Our Top PRO MUA Tips With NIKKI LA ROSE.

Hey friends, I'm here with Niki. Hi, yay! As you guys know, I'm a pro makeup artist, Niki's a pro makeup artist, so we thought it'd be fun to share our top pro makeup artist tips. So this is exciting. I can't wait to exchange our pro tips, and I feel like between the two of us, we have a ton of pro tips, so maybe we'll keep it limited to a couple of our favorite ones for this video. Yeah, just a few of our top favorites. Yeah. Just a few of our top. Yeah. Let's start with eyes. I have a couple eye tips that I really wanna do. One of the first tips I really wanna share that I love and I utilize all the time, both professionally and on myself, for longevity. This is gonna be for tight lining. So when you tight line your eyes, especially inside on the top waterline, do you get that problem where your eyeliner runs? I do, yes. I get that problem where it runs, it doesn't stay. It'll either run to the bottom or it'll fade throughout the day. Yeah, there's a really easy way. It's a little intimidating, I'm gonna warn you. It's a little intimidating. You're gonna set your eyeliner with a little bit of like-minded shadow. So this is a dark brown pencil. This is from Too Faced. This is the shade Espresso. I haven't tried these. I'm excited to try this. I love the dark brown over black for me personally. I feel like you just get the same intensity, but it's a little softer. Yeah, it's more wearable, it's a little more daytime. Save the black for at night unless it's your style. But yeah, I agree, I love a dark brown. I have so many dark brown pencils, oh my gosh. Look down with your eyes open, but you're gonna look down like you're looking towards your phone. That's like the perfect angle that you wanna be at. So then don't be afraid. I'm gonna get up close and personal. I'm gonna take this pencil. I'm going to first warm it up. This is very crucial too. Oh, definitely. You never know how, if like a pencil has dried out, so it's good to warm it up on either tissue. It makes it easier to apply too, right? Because if it's dry, you're gonna have to like go in there and tug, and that's gonna cause more irritation. Yeah, and then your eyes are watering before you even get your eyeliner on. So warmed up, we're gonna go straight in. Looking down, I'm gonna gently touch the top lash line. So you do this on your clients. I've gotten even some of the- You're good at this. This is not, like I'm usually the worst model because- Are you really? I am, yeah. You're fooling me. And so you go from all the way to the outer corner, and do you go all the way to the inner corner, or do you? It depends. So I know which clients and which people I can kind of get away with going all the way across with, and I know which ones I can only get halfway, and if it's just halfway, it's good enough. I will take it. So rather than causing too much irritation, are you feeling okay? No, I feel great. Okay, well, and that's what I love about this technique is that, because I've always said like, I try and really avoid putting liner in the inner corner of my eye on my lid because that space is so small that if I'm a little too thick with my liner, it just makes my eyes look smaller. But with this technique, even if I go to the inner corner, it's not taking up that real estate on my eyelid. Exactly. Oh, yeah, and you can actually tell the difference. Yeah, it's subtle, but it's impactful too. Very, yeah, and it's one of those steps where you think, okay, do I need to take the time to do this? Take the time because, honestly, it really does make a big difference in a very subtle, non-makeupy way. I feel like those little subtle tweaks and taking that little extra time is what makes the difference from like an amazing makeup application and like a good application. Absolutely, it's those little things you add up and the bigger picture is so impactful, right? Making sure you have a good prepped pencil that glides on without needing to like tug back and forth and irritate your eye. So our eyes are delicate. We have to be very delicate and soft with them. This is one of my favorite tools. So you're gonna take an angle brush, preferably an N11 from my Nicki La Rose brush set with BK Beauty. So the width of the brush is a lot longer than like a typical angle brush. So you're able to get in there and get the job done in half the time because you're stamping on a big area of the product. The longer you're in an area of the eye, the more irritation and sensitivity you can cause because you're there for long periods of time. So you want to kind of get in quick, get it done. I was really excited when you developed this brush and I saw like your concept for this. I was like, this is what we need. Yeah, I'm taking this brush. I'm gonna dip into the Makeup By Mario Master Match Palette, this dark deep brown right here. It's a very like-minded color. It looks pretty much identical to the Too Faced pencil that we just applied. So this is perfect. They're a match made in heaven. So this is where you really want to make sure you, of course, tap off any excess product because the last thing you want to do is deposit loose shadow into your client or Lisa's eyes. So I'm gonna tap