By Assistant Editor Shayna Spiker
I first started wearing makeup in the fifth grade. Mostly it was lipgloss or occasionally, my mom would let me borrow her lipstick on the weekends. It made me feel so grown up and special. A few years later, I had a sleepover with two of my girlfriends and none of us really had much more experience than that with makeup, so we did a little experiment and played with eyeshadow and lipstick on each other.
It was the first time I’d ever done anything with makeup that didn’t include just swiping on some flavored lipgloss, and I thought all women wore bright blue eyeshadow and bright red lipstick so naturally that’s what I put on my friend’s face. She came out looking like a trashy mess! We still laugh about it to this day, but since then, I made it my mission to learn how to put on makeup and do it well.
There are so many different styles, colors, and tastes when it comes to makeup. The possibilities are endless! However, as fun as many of these styles are, they are not all appropriate for the office, meeting with clients, or networking events. Whether you decide to wear just the bare essentials or put on a full face, you need to make sure that you don’t make it too flashy.
That being said, don’t be afraid to go outside of neutral color palettes! You don’t have to only wear nude and brown eyeshadow to look professional. But if you choose to wear colors, be careful of how you apply them. You don’t want to go too dark and smoky because that look is more of a nighttime look than a daytime look and you don’t want to look like you just came from the club or are about to go to the club when meeting a prospective client, business partner, etc. You also don’t want to look like you got punched in the eye, so keep darker colors as an accent and be sure to start off very lightly with them and add more color if you feel necessary.
Additionally, if you choose a bright or bold color for your eyes, choose a more subdued color for your lips and vice versa. You want to choose one feature to draw attention to, otherwise you look too done-up, like you’re ready for a night out with the girls. If you like bright or bold lipstick colors, consider sticking to just mascara, with maybe a little bit of black or brown eyeliner.
Whatever your personal style is, don’t be afraid to show it! Just be careful not to do too much at once when putting on makeup for work.