February 7, 2018

Work Makeup Do's and Don't's

The top 5 work and professional makeup don't's with tips on how to fix them, plus 5 tips about how to organize your makeup. interview makeup tips. work makeup tips. professional makeup tips. corporate makeup tips. | brazenandbrunette.com

Hello friends! I know in my last post I briefly touched on the importance of having proper work makeup on during the day, but in the past week I saw a young girl (thankfully not from my office) with just the wrong makeup on. It was so distracting and I was just staring at her shocked. In my opinion, wearing the wrong makeup is just as unprofessional as showing up in a too-tight, too-short pencil skirt. Especially because it's a lot to take in at like a 9am meeting and it's a lot to take in under the already harsh fluorescent lighting. 

Related: 5 products for all-day makeup


What to do

Like I said when I was talking about establishing your brand at work, if you're not a makeup person that's totally okay but do at least something so it doesn't look like you just rolled out of bed. At the very least you should be putting on some moisturizer just so your skin can stay hydrated, so you can just step this up a notch and go for tinted moisturizer. You can also get tinted lip balm to give your lips a little bit of color without actually having to wear lipstick. A simple extra step to this that would go a long way is to also use a color corrector just to even our your skin tone.

Stick to neutrals because they're you're best friend at the office. Really colorful eyeshadows or really bold lips usually don't look professional. I've always been told to save the colors and the darks for the evenings or the weekends. Basically anything in a Naked palette will be perfectly work appropriate. The main key to professional makeup is try to make it look as natural as possible.  


What not to do

Fist off let me just say this— don't wear false eyelashes to work. You're an aspiring lawyer not a sales lady at Sephora; it's just too much, and you can bet that any female partners out there in the world have better things to do than waste 10 minutes at 6 am trying to glue on eyelashes. I have pretty small eyelashes and I'm so jealous of my friends whose lashes go up to their eyebrows so I understand the pain, but regular mascara is going to have to do because I can almost promise you that everyone will know those aren't your real lashes. To add another dimension to your lashes, try using the white side of this mascara as a base before you put on your mascara and you'll notice a huge difference.

I naturally have thick eyebrows so I've been all about the full eyebrow trend and totally support filling in your brows just as long as they aren't overfilled too dramatically. Remember, the key is to make them look natural and not like straight-edged stickers. A tip to keep your eyebrows in place but without going overboard is just to try clear brow gel because a most people have plenty thick eyebrows, they just need a little something to keep them in line.

Personally I also think contouring just shouldn't be a thing for the workday. It's totally fine to sculpt your face for any other occasion, but for work it's just not the right time. Most people either contour too much or don't blend it out too much and then you end up with some harsh facial features. If you want to give yourself a little color for some depth, try adding some bronzer around the edges of your face. Just make sure to get a bronzer not much darker than your foundation because you want this to look natural and not like a bad spray tan.

One thing that I've learned is that it is very easy to accidentally overdo it on the highlighter. I like how it makes my face look a little brighter, but again remember that you're under harsh lights already so the highlighter will probably do more harm than good. And no one is going to take you seriously if you look like a disco ball. If you are wanting to use highlighter just to brighten up your face, try using a dewy setting spray instead which will give you a fresh look without being in-your-face bright.

Finally, just be careful with eyeliner. Both liquid eyeliner on your eyelid or even tight lining is totally okay as long as you don't go overboard. If your eyeliner ever gets so thick that it's starting to look like eyeshadow then you're probably getting closer to a "night" look than an office appropriate look. If you like the look of eyeliner, then try using a nude eyeliner or a white one instead and it will really help your eyes look brighter and more awake.

The top 5 work and professional makeup don't's with tips on how to fix them, plus 5 tips about how to organize your makeup. interview makeup tips. work makeup tips. professional makeup tips. corporate makeup tips. | brazenandbrunette.com

Makeup organizing tips

While we're on the subject of makeup, I just wanted to talk real quick about some makeup organizers that I've recently found and am loving! 
The top 5 work makeup do's and 5 professional makeup don't's plus 5 tips about how to organize your makeup. interview makeup tips. work makeup tips. professional makeup tips. corporate makeup tips. | brazenandbrunette.com

Most recently I got this palette organizer and it has been amazing. Every year my mom gives me a new makeup palette in my stocking stuffer and now they're all neatly organized and honestly this takes up so much less space on my bathroom counter. 

The top 5 work makeup do's and 5 professional makeup don't's plus 5 tips about how to organize your makeup. interview makeup tips. work makeup tips. professional makeup tips. corporate makeup tips. | brazenandbrunette.com

Speaking of my mom, a few years ago she got me this makeup brush holder and I love it so much I just had to share it. I love that the rubber holds them in place and this has so many spots that you can fit a LOT of makeup brushes in it (I currently have these EcoTools brushes and these Beakey brushes in it). This also is reasonably small so it takes up hardly no room on your counter.

The top 5 work makeup do's and 5 professional makeup don't's plus 5 tips about how to organize your makeup. interview makeup tips. work makeup tips. professional makeup tips. corporate makeup tips. | brazenandbrunette.com 

I love to use liquid lipsticks and since they're taller I actually prefer using a coffee mug for them. The mug I use now just happens to be what I got in my last FabFitFun box, but something like this coffee mug just seems so fitting with the gold lip print. Or if you're more in to traditional lipsticks, a small lipstick organizer would work perfect for you.

The top 5 work makeup do's and 5 professional makeup don't's plus 5 tips about how to organize your makeup. interview makeup tips. work makeup tips. professional makeup tips. corporate makeup tips. | brazenandbrunette.com

Another small item that is great just to organize your bathroom counter is this beauty blender holder. Not only does it keep the darn thing from rolling off the counter all the time, but it is a great way to store your blender in a way that lets it fully air dry. Plus it looks like one of those cute little egg cups so that's cool. Oh and did I mention that this one is $1?!

The top 5 work makeup do's and 5 professional makeup don't's plus 5 tips about how to organize your makeup. interview makeup tips. work makeup tips. professional makeup tips. corporate makeup tips. | brazenandbrunette.com

Okay technically this last item isn't for organizing but it is beauty related and I ordered it recently and think it's pretty cool. I follow a few fashion/beauty bloggers who always post about the $200 version of this mirror so it was totally a score to find the same one for less than $25. Having a lighted, magnified mirror is such a help for literally all parts of applying makeup! And if you really like it, they have a travel mirror version for you to stash in your purse on-the-go as well.

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