry the shadow both under and over the jawbone.
• To make a person more youthful, add highlight all along the jawbone softening the lower edge and blending the top.
• Make a prominent chin less noticeable by darkening the whole chin with shadow.
• Make a chin appear shorter by shadowing the lower part of chin.

• For those of us have small eyes, to make them look larger extend the shadow or color slightly above and beyond the eye and apply color below the eyes as well.
• Eyes can be lengthened by extending the shadow beyond the outer corners of the eyes.
• To make eyes seem further apart, apply shadow lightly up from the outer edges of the eyes, and a highlighting color at the inner corners.
• To make eyes look closer, use shadow on the upper inner side of the eyelid.
• To remedy the looks of deep sunken eyes use shadow in the middle of the lid only leaving both sides untouched.
• For dark circles apply a corrective color stick in yellow, then follow up with foundation and powder.

• To make one lip thicker or even with the other, use a lip liner to expand the curve of the lip and balance it with the size of the opposite lip (used for thin lower or thin upper lips).
• To make a mouth appear larger, build out the sides of the upper and lower lips, and extend the corners of the mouth.
• Lips can be made to appear smaller by keeping the lip color inside the lip line. A lighter color can be applied to the lips, and then a deeper color brushed on the center of both lips.

• To make a nose appear shorter, blend a darker color under nose and up over tip.
• To create the appearance of a longer nose, highlight down over and under the tip.
• Widen a nose by using a broad highlight down the center of the nose and blending. Use the reverse of the techniques used for widening to make a nose look narrower.