With matte products at every corner, over-oily products intended for drier skin types, and insane price tags at every corner, choosing makeup as a teenager can be harder than it may look. The object of this article is to help you understand not only what works best for teenagers, but why, as well as tips on budgeting, choosing the right products, and what is and isn’t necessary. I tried to write this article so it wasn’t information you’ve already heard before, and I tried to make it as helpful as possible. I hope that you don’t just learn something from this article, but that it will eventually lead to happier decisions.
General advice for Teenagers concerning makeup
First, I want to start off by saying; don’t buy makeup for the packaging! This is the biggest trap set up by makeup companies for teenage girls. Unless you set out to buy makeup with cute packaging, you’ll just have wasted money and will be left wishing you have spent it on something better. So basically, pretty packaging doesn’t mean quality products. Okay, with that said, let’s talk about general makeup guidelines for teenagers. First of all, you are at the age where shimmer and iridescence only add to your youthful beauty without looking immature. Once women hit the thirty-mark, frosty lipsticks, glittering under-eyebrow highlights and shimmer blushes look like they are trying to force a time-travel warp back to when they were your age. That said, there is one enemy to teenagers in the beauty business; the matte finish. Besides from lips, teenagers simply can’t get away with matte. Matte is generally a professional-looking finish, and whereas most teenagers aren’t yet professional, it will just make you look silly-and though this may seem counter-intuitive-it will also make you look immature when paired with your youth.
Foundation
Do you really need foundation?
So as far as foundation goes, you probably don’t need it. At your age, your skin is producing boat-loads of oil, and even foundation directed for oily skin, unless specifically directed at teenagers, has a good amount of oily products in them. This is intended because if the foundation was truly dry it would soak up the oil and probably turn orange when mixed with the colors. Also, many women don’t want oily products on their skin so they buy the products directed at oily skin, which have much less than say products directed at dry skin. Makeup companies don’t want to risk their dissatisfaction when it dries out their face and ages them, so it still has notable levels of oil in the makeup.
That said, you probably don’t need foundation yet. What you would use foundation to solve-freckles, redness, acne, and most skin discolorations in general can be solved with skin care products. Freckles can be lessened to the level of almost no noticeability with a professional sunscreen, and redness can be solved with moisturizers directed for redness. Acne always needs a dermatologist’s attention, even at this age.
Foundation for scars and hyper-pigmentations
The only thing teenagers could need foundation for is scars on their face from acne or accidents, or if you have patches of different colored skin on your face. In this case, teenagers can use oily formulas because the skin is basically destroyed or is in pretty bad condition so it’s probably not creating much oil. It’s best to get a creamy, full-coverage foundation for this purpose and only apply it in the trouble spots, which means taking the time to really match your foundation to your skin-tone. There truly is no better way to do this than save up and got to the local makeup department at your mall and test several foundations. I recommend this because the amount of money you’ll spend buying different drug store foundations when the color doesn’t match will most likely be more than buying a foundation at the makeup counter. Turn it into an affair with your friends, just to make the time go faster and to have fun. As for departments, I recommend you stop by Clinique, Estee Lauder, and Shiseido. I recommend these because Clinique and Estee Lauder tend to put skin-conscious ingredients in their products, as well if you are a fan of M.A.C, Estee Lauder owns M.A.C. as well as Clinique, and Shiseido is expensive but very high-quality; if you are fan of NARS, Shiseido owns NARS and so has similar formulas are pretty color-conscious, which means good foundations.
Achieving a flawless complexion
If you’re trying to just get a flawless complexion (and you won’t get it unless you first take care of your skin woes: acne, freckles, and redness) I recommend a tinted moisturizer, as any type of foundation is unnecessary and will just drown the natural beauty your skin has when at this age. This is a less risky ordeal, and thus should be less expensive, so I recommend drug store brands. My trusty brands are CoverGirl, Burt’s Bees, and Neutrogena, all of which I know carry high-quality tinted moisturizers.
Concealer
What is concealer, and do you really need it?
Here’s the deal with concealer; it’s not for your freckles, your acne-it is simply intended for your under-eye circles. To see if you really need concealer, check to see if your dark circles are on the bone under your eye. If they are under your eyelashes, there’s nothing you can really do without destroying the skin there and perhaps even harming your eye in the process. Plus, those aren’t really dark bags. Many people with large eyes that are shallowly set-meaning they almost bulge out-have a darkness under their eyelashes that stops where the eye gives way. This usually doesn’t look bad in the first place and actually adds depth and beauty to your eyes. Why people need concealer is because the dark circles around their eyes (not on top of them) make them look tired and zombie-ish, which is never pretty. Since you probably don’t work too hard and should be getting a pretty good amount of sleep (at least 9 hours) you shouldn’t have them too hard unless it’s genetic.
