If you plan to wear lipstick, you've got to disguise flakes or you'll get painful looks from your friends. Do this by applying lip balm or ointment try Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream, $25 then mix even more balm with your lipstick and press it onto your lips -- instead of swiping it on per usual. This will help the flakes lay flatter. -- Sarah Lucero, Stila makeup artist
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Get natural-looking texture
Want to get bed head-inspired waves that look effortless? Here's how:
• Apply styling or setting lotion all over (try Bumble and bumble Styling Lotion, $24, then create two to four braids (depending on the thickness of your hair) -- that are the exact same width -- with all of your hair.
• Using a flat iron, press down on the braid -- along the entire length. Run the iron through the ends too. Remove braids for a lived-in, wavy texture. Finish with hairspray for hold. -- Antoinette Beenders, Aveda hairstylist
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Make small eyes look bigger
When creating a smoky eye look on smaller eyes, don't apply the shadow much past your creases -- keep the intensity of the color close to your lashline. And avoid lining your inner rims; skipping it will make eyes look bigger/more open. -- Nadine Luke, MAC makeup artist
If you're going for a more natural look, apply a flesh-toned metallic eyeshadow (try Stila Eye Shadow in Kitten, $18 along your top lashlines. Apply it with a damp, flat shadow brush or angled liner brush for a more precise and pigmented finish. This will instantly brighten up your eyes and make them appear bigger. -- Sarah Lucero, Stila makeup artist
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Apply false eyelashes with ease
False lashes can be frustrating and difficult to apply, but here are a few tips to make the process easier:
• First, apply them while tilting your chin up and looking down into a mirror. It will help you see your lashline better.
• Second, don't ever apply a full strip at once. Cut it into quarters and apply each separately. That way you won't have to battle with funky ends poking out -- just be sure to apply them in the correct order.
• As you place them on, aim to stick the falsies to the base of your natural lashes, not your actual eyelid. -- Robin Schoen for Urban Decay
To create a bold or bright lip look, instead of slicking on a lipstick from the tube or lining the outside of your lips first with liner, line the inner most area of your lips with liner first. Then, use a lip brush to work the color outward toward your lip edges. Finish by adding just a bit of lipstick over the liner to finish. This gives a sexier, more modern finish to a bold lip because it won't have any sharp lines on the outer edges. -- Nadine Luke, MAC makeup artist
You might think that because models are so stunning, exotic, sexy, what have you, that they don't need much in the way of hair and makeup to look fabulous. Think again.
While covering the shows at New York Fashion Week, we saw first hand what it takes to get naturally gorgeous, freakishly thin and tall models runway ready. It's truly no small feat. They, like us "real" women, have dark circles, split ends, chapped lips, dull complexions, etc., etc. It's true. Fashion Week is like boot camp for models -- it's physically challenging. Their skin and hair is put through rigorous heat styling and backcombing and their poor faces have had makeup applied and scrubbed off multiple times in a day. This training leaves them looking more like we do every day (just being honest here).
That's why the artists working in the trenches backstage have such very important jobs to do. In mere minutes (yes, on occasion they literally have five to 10 minutes to get a model completely ready) they turn these girls into the glamazons we know them to be. And they do it by using the beauty tips they've picked up over the years. The go-to secrets that have worked for them over and over again on red carpets, at photo shoots and, obviously, while backstage.
They were nice enough to share some of these secrets with us. Seriously, they had to style hair or apply makeup -- under serious time pressure -- while we hovered over them, notebooks in hand. Thank you beautiful, talented artists!
