If you are just like me, you are a makeup novice. However, that does not mean that I don’t have desires to have a glam look one night. Watching makeup tutorials by top-notch beauty gurus might be intimidating due to the difference in skin tone, beauty products, and their level of expertise. For makeup and beauty tips, I asked makeup enthusiast Aaliyah McNair, a student at Wells college to give me 10 beauty hacks, her favorite beauty products and even asked her to spill the tea on her beauty routine.
Aaliyah is a Junior at Wells college, majoring in Psychology with a Cognitive & Brain Sciences minor. McNair is involved in campus activities and clubs. She is the president “Blend” an all there is to know about natural beauty products club, a media representative for “Umoja”, a black awareness club on campus, and she is also the student government Elections Manager. Aaliyah’s makeup journey started during her freshman year of college when she received makeup lessons from an M.U.A at MAC. After her lessons, Aaliyah fell in love with the art form and continued practicing by herself. She believed that it would be a good skill to know how to do if she went on an interview or would be in a formal setting. As of right now, makeup is just a hobby for Aaliyah but she has hopes of it becoming a future profession.
Aaliyah’s advice for an up and coming M.U.E (makeup enthusiast) is to “Not to be afraid to be inspired by others. I am always learning things from social media even though I do my own tutorials. When it comes to public relations, always know how you should be treated. Never stop promoting yourself and pushing yourself into doors, even if sometimes they won’t open”. Aaliyah advertises her business through social media networks such as; Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram. Additionally, she posts her thumbnails, snippets of her videos or just updates on what she will be doing next. Finally, she tries to get into the habit of posting frequent looks and tutorials while also sticking to her actual school work. In 5 years Aaliyah wants to be able to say that she has collaborated with some of the biggest makeup brands such as Fenty, Morphe, MAC, and Anastasia Beverly Hills. Aaliyah wants to have a good foundation with her YouTube videos and be an inspiring contribution to the beauty industry.
Aaliyah’s 10 Beauty Hacks:
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You don’t need eyeshadow primer before using eyeshadow, you can put on concealer
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Tape at the end of your eyes can help achieve that perfect wing tip
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Some eyeshadow over your lipstick or gloss can create different visual effects
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I clean my makeup tools after I haven’t used them for a while. If I find myself doing a lot of looks back to back I hold off on cleaning.
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For facial cleansers, I recommend charcoal and cucumber masks. Along with some St. Ives apricot scrub.
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Depending on eyeshadows, to get most out of the pigmentation wet your brush just a little with setting spray before applying it.
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You don’t always need color corrector for your dark spots, sometimes concealer does the trick. Apply it to the spots before putting on your foundation.
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When I mess up one eyebrow I just use concealer to do my best in making it look like the other.
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If I mess up my wing I just clean it up with some concealer.
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Now that summer is approaching, people are starting to do a lot of different looks with bold eyeshadow colors along with bold eyeliner colors. I’m loving it. For the winter I like more nude looks with unique lip colors.
Aaliyah’s typical makeup process starts off with her moisturizing her face with her Ponds Dry Skin Cream. Then, she outlines her eyebrows and shapes her brows with LA girls concealer. Eyeshadows are next with the addition of eyeliner (for fancy events or looks). For foundation, Aaliyah likes to use Rihanna’s Fenty foundation, followed by contouring and highlighting the forehead, cheeks, and nose. Concealing under her eyes and applying baking powder adds a nice smooth touch. Next, Aaliyah uses baking powder on her cheeks, then she moves on to her eye makeup. After blending some colors, Aaliyah will apply her eyelashes (which are optional and just based on preference). Aaliyah takes her Morphe brush to get rid of excess baking powder. After applying her lip shade (either gloss or lipstick), Aaliyah will apply mascara to her lashes, then highlight her face (get the cheek bones) and finish with setting spray.
For more looks like the one above, Follow Aaliyah’s makeup pages and check out her YouTube channel!
YouTube: @Liyah Maquillaje Glam
Instagram: @liyahmaquillajeglam
Twitter: @makeupxtea