FACELAB · START HERE
Start here
Seventeen guides is a lot, and reading them end to end makes little sense. Below is the order in which they actually work: first the things everything else rests on, then the details. Each step says why it belongs there.
Step 1. The base everything else rests on
The most common cause of makeup going wrong is neither technique nor product — it is the skin underneath and the order of layers. These three cover most problems before you pick up foundation at all.
- A basic skincare routine: how many steps you actually need — what a routine actually needs, and what can go without any loss
- The order of makeup application: the full sequence — the liquid-under-powder rule, and why it explains almost all pilling
- Makeup brushes: shape matters more than price — the three base shapes and what each of them does to product
Step 2. The face: foundation, correction, colour
This is where it is decided whether the face looks alive. Match the foundation first, then learn to cover only what needs covering, and only then bring colour back.
- Matching foundation to your skin: three separate variables — matching coverage to your skin type rather than the other way round
- Concealer and colour correction: why a lighter shade does not fix it — why a lighter shade does not remove dark circles, and what does
- Blush: the fastest step in makeup, and the one most often done backwards — the three limits of the blush zone — the fastest step in all of makeup
- Contour and highlight: where shadow goes, where light goes — where shadow goes, where light goes, and why a gap must stay between them
Step 3. Details: eyes, brows, lips
These are the most noticeable steps, which is why mistakes in them carry furthest. Take them on once the base no longer takes all your attention.
- Brows: finding your shape and not ruining it with tweezers — the three points that define the shape, and why the rest is just a line between them
- Eyeliner: why the wings never match and how to fix that — a wing as three short strokes instead of one long line
- Lipstick: why the same shade looks different on everyone — what "matte", "satin" and "tint" actually stand for
- Under-eye patches: what they do and what they cannot — when they genuinely work, and when they are just a pleasant fifteen minutes
Separately: skincare and difficult skin
These are not tied to a level — you read them when you need them. But read the SPF one early, because it affects everything else.
- SPF: why a bottle marked 50 does not protect the way the label says — why a bottle marked 50 rarely performs like 50
- Removing makeup: how micellar water works and why rinsing helps — the two stages of cleansing and what happens when you skip the first
- Makeup over acne: covering redness without adding irritation — covering breakouts without making them more obvious
- Post-acne marks and uneven texture: pigment, redness or a scar? — working with texture, not only with colour
Reference and practice
Where to come back when an unfamiliar word turns up, or when you want it all in one scenario.
- A glossary of makeup and skincare terms — 64 terms in plain language, from base to setting
- Getting ready for a date: from clean skin to the finished look — the full scenario, from cleansing to the final touch
If you have almost no time
Three pieces that make the biggest difference for the least reading. Everything else can wait until you need it.