Amanda's Beauty Salon

I am not a high-maintenance lady. If leggings and oversized sweatshirts were appropriate office attire, I would toss every pair of slacks I own and buy stock in Old Navy in anticipation of the excessive amount of yoga pants I planned to purchase. I am most happy on my couch, fuzzy socks and a fleece blanket in tow, taking in the latest episode of the clusterfuck that is the Bachelor.

That said, I do enjoy hitting the town every once in a while and have a strong love for all things cosmetology. I've taken to not wearing makeup or doing much with my hair during the week--mainly because there's not a single male in my graduate program worth the extra half hour in the morning--but when I have free time and practice my skillz (once a year) or when I'm heading out, these are the rules I live and die by. 

1. Moisturize/prime your face and lids. 

Moisturizer isn't just for dry skin, people. Even oily skin (like mine) needs something a little extra to help maintain the right kind of moisture, especially in the top layer of skin. That moisture naturally helps protect your skin from the elements. Nowadays, many moisturizers come with a light SPF for added protection. Dry skin also wrinkles faster. As for primer, I can't say enough about the difference it makes. Picture a stucco wall. If you were to paint over the stucco, you would see differentiation in color, shadows and bumps. Primer serves as somewhat of a smoother. It adheres to your skin, filling in the microscopic cracks between pores, laugh lines, dimples etc. and makes your face a smooth, even canvas. It also gives your makeup something to stick to, so sweating or blinking won't leave you with streaky foundation or weird eye-makeup creases.

2. Don't sleep on wet hair. 

Unless you're going for the grungy, tousled, morning-after look or plan on flat ironing it pin-straight, dry your hair within an hour of showering. Aside from the fact that it feels disgusting to sleep on (and leaves you with a damp pillow), letting your hair air-dry for too long eliminates a lot of the body you are most likely seeking. I do not have the patience to heat up a hot pocket let alone stand at the mirror and dry each individual strand of hair the way the ladies do at the salon, but I am very picky about making sure my roots and bangs are dry 100% before styling.  The easiest laziest way to do this is to flip your head over and dry all of your hair and once, un-flip and use a round brush to style your bangs/front pieces. Fun fact: the pieces of your hair in the front will always be the most damaged (most exposure to sun/most likely to be touched/most styled/heat applied) and in turn will be the quickest to dry. Unless you're planning on rockin' a poof or a high pony, dry your bangs/front pieces as soon as you've towel-dried your mane. 

3. Change up your part. 

Bangs are like men, ladies; you gotta train 'em. Every hair follicle on your head has a direction it is comfortable going. If you recently got bangs after years of sporting a Kardashian-inspired center-part, chances are your hair is about to have a first-class freakout. Bangs need to be "trained" to go in a certain direction. Once hair is dry, it is much harder to force it out of its comfort zone. Part your hair how you want it as soon as you get out of the shower and pin bangs to the side. I tend to use several bobby pins; I'll place one right at the root, one in the middle and one to secure the whole strand by your ear. Let it air dry a bit, then take the dryer and go to town on your part with the bobby pins still in place. It won't happen overnight, but if you do it regularly, your bangs will eventually cooperate. Fun fact: just like your hair gets accustomed to shampoos and conditioners, your scalp gets accustomed to where your hair parts itself. If you move from a center-part to a side-part of vice versa, your hair will have tremendous volume. Trust me. 

4. Highlight and contour.

Eyes are attracted to light. Simple as pie. If you're trying to attract the eye to a point on your face, add something lighter than your foundation to it. If you're trying to give something an edge or downplay it, give it a little bronzer. For example, if you apply a dark line vertically on either side of your nose (Bronzer works. Sometimes I even use an eyeliner pencil, but blend it, of course.), the eye is drawn to the lighter strip between the lines, making your nose look smaller or straighter if you have a high bridge or have--like me--had your face smashed in while water tubing. Adding a little bronzer above your eyes where the outer corners of your eyebrows meet your hairline will make your face shape seem skinnier. Anywhere you add contour, mainly under your cheekbones, add a little highlight above for more definition. 

