Want to kick your makeup up a notch and get a professional looking finish? Here are my top 5 finishing touches that make all the difference in your makeup:

-Use more than 1 concealer. A lot of people think that 1 concealer will do it all, and it might for some, but not if you have really dark circles. You need to start with a concealer in a pink/orange base that matches the dark parts to neutralize that and then go on top of that with one a shade lighter than your skin (in a yellow tone if you have olive skin, pink if you have rosy skin) to brighten and make it all look blended. Here’s my concealer routine I filmed a while back:

-Set your concealer with translucent powder, loose if possible. I’ll get a lot of women complaining that their concealer just ends up in their lines (and unless you are 2, you have a couple lines under your eyes, it’s just natural). Of course this happens, think about it, concealer is emollient, when you keep blinking it moves the concealer deeper into the lines. That’s why you need to use a powder, pushing it onto the concealer takes away from the moisture and allows the concealer to stay put

-Use a sponge to clean up the edges of eyes. It happens to the best of us, you do this amazing eye makeup and leave the house thinking it looks great, but when you look at pictures later, you just look tired. That’s because eyeshadow that goes past the edge of the eyes actually pulls your eyes down, making you look more tired. Think of an imaginary line that diagonally connects the outer edge of the eye with the outer edge of the eye brow. Use your sponge to clean up any shadow that has gone past that line (line C in the image below)

-Layer your blush/contour/highlight to make it last. Apply your cream products first (over your foundation), set the skin with a translucent powder & then go over your blush/contour/highlight with powder products in similar colors. This will help ensure the colors stay fresh and lasts all day

-You might think setting sprays are just a gimmick, a ploy by the big cosmetic companies to get you to spend more money, but Urban Decay’s all-nighter setting spray is a must have. You hold it about 6″-12″ away from your face and spray a few mists onto the skin and it really locks your look into place. Think of it as how hairspray works for hair (minus the sticky feeling!)