Dark skin in all its glorious shades, is the emblem of people of African origin. Dark skin shades can range from chocolate, to bronze, olive and golden. We present to you a brief do-it-yourself makeup guide for Nigerian women, to apply flawless makeup at home. You can apply makeup on your dark skin without visiting makeup artists (as is commonly done in Nigeria), and it will appear beautiful.
Makeup is designed to enhance the finer features of your face, while concealing the imperfect ones. The makeup guide for Nigerian women below gives important tips for applying makeup to your eyebrows, eyelashes, eyelids, cheekbones, and lips.
Makeup should match the shape of your face (and eyes), your skin type, and the occasion. And the makeup must neither be uneven nor too loud.
Taking Care of Your Dark Skin
Even though there are quite a number of Nigerian ladies with lighter skin tones, you will meet ladies with dark skin more often than not. Dark skin can also have flaws, and definitely needs special care. It is essential to start by actually taking good care of your skin type, and knowing the shape of your face and eyes.
Keep your Face Well Moisturized
Before ever applying makeup on your face, ensure you clean and moisturize your face on a regular basis. That is the true origin of your facial beauty. You will live with your skin throughout life. So you need to nourish it so as to stay comfortable under your skin.
The degree of moisturization required will depend on your skin type. Choose the appropriate skin cream, lotion or moisturizer to ‘normalize’ your skin and reduce its flaws. Oily skin requires moisturizers that can reduce the oil (e.g. those with lemon extracts) and produce a ‘matting’ effect. Dry skin needs intense moisturizers to hydrate the skin. Normal skin just requires a simple moisturizer.
Choose a Good Foundation
It is important to start by applying foundation with brown or dark tones that match the color of your skin. Otherwise if you choose a seriously lighter foundation tone to that of your skin color, the make-up will look so artificial like a mask. Similarly, apply powder with matching tones to your skin.
To give some radiance to your skin color regardless of the weather, you can apply tones with reflective particles. You can also apply a corrector or sculptor with gold or coffee shade to enhance your cheekbones. Applying bronzer to the upper part of a high forehead can also make the skin to glow beautifully.
Makeup Guide for The Eyes
To highlight your eyes, apply lighter colors to the inner corners and middle of the eye, and just under your brows. Start with the lightest colors first, and then move outwards to apply darker shades. Eye makeup for Nigerian ladies should be bright (but not too loud anyway – respect your skin tone).
If you have eye bags, you can apply bright eye shadow to the crease; but conceal the eye bags with darker shades. To hide bruises under the eyes, apply a corrector, then a concealer, and finally apply crumbly powder to perfect it.
If you have long eyelashes, enhance their appearance by twisting them upwards while applying make-up (with a special device). You should do up to three times (at most). You can dust your eyelashes with powder before applying mascara. Learn to apply mascara starting with the upper eyelashes, and move from the center outwards.
As for your eyebrows – it is good to remove any excess hairs and keep them uniform. You can use an eyeliner pencil for your eyebrows, if you have dark skin. It does not need to be a single thick line – try using interrupting dashes to make it look more natural.
And have you ever used a Scotch Tape Eye stencil? This interesting tool can help you to achieve a bold, even and balanced look for both eyes (like “cat’s eyes”). It makes your face appear more sculpted, and with well-defined, neat lines and angles around your eyes.
Makeup Guide for the Lips
Your dark skin looks more radiant and appealing when contrasted with bold, bright-colored lipstick. Try out lively lipstick shades such as red, cherry, or plum. Better still, you can make your appearance more alluring with pearl or glittery lip gloss.
Glittering particles always give a magical, appealing effect to dark skin. The gloss gives a glassy, exotic look. A stunning combination.
But a note of caution there – don’t combine bright lipstick with bright eye make-up. Either you brighten your eyes, or your lips – that is just adequate. Not both at once.
To make your lipstick last much longer, try the following trick. Put a layer of tissue over your lips, and apply powder over the tissue. It will give a matte look that preserves the lipstick.
