First of all, yes that is an old photo of eye makeup from a previous post from a million years ago, you got me. Caught red handed. But I’m not just lazy I promise. I’ve had a cold all week and my watery, red eyes are not something you want to see a close up of at the moment. (See I’m just thinking of what’s best for you!)

Now that thats off my chest…

Dude, blending can be intimidating! Mostly because people in the online makeup world make such a big deal about it. Amateur critics from far and wide will comment on photos of makeup looks and critique the blending. Here’s a little secret: They’re usually being overly critical . . . .Usually. Here’s another little Secret: It’s not that hard and with a few pointers you can get pretty good at it.

And this doesn’t only apply to eye makeup either, learning to blend face products like blush, bronzer, highlighter etc. is very important too, but luckily the same basic rules apply.

1. If you are using a primer ( and this applies to both your eyes and your skin) give it time to dry before you begin applying product over it. If you apply the product when it is still too damp you will notice that it tends to stick and gather where you place the color, and it doesn’t like to blend out away from where you initially laid it down. If you give the primer a moment to dry it will be much less tacky, and it will provide a much better base to blend over.

2. Before you apply powder eyeshadow, try choosing a matte powder shadow that is almost the exact color of your skin and sweeping it over your entire lid from the lash line to the brow bone. Then when you place a color over it, it will be much easier to blend out the edges. This is especially helpful of you’re using a dark color or any color that gives you a hard time when blending it out onto bare skin. If you don’t have a color close to your skin tone you can also do this with your face powder. See? I’m Frugal!

3. Whether we’re talking about your eyes or your face, choose a brush that is light and fluffy for blending. When it comes to eyes, dense brushes are great for picking color up and depositing it on the lid, but when blending you want the brush to glide over the skin lightly to diffuse and disperse the color. Basically you should be using two brushes for the process: One to apply the color and one to blend. For blush and bronzer you can go right for the fluffy brush because more often than not, you don’t want to pack on a lot of that color anyway.

4. Once you find a good fluffy blending brush, make sure it’s clean. If you are trying to blend your colors and wondering why they look like mud, odds are you still have residue of another color on the brush and it’s making everything look icky. Realistically, unless you are doing makeup professionally you aren’t going to shampoo your brushes between each use. (Although feel free to read here about why you should shampoo them often). For those in between days you can use a spot cleaner, just to take off the residual colors. Or if you have a plethora of brushes you can always just use a fresh clean brush every time. . .but who has that many brushes? Not me.

5. Last but not least, if you have tried everything and you still feel like you aren’t doing it well, try using a lighter hand. If you are pressing too firmly onto the brush, it takes away from the brushes ability to glide over the skin and disperse the products softly and evenly, no matter how clean and fluffy your brush is. Basically this part takes some practice, but just do it as lightly as you can until you notice improvement!

Hopefully that helps a little, and if you have any tricks that help you blend let me know! You can never learn too many new tricks 😉