Make-up tips

During my erasmus year I hardly ever used any make up, because I was having that much fun, that I didn't even care to put any make-up on before leaving my house. However, I do like make-up and here I want to write some tips in case you want to have the best one on before you go partying during your erasmus period!

• Always use moisturising cream before you apply any make up on. Otherwise, your skin will be completely dehydrated.

• Be careful to choose a make up that matches your skintone 100%. If you try all the tones on and none of them is the exact one of your skin, you should search for a different make up brand until you find the right one. Otherwise, you will end up having a different face colour and a different neck/hand/body tone. And, trust me, this can't look good!

• I like using an eyebrow pencil, because I like having thick brows and highlighting them. But, be careful: the colour of the eye pencil should be your exact eyebrow colour -basically, your hair colour! Also, an eyebrow pencil should NOT be used to create a brand new eyebrow shape! It is about highlighting our already existent eyebrow! If you use it in a different way, the result will not be good. If you want to make your eyebrows thicker or change their shape, you should let them grow completely and then change it. Better let a professional handle this the first time and then you can go on on your own. The time needed for the eyebrow to grow as it was is seven weeks. I know it is a long time and you will see them lose their shape, but it is all worth it afterwards. This is what I did when I decided that I prefer thick eyebrows. A tip for your eyebrows to maintain the colour you give them with the pencil and not get messy if, for example, you touch them etc., is to take a q-tip and put some hairspray on it. Then, put it on your eyebrows, gently, as if you were combing them with it. The colour is steady now. Finally, a tip to maintain your eyebrows' shape is to “comb” them with a toothbrush (if you have an extra and clean one in the house) if you don't own a special eyebrow brush.

• If you don't have time to put much make up on, just put on some mascara and a lipstick. It is decent, natural and enough!

• Putting red lipstick on without a lip-pencil would be a huge mistake. No matter how steady your hand is, in red lipstick you should define the lip line by using a red lip pencil. Always use the same tone as your lipstick and always define the already existent lip line. Do not “draw” a new one. It is better to have thinner lips than lips that are fuller but it's obvious that you have drawn them to be fuller

• Always choose to make either the eyes or the lips intense. If you have a red lipstick on, just put some mascara in your eyes. If you go out with smokey eyes, choose a light pink or nude lipstick or a lipgloss -do not choose fuchsia etc.

• About your hair: even a ponytail can be pretty as long as you have healthy hair. Use mask treatments and conditioner. One tip for the edges -thanks to my hairdresser: after shampooing your hair, once you're out of the shower and you comb them, put some conditioner on the edges, without rinsing it afterwards. This will make them grow longer more easily. As far as the mask is concerned, I use Orzene's mask to repair my hair and, on a daily basis, I use a night keratin treatment by Sunsilk.

• Apart from the blush, use some brown shadow or a mat lipstick to highlight the shadows on your cheeks. Right under the cheek, draw a line -where it gets thinner. Then “erase” it with your hand or a brush.

• If your lips are affected by the cold and you want them to get softer, use a q-tip with some olive-oil on!

• Some companies I trust are: MAC, Sephora, Erre Due (which has the best eye-pencils) and, although a bit more expensive, Christian Dior for lipsticks and the best mascara!

• If you are in a country where there is KIKO, be sure to try it. All my make up products are from this company ever since I discovered it and now I can't wait for my next trip so that I can find it again, at least at an airport! KIKO is an italian brand (from Milan) and it has really cheap products, that are of great quality. It has some great offers now and then -like lipsticks with 4 euros and mascaras with 6 euros. It also has a large variety of products: many different colours of eyeshadows, many different functions of a mascara etc. During my erasmus, I used to go to Valencia's KIKO stores all the time. If you happen to be there, or any other country with KIKO, visit them!

• A cosmetics brand which is actually greek is Korres. I like it very much and I trust it, because all the products are natural and there is a long family history behind. The first ancestor who created the cosmetics was a pharmacist. He made an aromatic syrup using honey and aniseed in a village on the island of Naxos. Now, they have made numerous products for the face (day and night creams, gels, soaps, scrubs, masks etc), the body (milks, deodorants, body butters, shower gels etc), all kinds of make up, lipstick, pencils etc...But, apart from that, you have to try some of their fragrances that have natural ingredients like Jasmine, Vanilla, White Tea, Heliotrope, Mountain Pepper and more! Korres' trademark is that they list the basic ingredient on each jar or bottle. For example “face cream with wild rose”. There are even suncare products, hair products and men's cosmetics. I highly trust this brand. I don't buy everything from them, because of the products' price, which are reasonable, but not cheap.

• A brand that I trust for my face masks is Apivita. I like the fact that each face mask lists what it is about: calm the face, acne, anti-age etc. Apivita also has some showergels that I like and a really good hair-mask with sunflower and honey.

• Remove your make-up very well and carefully. And don't leave it on, even if you come home really late and just wanna go to bed, please dedicate some minutes to removing your make-up first! Not that I haven't slept with make-up on. I think that we have all done it at one point, but don't make a habbit out of it.

• It might sound like a cliché, but the best tip for your make-up is feeling absolutely well about yourself! My favourite pictures from my erasmus year are those where I have no make-up on, not because of how my face looks, but because I was happy -and it showed.