Wow, did all this time went by between today and the last guide for noobs to makeup&co? (One, two, three the previous “chapters”) So, we’ve tackled “nailart” before, now let me talk at length about makup words. I am, by no means, a makeup guru nor a makeup artist, I’m just any girl who likes to wear makeup sometimes, and always likes to see good looking makeups. If I left something behind or say something wrong please let me know!
‘Cause I’m writing this as a “guide” I wish I had when I was 12yo (even though I was allowed to wear makeup outside the threshold of our bathroom when I was 16 :P) to understand a little bit how things were going and, after I’ve secured myself a basic knowledge, turn to real pros to learn from them U_U

Foundation: it is actually the foundation, the base to every makeup, it evens out your complexion. It does NOT make you sun tanned, for heaven’s sake do NOT buy a foundation that’s so much darker than your skin tone so that you can look more tanned, you’ll simply end up looking like you have bad makeup on. And please, please, please, blend it down the neck, there’s nothing worst than an orange sharp line on your jaw!!!
blush/fard: same thing, now english is in, once it was french. Anyway is usually a kind of powder (but there are also liquid, creamy, mousse blushes) in various “pink/orange” tints to make your cheeks look lively. Since foundation flattened everything out.
bronzer: this is what makes you tanned, though not by smearing it all over your face. First and foremost a disambiguation, if your bronzer is shimmery (with the tiniest sparlky speckles in it, to reflect light) you’re supposed to wear it in those prominent features of your face, the ones that supposedly get tanned before, if it were summer. Instead, if you have a matte bronzer you’re going to use it in the opposite way, to make shadowy areas on those parts of your face that you want to reduce (like, my uber-round cheeks :)).

eyeliner: it’s used to line your eyes, groundbreaking uh? Anyway, it’s either pencil, powder, liquid, gel, feltip, smudgeproof, waterproof, black, cloured, glittered, basically an endless list of qualities.
mascara/rimmel: once upon a time it was called rimmel in honour of its creator. Just like eyeliner there are mascaras of every kind, find the one that suits you best isn’t hard, but it takes some time and experiments. I like non-waterproof ones best, but I know girls that like waterproof best because it fattens their thin lashes and keeps the curl better. It’s all up to you
eyeshadow: oh, come on, do I have to tell you this? Allright, it’s either powder, gel, mousse, big pencil, pure pigment, any kind of colour you can apply to your lids to achieve super cool looks. This is some technical talk, is it? Anyway, the types of eyeshadow you can find are endless: waterproof, matte, shimmer, glittery, sheer, metallic, please stop me when you want!
primer: what goes before, the one for the eyes is the most known, but there are also primers for the face. Basically all they do (but it’s not something minor) is prepare a base to allow other products to grip better and last longer. It’s not something that you need on a daily basis, though, so if you don’t have one, don’t worry 😉
lipgloss: the word says it all, it’s usually about those thingies in a tube with a brush (not always though), so shiny, somewhat sticky, with various effects but always supershiny, used to give you a kissable pucker (even though he’ll usually go “Gosh, it’s sticky… don’t, you’ll smudge me!). Please do not exagerate, otherwise you’ll end up having two sleeping slugs instead of lips.

lipstick: a potentially endless chapter about packagings, textures, effects, finishes, colours, added benefits (though your kissable one will react as before…), it takes a little more ability to wear, but nothing is impossible. It goes along really well with lipliner (but please do me a favor: do not abuse of lip liner, do not overdraw your lips outside your natural lips, it’s so nasty to see, clowns work in the circus. Thank you!)
concealer/corrector: there is no difference in italian, though we could say that concealer is something more skin-toned and lightweight (like a double, sturdier foundation) and correctors are more technical things (like, green for red marks, peach for dark circles, etc). Please use it just in strategic spots, blend well and don’t abuse (the effect “light streak” looked good only on Anjelica Huston when she played Morticia Addams).

powder: loose, compact, rice… it’s used to set the foundation (that is usually “wet”), there are all kind of powders, tinted, invisible, high definition. It’s quite hard to mess up things with powder… unless you wear too much, wich gives you the “cakey” effect. Most of all the HD one is tricky, in pictures…
bb cream: newest on the market and, if I can quote my mom, “So if I mix up my foundation and my regular moisturizer I have a bb cream”… well… basically yes, you do! It’s a tinted moisturizer, which means it hasn’t the coverage of a foundation, and it has added benefits: it’s moisturizing, it’s concealing, maybe it can take care of some imperfections (I kind of doubt this, but anyway…), some have spf in them. It stands for Blemis Balm, at least in the beginning, and now it stands for Beauty Balm.

mmm… qui c’è qualcosa che non va…

brushes: that big stack of tools you use to apply your makeup at best. As far as I’m concearned I could live without brushes… but I have to admit that there are products and effects you cannot apply or achieve without the proper brushes. Good quality brushes. And they are so important that I’ll be writing a side post on them! (Otherwise this post would be way too long… and it already is!)
sponges: closely related to brushes, they’re used to apply and blend products (most of all liquid or creamy products, like foundation and concealer. But they’re good to blend blushes etc). Once upon a time there was just one kind of sponge: a latex wedge. Now you can find all shapes and sizes. If you love them find your perfect one and stick to it 😉
lash curler: if you see it from afar it looks like a instrument for medieval torture. If you see it close it looks like a super clever instrument for medieval torture. Though it’s not hard to use and it’s definately not an instrument for medieval torture. Really! Pinky promise! I pinched myself -just a little- only once. You just need to go slowly and feel how it’s going, if you’re not really convinced, move it a little further from your lid. Anyway, it’s used to curl your lashes up and out, to open up your eyes and give you that doe eyed look.
pencil sharpener: to sharpen your pencil. Clever! But you should sharp them every time not only to have a precise line, where needed, but to get rid of unwanted germs of the point of your pencil. You’re welcome.
inci: International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients. That long impossible to read list of impossible to pronounce words. A good website to check the ingredients is this Biodizionario, I know, it’s in italian, but just type in the words and look at the dots: green is good and not polluting nor harmless to skin and nature, red is bad.

Oh gosh, we’re at the end! I think I’ve left out just body makeup, those colours used in theaters and very special effects, but I think we did pretty good!
Next time it will be about brushes, and we’ll have a post about how to get rid of all this stuff without issues… and I guess I’ll have a special help on that one 😉

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