Blend your way to a flawless face with these expert tips from celeb makeup artist Ashunta Sheriff.
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“What can happen with women of color is that they can find a foundation and it works well down the jaw line or the forehead and then when they get to the center of the face it may be wrong. In that case, use a lighter concealer or a lighter shade foundation in those areas,” says Sheriff.
“The best way to find your perfect matching foundation is by doing the jaw line check with three stripes of three different shades. Draw the stripes vertically from your cheek down to your neck. Pick a color that you think matches, one that you know absolutely doesn’t match and one that you kind of think matches. Put the one that you absolutely know that doesn’t match in the center so that it stands out and put the other two on the opposite side. The one that disappears into the jaw line is the one you should purchase,” says Sheriff.
“A lot of times with hyperpigmentation people put on their shade of foundation and cover their face and they expect it to cover the hyperpigmentation,” says Sheriff. “What they find is that your hyperpigmentation marks will bleed through your foundation and make your makeup look ashy, especially if you have hyperpigmentation marks that are on your cheek bones; those really come through so what you have to do is color correct those things with a warmer concealer.”
If you have dark spots left behind from acne blemishes, Sheriff shares her secrets to balancing out your skin tone. “If you have hyperpigmentation, what you have to do is color correct using a warmer concealer. Just pat on the concealer over dark spots then cover with your foundation. You won’t be able to see the marks at all.”
Sheriff recommends setting your concealer with Ben Nye Luxury Powder, a transclusent powder used by the pros. “The Banana shade is really good for light to mid-color girls. For deeper complexions, they can use Sienna or Topaz,” advises Sheriff.
It’s common for makeup artists to use concealer to define brows, but it’s possible that the outline around the brows could be the wrong match. “Sometimes they’re going too light,” says Sheriff. “Your concealer should always be a couple shades lighter than you but a lot of women are using the wrong shade. You should always definitely highlight, but use a concealer that’s a couple tones lighter, not five shades lighter.”
“There are three steps to creating a perfect nude lip. First, take the concealer that you use for your shade and pat it into your lips. Then, take a lipstick that matches your skin tone, maybe use a taupe or tannish brown. Last, take a gold gloss and put that on top. That’s a nice nude lip for women of color,” says Sheriff.
“The reason why you create a nude lip in three stages is because the concealer really helps to mute your natural lip tone. A lot of women of color have either the two-toned lip or even a brown tone to their lip so when you put those neutral colors on it doesn’t work,” says Sheriff.
