There may exist affiliate links in this post. If y'all purchase through these links we may make a minor committee at no toll to you. Please see our disclaimer, terms and privacy for more than information.

If you've never used makeup before, information technology can exist quite intimidating to start. There are many dissimilar makeup products, colors, shades, tools, brushes, and techniques. You might watch a makeup 101 YouTube video "tutorial" where the beauty guru has a glitter cut pucker done in 2 seconds, while you're all the same wondering what brush to use first.

This is normal. Information technology's totally okay to not know where to start! There are a LOT of things you lot can learn about makeup, simply it'south very normal to be overwhelmed when you're beginning.

Makeup Glossary

Here are my best suggestions! If you want to larn about makeup 101 for beginners and where to start, keep reading.

Why do you want to vesture makeup?

The reason you want to wearable makeup could decide the type of products you should use – and could be completely opposite of what someone else needs.

For example, phase or dance makeup is very different than natural "no-makeup" makeup. These two makeup styles will require very unlike makeup products to achieve two distinct looks.

If you want to start learning makeup to be creative, do intricate eyeshadow looks, accept bold colors, for total coverage, or for phase makeup, check out these articles after you terminate reading this ane:

  • 7 Tips for a Perfect Cutting Crease
  • $100 Full Confront of (GOOD!) Makeup
  • Best Faux Eyelashes for Beginners
  • Nigh Blinding Highlighters

Not ready for more than intense makeup quite all the same? That is OKAY!

Most people want to learn the basics of makeup awarding before jumping into more "intense" makeup styles. It's totally normal if you simply want to learn a few simple makeup styles to wear to schoolhouse, work, or special occasions!

Makeup 101, makeup for beginners. The beginner's guide to get started with makeup!

Agreement your skin type and care

The first step in our mini makeup 101 course is understanding your peel.

Pare Types

Before you lot even buy any makeup products, you should understand your pare type.

There are a few main skin types: Dry, oily, normal (neither dry nor oily), and combination (which is a combination of 2 of the other types, often significant you lot take oily and dry out patches on your peel simultaneously).

Your pare type can change over time, depending on your age, location or climate, and the time of the year. In the winter, most people tend to exist more dry out than they are in the summer. Likewise, hot summer temperatures oft cause your skin to become more oily.

Your skin type is of import to sympathize because different makeup products are formulated for unlike skin types. For instance, mattifying products are great for oily peel, and hydrating or dewy products are great for dry out skin.

Knowing your peel type will help you lot cull makeup products that will work best for your private needs.

Skincare

It is equally essential to understand the importance of skincare.

Knowing how to properly cleanse your skin and remove your makeup is a key factor and something y'all must acquire. Why? Sleeping with makeup on or wearing makeup for multiple days is very bad for your skin!

Whatever fourth dimension you lot vesture makeup, you lot should take it at the finish of the mean solar day. Yous should come up with a good two step cleansing routine to ensure you get all the makeup off your peel, every single mean solar day. Yes, every day. I recommend using an oil based cleanser, then a h2o based cleanser. An oil based cleanser volition remove makeup finer, and oil cleansing is very hydrating for your skin. The second cleanser will remove any traces of oil left past the get-go cleanser.

Exfoliating your skin is also of import. The process of exfoliating (both chemically and physically) removes dead skin cells that are on the elevation layer of your peel. If you put makeup on top of the dead skin cells, it will await super patchy, flaky, and overall bad.

Chemical exfoliating tends to be more gentle on your skin and is recommended by many professionals. If you must employ a physical exfoliant, avert rough ones such as apricot or walnut scrubs which cause micro tears in your pare. Instead, opt for a more gentle sugar scrub. It'south recommended that you exfoliate your skin 1-iii times a calendar week, but the frequency of exfoliation will depend on your skin's sensitivity, the products you use, and how gentle you are.

My two favorite affordable chemic exfoliating products:

The Bones Makeup 101 Products

You tin can alter this shopping list based on your own comfort level and budget. These are my basic production recommendations, which does NOT include every type of makeup production – but this listing makes a perfect offset "kit" of makeup.

Foundation or BB Cream

Foundation can be liquid, foam, or powder. It covers the unabridged face to fifty-fifty out your peel tone and encompass imperfections.

