"Baking" Makeup

Hi!

I recently in the last few months have heard people on Youtube talk about "baking" their makeup. I had no idea what the heck they were talking about. I watched a few videos to figure out what it meant and how to do it. I think I stumbled upon this by watching a Christen Dominique's video about doing this first, then I saw it done on Casey Holmes and then I watched a few others that I can't remember. I can't believe I never thought about doing this. After I found out what it was, I was like duh, that makes total sense. I don't think many beauty guru's on Youtube really used that word or used it very rarely, but now I won't go without it. I wore concealer under my eyes recently without baking it and it has been fairly hot and humid here so I was sweating a lot and the concealer and foundation dripped into my eyes causing irritation. It was a huge mess! My eyes are super sensitive to even the slightest irritation. Now I won't go without "baking" my makeup! I find that it really works for me.

Baking your makeup at the most basic level just means that whenever you put on concealer, primer or foundation, you bake it by applying a powder or eye shadow on top of the concealer/primer/foundation because the powder/eye shadow helps the product to stay in place and it fills in holes and creates a smooth surface that makes other makeup apply smoother. Baking your makeup helps in two ways: 1. it helps the concealer/foundation/primer stay in place and 2. it creates a smooth surface for better makeup application of other products!

I don't think this concept is necessarily knew or not well known because it used to be called setting your makeup and I know I've heard of people applying powder on top of their makeup before, but baking your makeup sounds cute. So I thought I would share it in my blog with all of you =-) Just an FYI to throw out there is that a lot of my makeup is made for long wear times so I'm not sure if that effects the baking or not. I am not entirely sure how baking on non-long wearing makeup works, but I'm sure it does the job for non-long wearing products to make them last a bit longer. But all of my primers, foundations and concealers are all long-wearing formulas. Long wearing formulas plus "baking" makes for really good results that I have seen. Just a fair warning that non-long wearing makeup should last slightly longer than if you don't bake, but not as long as long-wearing products. I just wanted to make sure that information is known.

Baking with Primer:

On clean eye lids apply your eye primer of your choice.
For example: I use the MAC Paint Pot in Soft Ochre because it works really well for me, but you can use actual eye primer or something similar. Whatever you like to use for your eye primer works. I would apply that all over my eye lids and give it about a minute or so to dry down.
Then you find an eye shadow color that matches closest to your eye lid color.
For example: I use the Coastal Scents Revealed 20 Eye Shadow Palette that I got from my husband's mom for Christmas a few years back. It has a lot neutral colors in it. It is used for more neutral looks which I like. I found that in the top row the fourth color in, they don't have names sorry but it's a tan color. Then you would just apply that on top of the eye primer. This is called baking and it helps to set the primer so it lasts longer and really does create a smooth surface to apply eye shadows on top of! That is basically all you do.

Baking with Under Eye Concealer:

To bake with under eye concealer all you do is apply your favorite concealer like you normally would under your eyes. I have to be careful because I have super sensitive eyes and to make sure no product leaks in my eyes I don't get too close like some people do with their concealers, but if you can and do that works too. I usually leave maybe a quarter of an inch space between my eye and the under eye concealer.
For example: I have used the IT Cosmetics Bye-bye under eye concealer and I have used the MAC Pro Longwear concealer in NW20 that is in the round black container. They are supposed to be waterproof, but I think I got too close to my eye and it leaked in or maybe it was the foundation. Let the concealer dry for about a minute or so. What you would do is find a powder or eye shadow that matches close to the concealer. I apply the concealer under my eyes without getting too close and then to bake it I either apply the Coastal Scents eye shadow the top first one matches my concealer color very well so I use that or I have a L'Oreal Mineral Makeup Finish powder that matches close to my skin color to apply on top of the concealer. It really does help it to stay in place.

Baking Foundation:

This is the most simplest one yet. Take a foundation of your choosing and apply all over the face. Give it a minute or so to dry and do it's think. Take a big fluffy brush and use a white powder or flesh colored power or a powder that matches your foundation and gently apply on top of the foundation on your face. This bakes the foundation to help it keep on your face longer and it may also help with keeping the foundation from breaking down, especially quicker. I will throw a warning out there that I have not tried to do this with non-lasting foundations so I don't know how well it works with those, but I do know that I have used this method with long-wearing/long last foundation and it works really well.
For example: I have used the L'Oreal Infallible 18 hour foundation and the MAC  with the L'Oreal Mineral Finish powder and it helped to keep my foundation from breaking down and it helped to make it last longer. Without baking I don't think it could go a full 18 hours on my face, but with baking it definitely gets closer. As long as it lasts up to 8 hours on my face without breaking down is pretty good in my book.

I hope this helps and let me know in the comments if you tried this with regular non-long wearing as well as long-wearing products to let everyone know how it worked and how how much longer it lasted when you baked and didn't bake. I'm sure it will help others and I know I am curious to know. Thanks =-)

Sincerely,
Marina