off the excess and then we're gonna have you, same thing, same eye position. You're gonna look down like you're looking at your phone. And then we're gonna just stamp this very delicately on top of that pencil. So taking this, I'm gonna gently hold your eye. It's kind of like, like I always think about setting liner with powder, kind of similar to why we set foundation with powder. It's 100%. A couple of things, right? It locks the product into place so that it lasts longer and it keeps it from moving around. It's the same idea. Anything liquid or cream that you put on your face, you want to lock it in with some kind of powder, like a light-minded powder, because it just keeps on longer. So that's the beauty of it. Switching the angle so the pointed side or the longer side of the brush is facing the inner part of Lisa's eye. And you're being really, really gentle. Yeah. And I'm basically, I'm not rubbing back and forth. That's the last thing you want to do. I am just going in and stamping. That's it. So that's gonna lock that into place. It's gonna set it. You know, you have to remember, when you're tight lining, you're putting in an area of your eye that's wet. So the chances of it running are so likely. They're almost for sure going to happen. Even with a waterproof pencil, they still likely will run a little bit. So let's just gonna lock it in, keep it on all day. I feel like when I cover the eye, like you can really just see how rich the lash line is. You don't even really notice that makeup is there, right? You don't notice that it looks very natural. But then when I compare it to the eye that doesn't have it on it, you can see like the impact that that made versus how my eyes naturally are. It's great for someone who doesn't want like a heavy liner look, but wants that definition and wants their eyes to still pop. So love this technique. Okay, so moving on to another part of the eye. This is gonna be no more tight lining. We're done with the inside of the eye. We're gonna focus on the outer edges of Lisa's eye. So I have a favorite technique that I've used again for years on my clients. And it's a way to naturally widen the overall look of the eye without being super intense. So what I like to do is, of course, we've all highlighted the tear duct of our eyes. It's a very common thing. It's nothing new, but the placement is unique that I like to do. Yeah, absolutely key to elongating your eyes and really open up the shape and just making them look bigger. So I'm gonna start with a light shade and I'm gonna grab my N12 brush, my Nickel Rose N12 brush. It's one of my favorite too. I love that brush. And you'll find so many uses. So many ways. You'll find so endless uses for this little brush. It's like a little powerhouse. So I'm gonna take this brush. I'm gonna dip into, again, another color from the Master Mattes palette from Makeup By Moira. I'm gonna dip into this lightest shade right here. So instead of going right where it's obvious right here, I like to place it along almost like the side. Oh, wow, yeah. You can feel the placement, right? Along the side of the bridge of her nose. So it's gonna look a little funky at first. I feel like this is gonna create more of a lid space for me. Absolutely, it's gonna give you, we're kind of cheating a little bit. We're cheating the eye. It's gonna look a little bit funny at first. Trust the process. Blend it in. This brush is nice and small, but it's also flat and it has some stiffness to it. So it really gives you precision when you're applying these products in smaller areas of the eye. Like the tear duct is a really small, complicated area of the eye where it can be difficult to get into that area, especially if you have more hooded eyes, if you have really deep set eyes. So this brush is gonna help you get right in there and blend it. We're given the optical illusion that she's got a wider eye than she actually does. So of course you can just do it above your tear duct, but this really just gives you that bigger, more open eye, like fresh-eyed effect, which I love. So I'm gonna go immediately over that with a shimmer. So I like to just do a touch of shimmer, depending on the look that I'm going for, but I like to layer both. I like to layer a matte first and then go on top with a little hint of shimmer. Not bad. Just for that little contrast. Yeah. It's subtle. They're all subtle, but it just adds that little bit of extra something, something. So I'm gonna go in with the Surratt palette. You built this one, right? I did. I built that one. This is really pretty. I like those because the shimmer's very soft. It's like, I call them a sheen. Like I'm always striving to find the perfect sheen, right? It's not quite a shimmer, it's not a frost. Yeah. It's just a sheen. This is pretty, so I think I'll dip into this one. Same brush. I always like really refined shimmers. Yeah. And especially as I get older, I just can't wear the heavier, frosty shadows. Yeah, it's all personal preference. So same technique, but I am gonna place this one on her actual tear duct. This texture really looks like natural light hitting the face. It looks like you're kind of like a lit from within. It doesn't necessarily look like