If you're just getting into makeup foundation might feel very intimidating, and that is normal. Information technology tin can be hard to find your foundation shade (though information technology volition help if you read my guide on how to do that). Furthermore, y'all have to get used to wearing a layer of product on your entire face – if you impact your face a lot through the mean solar day, you'll rub it off.

After yous get the hang of it, foundation is super like shooting fish in a barrel. There are many unlike levels of coverage, so you can go a foundation that is sheer or fully covers your skin. Foundations come in different finishes, allowing you to choose a matte or a dewy cease. There are and then many foundations out there that you can choose one that is perfect for your private needs.

If yous're looking for a foundation, I propose checking out one of these:

BB Creams are PERFECT for beginners (or for me when I'one thousand lazy, simply want sheer coverage, or when it'southward super hot exterior)!

Using a BB Cream or tinted moisturizer will requite you a slight layer of coverage on your pare, without feeling heavy. You typically utilize these products like you would a lotion, using your fingers.

Since BB Creams are sheer, it doesn't matter quite equally much if the shade perfectly matches you – this gives you a petty wiggle room guessing your shade when ordering online.

My absolute favorite BB cream is this one, but here are a few more options too:

Of grade, if you have great peel (or simply don't care and don't desire to article of clothing foundation or bb foam) yous do NOT have to wear a foundation. I get foundation gratuitous often, using concealer to spot-correct any discoloration and blemishes, but not wearing a production over my entire face.

Related articles about foundation:

  • Ultimate Guide to Foundation
  • How to Choose the Correct Foundation Shade
  • 13 Foundation Mistakes Yous're Making (and how to fix them!)
  • What is Tinted Moisturizer?

Concealer

Concealer, also known as cover up, is used to muffle parts of your peel.

It masks things you are trying to hide, like dark circles, blemishes, and secrets. Okay, maybe non secrets.

I use concealer under my eyes to correct the purple-tinted discoloration from sleepless nights. I besides utilise concealer when I break out to encompass stubborn acne marks and hyperpigmentation.

Even if you don't want to utilise concealer a lot, I suggest getting one to have when you wake up with an unwelcome visitor (aka pimple) on your face up.

When I am wearing light makeup, I will skip foundation and ONLY habiliment a fiddling bit of concealer. Information technology'south super versatile and easy to travel with.

Here are my favorites and recommendations for beginners:

Concealer hack: Use concealer to prep your eyelids for eyeshadow! Concealer is a great alternative to a separate eye primer.

Related manufactures almost concealer:

  • Ultimate Guide to Concealer
  • 13 Best Concealer Tips for Beginners

Powder

Powder is very helpful product that is used to set your makeup in place so it doesn't slide around or wear off apace.

When you use a liquid or cream product similar foundation or concealer, it can await shiny on your face and move around because it is creamy. This is amplified when you have oily skin, because your skin's natural oils volition crusade more polish and slip.

Dusting a light layer of pressed pulverization or loose powder on top of your foundation and/or concealer will set up information technology in place and assistance information technology last much longer.

If you have oily skin, you might even desire to touch upward throughout the day by adding a footling more powder in your T-zone (beyond the forehead and down the center of the confront) or wherever you tend to be more than oily.

However, if you have dry skin, powder might emphasize your dryness in a negative and noticeable style.

Instead of using powder over your entire face, you tin try setting only your T-zone. If pulverisation makes your peel look dry no affair what, you can skip information technology entirely – but your makeup might not final every bit long.

Personally, I don't use powder very often because I adopt a dewy look to my pare.

Tip: If your skin looks dry and powdery after applying pulverization, spray your face with a lilliputian setting spray and gently printing it in with a clammy makeup sponge to lock the powder into your skin.

Here are a few smashing powders to endeavour:

Related articles about powder:

  • Ultimate Guide to Setting Powder

Blush

Blush, blusher, rouge – any you call it, it's pretty.

There was a stage where everyone seemed to think that chroma was only for old ladies. This isn't true! Everyone tin can wear blush, and a lot more than people would dearest blush if they gave it a shot.

