A Professional MUA’s Top Tips: How To Apply Makeup To Suit Your Features & More

Ever wondered if you’re doing make-up that suits your facial features? MUA Iana Zinovieva spills expert tips and dolls up two Sassy ladies!

With ever-changing beauty trends and constant new brand drops, it can be overwhelming to explore the world of make-up. How should I contour my face, or should I contour at all? How should I do my eyeliner, should I wing it? What’s my undertone? Too many questions!

Ahead, we teamed up with internationally certified professional make-up and brow artist, Iana Zinovieva who shares her tips and tricks for doing make-up that best suits your face shape and features. Iana’s beauty salon, Wish Beauty Bar emphasises embracing natural beauty and your own individual style by enhancing your features and flattering your skintone.

Our Editor Fashila Kanakka and Graphic Designer Joy Lee got glammed up by Iana (spoiler: we used a lot of Charlotte Tilbury!) to demonstrate different techniques and shades for different features.

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But First, Skin Prep

Before any makeup application, it’s important to prep your skin to ensure you have a good base to work with. Iana likes to begin with a double cleanse using an oil cleanser followed by a water-based cleanser to remove impurities. She then goes in with a hydrating toner, made with ingredients like hyaluronic acid, glycerin and squalene to boost collagen and soften your skin.

Follow that up with a thin layer of hydrating vitamin serum (Iana uses YSL!). For oily skin, she suggests working slightly in reverse – hydrate, set with spray and powder, and then apply makeup.

Iana really believes in massaging the face! If you have the time, she swears by a lymphatic drainage massage, using your hands or a tool, to improve blood circulation and help active ingredients in your skincare to penetrate deeper. In particular, focus on your eye and nose area – for de-puffing, de-stressing and minimising the appearance of larger pores.

Depending on the time of day, you can finish your skin prep with SPF application. In Hong Kong, Iana suggests applying SPF at all times of day because we have such a hot climate (better to be safe)! She applies sunscreen with a brush and goes over the lashes and eyebrows, which tend to get depigmented and can benefit from sun protection.

Pro Tip: Iana suggests doing the base after doing your eyes and brows as makeup oxidises and changes colour.

Read More: Our Beauty Editor’s Gentle & Affordable Skincare Routine

Fashila’s Make-Up Look – Balanced features, deep skin tone and a focus on the eyes

Fashila’s face is quite symmetrical and balanced, so she can elongate the eye or choose to round it! Her forehead, nose, and mouth are quite proportional, giving more flexibility for Iana to work her magic.

Iana starts with a cream eyeshadow on the lid, working it towards the lash line just above Fashila’s natural crease – starting with lighter shades then dark and then applying glitter or shimmer to the middle of the eye.

To create a little more dimension and volume in the lash line, Iana applies a brown kohl pencil from Charlotte Tilbury. She uses a creamy eyeliner and then sealed it with a mix of darker colours, to create a smoky effect without a distinct colour, so it looks like your real lashes, and more natural.

Although Fashila’s eyebrows are dark, Iana would never use a very dark colour, she likes to use a lighter colour to start so it’s easier to manage. She enhances Fashila’s eyebrows, following their natural shape to lift and define the eye area.

Iana doesn’t use very strong colours to contour, she prefers to layer colour. In Fashila’s case, she’s actually using concealer to brighten the lighter parts instead of darkening parts of the face – this will still create dimension. She’s using colours that are only a little lighter or darker than the foundation.

Once you’re almost done, take a step away and see if there’s anything you want to enhance and deepen. Iana finishes the eye, applies mascara, blush and brushes the eyebrows out and then sets the face with a slightly tinted mineral powder. 

Joy’s Make-Up Look – Naturally defined brows, mono-lid eyes and structured jawline

On Joy, Iana works with our model’s natural eye shape, an epicanthic or epicanthal fold. Instead of forcing a crease, she creates intensity at the lash line and places colour where the eyeball is. Then, where the eyeball ends, she places shimmer – this brings it forward, creating the appearance of a crease instead of a stark line. On Fashila, we used shimmer under the brow bone and in the middle of the lid to highlight, here where it usually appears as a uniform surface, the highlight creates the appearance of dimension.

Joy’s eyebrows are pretty well-defined, so Iana just fills in lightly where it’s sparser. 

For the undereye, Iana likes to balance the eye — to match the shadow she put on the lids prior. On Joy, Iana actually matches the width of the shadow she placed above, and don’t neglect the bottom lash line! She blends the pencil liner between the lashes to create a fuller look, especially for the lower lash line.

As for foundation, Iana loves Shiseido, Lancome (for HK weather, try Selfridges for the full range, including deeper skin tones) and Charlotte Tilbury. She likes to dilute her heavier foundations with a moisturiser (forming your own CC cream!) which is what she’s done here on Joy.

As a finish, Iana brightens around the nasal folds, the bridge of the nose, and the centre of the forehead and applies a soft blush for more colour.

Read More: The Best 10 Blushes To Buy In Hong Kong

Final Make-Up Tips From Iana

• Don’t overcomplicate the eyes — if you focus too hard on micro-trends and your exact “shape”, you’re bound to get overwhelmed. Instead, consider your personal preference for your eyes – it’s about what you like.
• Think about your own unique selling point and what you love about your face
• If you’re considering a bolder lip and brow, consider going lighter on the eye, aim to balance it out.
• Make sure you always have two shades of foundation — one that is a little bit darker, one that is a little bit lighter. This will ensure you always have your shade no matter the season.
• Brushes that are more round are great for blending powders, but for cream products, you need something flatter. A brush that’s too fluffy can create holes in your makeup.
• Make sure to wash your brushes! Clean brushes really contribute to your skin condition. If you have acne or any skin conditions, it lives on your brush.
• Concealer is used to lift, not conceal.

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You can learn more via Instagram at @wish.beauty.bar or @the_bar.hk.