Beauty Fix: How to boost dull skin the morning after a late night out, tips for wearing bright blush and more

Every week our Beauty Fix columnist takes on your questions about makeup, skincare, hair and more. Have a beauty question we haven’t answered? Email us at beautyfix@fashionmagazine.com.

I bought a bright blush on a whim and it’s much more pigmented than I thought. How do I apply it?
Working with intense pigmentation can involve a bit of a learning curve, especially if you’re used to a more forgiving formula. When dealing with a mega pigmented blush, such as a mighty magenta shade like Nars Blush in “Coeur Battant” ($32, narscosmetics.com), it all boils down to how you apply the product. Take your blush brush and tap it very lightly in the blush and tap it lightly on the back of your hand to remove a bit of the pigment. Now you can apply the blush to your face as you usually would. Step back and evaluate the colour payoff and repeat this process until you’re pleased with the outcome. The idea here is that it’s easier to gradually add colour to the face instead of inundating your cheeks with a bold shade that would overwhelm your whole look.

I have slight redness in my skin and sometimes makeup isn’t enough to cover it. Can I use anything to calm my skin down before applying foundation?
Redness, whether persistent or reactive, can be frustrating to deal with. Extremely flushed skin isn’t always a flattering or comfortable to experience, so get a grip on it with Clinique Redness Solutions Daily Protective Base SPF 15 ($23, thebay.com). This formula contains a mineral sunscreen with SPF 15, which will help prevent sun damage from further exacerbating your redness and the formula’s green tint cancels out redness in skin, allowing any additional makeup applied over areas of redness to appear even and true to colour.

How can I prevent my uneven skintone from getting worse?
Your skintone can be uneven for a number of reasons, including sun damage, natural aging and genetics. Regardless of why your skintone may appear uneven, you can absolutely work to keep the unevenness from progressing. Kiehl’s Skin Tone Correcting & Beautifying BB Cream ($36, kiehls.ca) is a super solid bet when it comes to protecting your skin from further discolouration due to sun damage since it contains mineral sunscreen with an SPF level of 50. The formula packs a substantial amount of pigment and blends out with total ease, evening out your skintone immediately. The vitamin C factor of this BB cream works to break up uneven pigment patches and reveal a more even tone over time, making it an ideal addition to your daily routine.

After a late night out, what can I do to boost my dull skin in the morning?
If you’ve woken up and are greeted by a particularly lacklustre reflection in the mirror, you can probably chalk it up to dehydration that’s a direct result of any alcohol consumption and a lack of sleep due to being out late the night before. Do yourself a favour and down a couple glasses of water as soon as you get up, and then slather on Bliss Triple Oxygen Ex-‘glow’-sion! Vitabead-Infused Moisture Cream ($64, sephora.ca). Give your face a mini-massage as you apply, in order to make sure the antioxidant vitamin E beads burst and absorb into your skin. (Plus, all that tap-tap-tapping will help wake you up!) This cream will also boost your skin’s moisture and radiance, thanks to the inclusion of shea butter, micro-algae, vitamin C and oxygen.

How do I keep my makeup from looking too flat and matte?
It’s a fine line between flat skin and velvety skin, isn’t it? Traditional setting powders can zap whatever lovely glow your makeup may be giving your skin, so opt for a powder with a soft-focus effect. Take it one step further and be sure to use a highlighter on your cheekbones, inner corners of your eyes and brow bones to give your face more dimension. Pick up Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette ($67, sephora.ca) to do all of the above, as it contains powders that use photoluminescent technology to filter out any unflattering light in order to mimic optimal lighting conditions on the skin. The compact includes one shade, “Dim Light,” that can be used more so as an all-over setting powder, and two shades, “Incandescent Light” and “Radiant Light,” that can be used to highlight all over the face. The powders are light-reflective but have zero glitter factor, so this is ideal for anyone looking for a lit-from-within glow… and who isn’t looking for that?

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