Practise you know how y'all look healthy and happy when you've spent a summery solar day exterior and got a little bit of color flushed on your cheeks? Blush can do that for you, every day.

Taking a fluffy castor with a small amount of blush and sweeping it from the apples of your cheeks to your temples, and even beyond the tip of your nose, is an easy and quick way to add some color to your pare. It makes you expect happy, vibrant, good for you, and glowing!

These are crawly blushes that I love:

Related articles almost blush:

  • Ultimate Guide to Blush
  • Anastasia Beverly Hills Chroma Trio review

Makeup 101, makeup for beginners. The beginner's guide to get started with makeup!

Small Neutral Eyeshadow

Yous don't take to habiliment eyeshadow every day, but information technology's likely that you would use a small neutral eyeshadow palette a few times a year, right?

Eyeshadow palettes are a great way to get a few awesome quality eyeshadows for a not bad price – if y'all brand sure yous purchase quality products.

Grabbing an eyeshadow palette with a couple shades of dark-brown and a champagne or gold shimmer is truly all you demand to glam up your look, particularly when you don't normally wear any eyeshadow.

Colourpop eyeshadows are truly some of my favorite eyeshadow palettes, specially for beginners because they are and so affordable!

If yous want, you can also match your desired eyeshadow to compliment the colour of your eyes. I recommend checking out my article about the best eyeshadow palettes for beginners for a more in depth look at what makes an eyeshadow palette swell.

Kailey'southward picks:

Related articles virtually eyeshadow:

  • Ultimate Guide to Eyeshadow
  • Best Eyeshadow Palettes for Beginners
  • Best Eyeshadow For Every Centre Color
  • 7 Tips to go a perfect cut crease

Mascara

If you merely want to use a single makeup product to transform your expect, choose mascara.

Mascara is a dark chocolate-brown or black liquid applied to the eyelashes. The mascara coats lashes, making them announced darker and bolder. Different mascara formulas accept unlike goals, such as making your eyelashes appear longer, curled, or more voluminous.

You lot can become to the drugstore, grocery shop, or await online and be overwhelmed with the countless different mascara options in front of you. There are at least 50 different mascaras in my local Walmart alone!

These are my top two mascara recommendations for beginners:

If y'all want to learn more about why I recommend these detail mascaras, I take an entire mail service about the all-time drugstore mascaras for beginners! They are both affordable, accessible, and piece of work for a lot of people.

Related articles about mascara:

  • Ultimate Guide to Mascara
  • Best drugstore mascaras for beginners

Brow Product of Choice

If yous've never done your eyebrows before (shaped them, filled them in, etc) you lot probably think you don't want to.

Until yous do it. Then you e'er have to "have your brows on" like me, haha!

Brows are super important. They truly frame the face up more than than any other feature, and the appearance of your eyebrows volition transform the rest of your face up and makeup.

I have a lot of information about brows, including shaping, products, and more than in this mail: The Ultimate Guide to Brows.

For beginners, I definitely recommend brow gel as the easiest production to endeavour. Using tinted brow gel will continue your eyebrow hairs in place, add a bit of volume, and add color which will make them seem more full and groomed. Brow gel is applied with a tiny applicator that looks like a miniature mascara wand. Information technology'south pretty fool proof, and any product you lot accidentally get on your skin can exist easily wiped away.

If you have thin patches in your brows that yous want to fill up in, a brow pencil or powder is the answer for you. Employ a lite hand and a shade lighter than yous think you need – your brows volition be more than shaped, symmetrical, and wait the mode you want them to expect.

Some people love using a brow pomade (a gel-type formula you apply with a brush), but in my opinion it'south a lot harder to get the hang of using a pomade. Because of this, I recommend starting with a pencil or pulverization before trying out a pomade.

Here are some of my favorite affordable brow products:

Lip Products

Lipstick is the most popular lip production, just there are many types of makeup items you can utilise to your lips. Here are the chief ones:

Lipliner: Used to line the outer perimeter of your lips and as a base for other products, just can also be worn alone. Helps forbid lip products applied on top of liner from smudging and feathering. Comes in a pencil course and typically lasts much longer than lipstick, making an awesome base of operations for your lip products.