Choosing concealer
But if you do have dark circles, don’t listen to people who tell you to get it a shade lighter or have it tinted slightly white or even green. Your concealer should be tinted slightly yellow to neutralize the color of the dark circles, and it should be your shade. So how do you choose right? If the concealer does not have a cap, swatch, or some way of matching it up to your skin without buying it, don’t purchase it. It’ll probably be the wrong shade anyway. In concealer, tone doesn’t matter (tone is the cool, warm, and neutral matching used in matching in foundation) except that it’s yellow. Instead, match the color up to the skin on your face to see if it’s the same shade. If it’s too light or dark, try a different one until you get it right. As far as texture goes, I recommend cream, but liquid can do a good job, too, so it’s entirely up to you on that front.
Cover-up
Sometimes, even if we do have a dermatologist, or even if we don’t have acne problems, we get the occasional zit that ruins our entire look. This is where cover-up comes in. Buying cover-up is a simple ordeal, similar to buying concealer. Usually you can’t go wrong, but watch out for texture. The only texture cover-up should be is creamy. Liquid won’t mold around the zit (I’m sorry it sounds gross!) and will just collect around it, making a nasty ring that only accentuates it more, whereas powder only slightly neutralizes the redness and the dry center will show through, looking really disgusting. Really, the only option is a cream with some consistency (some crèmes can be fluffy and comparable to liquids). As always, match the shade to your skin, not the tone, which should be yellow.
Eyebrows
Eyebrows make or break a beautiful face. Despite what you may be thinking, this is good news because they’re not a huge expense whereas foundation and concealer are. The biggest ordeal is to understand which shapes look good and which don’t, as well as how to design them. I know when I first looked at my eyebrows, ready to groom, I didn’t know where to start. My advice is not to get them done at a spa because most of the time your eyebrows don’t need that much and salons that do eyebrows don’t want you to think they didn’t do anything and demand your money back (because usually they charge pretty large fees like $20), so they try to make the biggest dent as possible without it looking bad (which it usually does anyway, and some hairs don’t grow back.) So I recommend this book, which may be carried at your local library, so check before you buy it: Beautiful Brows: The Ultimate Guide to Styling, Shaping, and Maintaining Your Eyebrows by Nancy Parker.
This will save you so much money from going to spas over and over again, because after reading it you will probably know more than they do, anyway.
As far as products go, all you need is sharp-tipped tweezers, brow scissors for snipping the hairs before where you eyes arch that tend to stick up, and a brow-filler. There are many cheap brow-fillers, I like a sort of waxy product to hold the hairs and I know Sonia Kashuk ™ has a good palette; Wet ‘N’ Wild has a good eyebrow pencil too. Make sure you get a color one shade deeper than your hair color to add depth and one the exact color for a casual look.
Eyes
Eyeshadow
Eye color is the fun of makeup. You can’t go wrong with eye-shadows, whatever color you choose, as long as you have the right brushes. Don’t get an elaborate brush kit-get a basic 9-piece drugstore brush kit, it seriously is all you need. You may, however, want to invest in a quality blending brush because high-quality bristles are really needed in this respect.
As far as primers go, forget them. All you really need is a very sparse dab of creamy concealer. Invest in a colorful palette, not a smoky eye one-a really good palette with tons of color (88 pans!) and only for only $23 is Coastal Scent’s 88 Shimmer Palette. Remember, shimmer over matte, even for eye-color!
Eyeliner
Here’s the rule with eyeliner: that clean, harsh line goes on top of your eye in any color you want; below your eye, use a pencil in natural colors like brown, toned-down purple, or brownish-indigo or sparse and lightly-pigmented black, all of which should be slightly smudged. I do recommend, however, that you get gel eyeliner and an eyeliner brush if you’re going to wear the harsh line on your top lid, because liquid eyeliner usually smudges pretty easily, the flimsy nail-polish wands will always look messy and horrible the brushes offer more precision, and you get more product for your money whenever you get the gel, anyway.
Mascara
Mascara is beautiful on teenagers, so I highly recommend it. This isn’t a big ordeal, either. I recommend doing some research on InStyle.com Best Beauty Buys to see what the cheap, but quality, mascara is recently. You may choose to go for a barely there look made with a thin formula, but big, dramatic lashes are OK at your age and can really highlight your eyes and add femininity. I usually like Maybelline’s and L’Oreal’s mascaras. One mascara to avoid, however, ismascara primer-it does nothing but eat up your money.
Powder
Since at this age, you still probably are quite oily, powder is a good investment, as oily skin can be pretty unattractive. “Beauty” powders with funky tones like carrot-orange or super-rose are just makeup companies crossing their fingers that customers will buy something completely unnecessary. Rather, get a loose powder in your natural skin tone and shade with a sheer iridescence. This will trade your goopy, oily shine for a finished, even and ethereal one. I know i.d. bareMinerals has a really nice iridescent powder.