5. Know what kind of eyes you have (and what kind you want). 

Eye makeup is the most difficult and most fun to do. It is like magic; you can make your eyes appear smaller or larger with a few strokes of liner, but you can also ruin your whole look if you don't do it right. Many a time have I left the house looking a hot-damn-mess after repeated application, removal, re-application and re-removal of eye makeup that just wasn't workin' out. First, know what you're working with. If you have smaller or almond-shaped eyes and are intending on making them appear rounded or larger, stick with a thin pencil liner for the bottom lashes. Too much blending or smudging will make the line on the bottom thicker, straighter and ultimately more block-like. Straight lines=smaller eyes. You want to focus on rounded strokes at the outer corners of the top and bottom lashes. This gives more of an open, circular look to your eye and will, from a distance, make your eye look larger and more open. Only line from the center of your pupil out towards your ear; if your tear ducts aren't lined, the insides of your eyes will be brighter and appear wider. If you have larger eyes and are looking to make them look a little smaller or make your bottom lash line appear less curved, use pencil or kohl liner on your waterlines. The starkness against the whites of your eyes will diminish the appearance of their size. Also, the thicker the smudge, the smaller your eye will appear. 

6. Use different mascara on your top and bottom lashes. 

Seriously. Your bottom lashes are shorter and thinner so they need different attention than your top lashes. I always use a defining or separating mascara on the bottom. They aren't really going to get a lot of volume or curl to them, so be using a mascara that separates, the lashes you do have down there will get mascara applied all over them. As for top lashes, I have recently started to hold my wand vertically and brush it along the tips of my lashes before applying in the traditional horizontal sweep. The curl of your lashes comes from the root, but most of what you see is the end of your lash. They need attention, too! 

7. Heat is your friend. 

I always do hair first makeup second, but never turn off my straightener, waver or curling wand when I'm finished. This is because the heat from these tools can prove very useful when doing your makeup. For example, heating your lash curler with a hair dryer is a fine art. If you apply the heat for too long, you are going to burn your eyelid because that metal lash curler eats heat for breakfast. However, if you stick your eyelash curler between the plates of your flat iron, the lash curler absorbs the heat much slower (because it isn't a forced heat) and is less likely to burn you. Sometimes, an eyeliner (especially those clickable ones) can be stubborn and nobody wants to tell a story later of how you went blind from putting too much pressure on an eyeliner pencil. Don't fret! Hold the pencil about an inch away from the heated hair tool of your choice and viola, the liner will glide across your eye like a figure skater. Test the liner on the back of your hand first, though. We don't need any burned retinas up in here. 

8. Don't use a curling iron. 

...At least not for regular curls. Traditional curling irons are a thing of the past. The barrel of an old school curling iron doesn't heat evenly, making your curls hotter in some places than others and less likely to stay. Also, those pesky clamps do more harm than good. God forbid you curl your hair in the wrong direction, you will have a kink in your hair that no straightener can undo. Try a curling wand instead. 99% of them are ceramic like a flat iron and distribute heat evenly and forcefully. I have extremely thick, corse hair and I only hold my hair in place on my wand for 5-10 seconds. You also can control what kind of curl you want. Do you want Shirley Temple curls? Probably hopefully not, but you can achieve them by wrapping the hair closely together around the barrel. If you want looser waves, leave lots of space between hair pieces when you wrap. Beachy waves can be achieved by wrapping your hair around an old school curling iron without opening the clamp. Just wrap your hair around the whole thing and run your fingers through when you're done. Boom. 

9. Teasing isn't necessarily a bad thing. 

Backcombing can give you serious volume. It can also give you serious hair damage, so do it sparingly. Part your hair in a semi-circle around your crown. Using a wiry round-brush or comb, hold hair away from your head in two-inch sections, spray the roots with hairspray and comb downwards towards your scalp. Start combing at your root and move upwards towards the ends of your strands. If you let go and it looks like the cover of There's Something About Mary, you, my friend, have succeeded. After you tease everything, flip your head back and start to smooth the pieces together with a regular paddle brush. Perfect for a summer evening or a night at a bar where your hair is likely to get flattened. 

10. Do not, under any circumstances, use lip liner. 

Self explanatory.