Bullet lipstick: The classic, twist-up lipstick in a tube. Oftentimes a satin finish, only available in more than glossy or matte varieties. Transfers onto other objects (straws, spectacles, people) when your lips touch them.

Liquid lipstick: Applied with a doe human foot applicator as a liquid that dries down on your lips. Longer-lasting than a traditional bullet lipstick. Ordinarily matte, and transfer-proof (or at least somewhat-transfer-proof). Can be drying on your lips.

Lip gloss: Shiny, glossy, and sometimes pasty. Lip gloss can be clear or tinted, with or without glitter. Typically more hydrating on your lips.

There are and so many colors and types of lipsticks out there; your favorite will depend a lot on your personal preference.

Awesome products to get you lot started:

The Basic Makeup 101 Tools

There are and then many makeup brushes and sponges out in that location, but you actually just need a few to beginning!

Makeup Sponges

For foundation and concealer, makeup sponges are the best mode to blend information technology out quickly and effortlessly. You can use a castor for these products, only I detect sponges to be easier to primary.

Awesome sponge recommendations:

Related manufactures virtually makeup sponges:

  • How to use a makeup sponge
  • x Reasons why you lot should utilize a makeup sponge
  • How to clean a makeup sponge

Makeup Brushes

Brushes are where you can easily become carried abroad and buy way more you need.

Truly, you lot could pick out a few private brushes designed for the few products you take. This is a great style to become if you know what shape brushes you like.

Yet, castor sets tend to be more cost constructive than private brushes – particularly when you take none to brainstorm with.

But there are so many sets – what should you lot look for?

Because you lot have an eyeshadow palette and a few powder products (blush, powder, brow powder) to use, you will want a variety of face brushes and small eyeshadow brushes. Detect a fix that includes both and you'll exist prepare.

I personally actually like BH Cosmetics brush sets, also as elf cosmetics and wet n wild brushes. Here are my recommendations for beginners:

This prepare has everything yous demand for the products in this post, plus some extras (like the eyeliner brush!) for branching out in the hereafter. They are very soft and good quality, too!

Here'south another option: a pocket-sized eye brush set, and a pocket-sized confront brush prepare. Bonus! The face set comes with ane of the sponges listed in a higher place.

If you don't desire to purchase a whole brush fix, I understand that likewise. Bank check out these private brushes; they should cover the few powder items listed in this post.

Elf cosmetics and wet north wild have some of the cheapest (yet even so good quality) makeup brushes on the market place.

Related manufactures about makeup brushes:

  • Ultimate Makeup Castor Guide for Beginners
  • Best Rated Makeup Brushes on Amazon
  • How to Launder Makeup Brushes with Dish Lather

Important Tips and Things to Learn

I think we can all agree that this makeup 101 post is getting long enough! Here are another awesome posts I've written that beginners should read:

  • The Correct Club to Employ Makeup – this mail service walks y'all through the orders in which you can employ makeup products.
  • Cheapest Full Face of Makeup (only $55!) – this postal service has more suggestions for all the products above, as absolutely cheap as you can go!
  • $100 Full Face of (GOOD!) Makeup – this post has slightly ameliorate suggestions than the one higher up. If you have a chip more money to spend, I suggest going for these ones for sure!
  • Ultimate Sanitization Guide – makeup can go actually muddy! It'southward of import to disinfect it every now and again.
  • Makeup Expiration Chart and Tracker – unfortunately, makeup expires. This will help you continue rails of when you lot bought your makeup and when it volition need to exist replaced.
  • Bank check out the makeup glossary – definitions for all the beauty things you didn't even know existed.

If you lot want or need assistance choosing any makeup product, reach out to Kailey.

Yes, seriously.

I run this blog and I love helping people! Why else would I have written a iii,000 discussion post about where to start with makeup?

Means to ask me questions:

  • DM on Instagram
  • DM on Facebook
  • Email at kailey@beautybrainsblush.com
  • Comment beneath!

I promise you found this makeup 101 guide helpful! If you have any questions or comments, get in touch with me and get out a note in the comments.

Makeup 101, makeup for beginners. The beginner's guide to get started with makeup!

What did you acquire from this article?

xoxo, Kailey