If you get one that is matte, it will collect on your ever-so-tiny facial hairs and make them stick out, but since to achieve iridescence the shimmer has to be very, very fine, this won’t happen with a powder made to help you achieve a subtle glow.
Blush/Bronzer
By far, my favorite beauty products are blush and bronzer. Not only are they amazing and products that really transform your face, but you can get some relatively cheap ones for great prices.
Blush
Blushes come in so many colors; purples, tawny shades, even bright oranges. Really, though, you only need two colors-a pinky pink, and a deep peachy-rosy color. The pinky pink can work with most any skin tone, unless you have very deep skin color; then you should invest in several deep rosy colors until you find one that you like. As for the lighter skin tones, look at several variations of those two colors until you find one that you like.
Bronzer
Bronzer is a secret for getting beautiful, glowing skin. At any other age, your skin would look badly cared for, but while your skin is still taut, consider bronzer to really enhance your features. Though pale can be beautiful too, bronzer has the ability to give you a 3D effect. Avoid liquid or crème bronzers at all cost because they not only stain your skin and get in hard to reach places, but they usually are too yellow, orange, or get darker even after you matched them to your skin. I recommend a deep brown bronzing color that isn’t highly pigmented (avoid Jane bronzers because they are), and are hard-packed. Choose words like “glow” over “tan” on the packaging because “tan” usually means a yucky orange undertone. Also “golden” is usually a signifier of a good bronzer. Always try to find bronzers with a light shimmer. Anything with “flecks” means a chunky glimmer-look which looks tacky and overdone. And as always, never, never choose a matte bronzer. As far as brands go, any of your favorite blush brands probably pumps out a good bronzer, too, but look before you buy of course.
A Teenager’s Beauty Secret: Highlighter
Finding a good highlighter as a teenager is as important as finding a good foundation as an adult. There are so many different highlighters out there. Some are glittery, some are barely there, some are pink, and some are white. Finding a good highlighter to put under the eye, down your nose and on your chin will make you look simply lovely, so it’s good to do some research here. Don’t fork out tons of money for an expensive highlighter because usually a drugstore one does as good a job as a more expensive one. When it comes to highlighters, the form does really matter. Liquid can be super-shiny where powder is usually pretty subtle. So it depends: if you want something to give you that 3D look, I recommend powder. If you want something to give you shine and really glam you up (think Megan Fox) then liquid highlighter is for you. BeneFit has High Beam and Moon Beam, two exquisite liquid highlighters, and Physician’s Formula pumps out a nice powder highlighter. Take the time to browse your local drug store and see if anything catches your eye before you head out to your local Sephora in search for a high-quality highlighter. Though it’s best to look for less expensive options, highlighter is one thing you can invest in because it’s such an effective product, the unsung hero of makeup.
Lips
Lips by far are major fun when it comes to makeup. But there are, of course, a few rules. First of all, anything that would be impressive on Halloween, though it may be edgy, will not enhance your features. For example, black lipstick, gold lipstick, and white lipstick, might be edgy and funky on the runway, but your friends and peers will find it painful to look at. Stick to more natural shades because these have the power to really enhance your features. As far as gloss goes, I recommend not getting lip gloss colors (since they aren’t really pigmented) but rather getting a gloss that isn’t super shiny (too much shine will overwhelm the shape of your lips and make them look thin) but just a little more shiny than Vaseline. After that, choose three to four cheap lipsticks that you think are pretty and top them with this subtle gloss to look youthful and fresh. A quick tip concerning lip color is to get a red lipstick, but instead of applying it directly to your lips, put it on your finger or a lip brush and pat it on in light dots. Then blend the dots together to give you a stunning but natural red-lip look, suitable for teenagers.
Spend Less Money on Makeup
Sometimes makeup can get addicting and lead to a makeup drawer overflowing with products you never use. As a quick ending note, here are my tips on how to spend less money on makeup.
(1) If you are really serious about spending less on makeup, I hate to say it, but don’t subscribe to more than two makeup artists on YouTube. Though you may say “it’s just for fun”, you’ll find yourself craving the special product that the artist said she loved. Most of these channels are hosted by adults with jobs who can afford things like M.A.C and NARS, whereas as teenagers, these expensive makeup lines will just soak your money right up.
(2) Skip products that you don’t think work for you. If you like bronzer, but it doesn’t really do anything for you, skip it. What’s the point of spending money on something that’s doesn’t serve any use to you?
(3) Don’t buy more than three different shades of anything color-oriented, like blush, bronzer, highlighter, and eyeliner.
Well, I hope I helped you in your makeup endeavors, and here’s to young, sparkling beauty!