makeup is placed there. No, it doesn't at all. It's actually very subtle and just, yeah, it's beautiful. So maybe look up just a touch. When I used to work for MAC, one of the senior artists, this technique was a little different, but like highlighting the inner corner, they called it instant celebrity. Oh, I love that. It's just like instant celebrity makeup. That is so true. That always stuck with me. That's very red carpet too. Yeah. It's like a very red carpet technique. And just while we're here, because I can't help myself, I'm gonna take whatever is left over. Whatever is left over on my brush is actually the right amount that I like to see for a brow bone highlight, which is a great way to just utilize the excess amount of shadow that's on the brush. This brush is absolutely perfect for placing a subtle or whatever you want, whatever style you wanna go for. But I like to do a subtle brow highlight, so I'm gonna take whatever's remaining. And just tuck this. I love this for a brow highlight because I like to bring my crease color a little higher. I always like to have like a halo of color above my crease, right, to lift my eye. So my space for a brow highlight is limited. This brush is perfect for that space. Yeah. That's just a little subtle. So when you hit the light and you get your angles, depending on where the light is coming, you can get that little subtle brow bone highlight, right? It's perfect. You can also use it for concealer. I've used it for concealer under the brow. Oh my gosh. Like they're more natural. I use it all the time to clean up my brows. So I'm gonna do one more little technique, and that is taking a deeper shadow. I'm gonna use a matte one. I'm just gonna use a dark brown from the Master Mattes palette and now switching to the N13 brush. This is a blending brush. Can't live without a blending brush. I have multiples. I cannot do anything without a blending brush. This is a classic blending brush. It is more tapered, so you can really get in there and get into the crease and blend into more hard-to-reach areas of the eye. So I'm gonna take this, but I'm not gonna use this in the crease. I'm actually gonna use this in the very, very outer corner of where Lisa's top lash line and bottom lash line meet. So this little world right here, where the two worlds connect right here is where I'm gonna place a little bit of a deeper dark brown shadow in a matte formula to pull the rest of her eye out. So taking my N13, I'm gonna dip into this one right here. I'm excited about this. Even as a makeup artist, and I know I'll tweak the way that I do makeup for different people, but on myself, I do makeup on myself the same all the time. That's why I like to get my makeup done for certain things, because I want to look a little different, yeah. Everyone has a different eye. It's such a learning experience to see what someone's gonna pick up on or envision for your face that you might not see. So it's always really fun. I'm actually gonna have you look straight ahead. So looking straight ahead, so I can really see where the top and bottom lash line meet up. I'm gonna pop this right here, but I'm not gonna go back and forth. I'm just tapping it. So it's really simple. What I love about this brush too is like, it's got that rounded tapered tip to really blend, but it's also, it picks up product. It does a great job of picking up product and blending product out. The product pickup is excellent with this brush. So I'm just gonna actually take a little bit more. I like to do almost all my eye makeup looks with eye level. Like I want to be at eye level. So whether I'm staying down or I'm staying up, I want to make sure I'm looking straight ahead because it just really helps you to visualize where the placement is going as you're doing it. So there's no guessing. It takes the guesswork out of it. So it's simple, but super impactful. So don't be intimidated by it. It's like an easy little placement technique that really makes a big impact on your eye shape and just the overall like look of your eye. It just gives you an instant, wider, more open eye look. I love makeup. Me too. I could play with makeup all day long. I know. Like how cool that you can, you know, apply products in certain ways and kind of slightly alter features a little bit. It's really cool. That's what got me into makeup in the first place. I just couldn't get over the fact that I could pick up a mascara and all of a sudden my eyes would look bigger and more open and, you know, and get an eyeliner and all of a sudden my eyes were defined. I was obsessed with it. So I've got a blush tip that I love to do when I want my blush to like have this natural glow, but I also want it to stay in place all day long. I'm a big fan of cream blush. Like I love cream blush. Obsessed. But I also live in Texas, so it's hot. And sometimes, you know, products will melt or migrate or move off the face. I'm going to show you how I like to set cream blush so that it lasts all day, but you still get that glowy, soft, like satin finish to the skin. I'm going to be using the Westman and Thalier blush stick in the shade Petal. It's one of my favorites. One of my personal favorites. I love that shade. I love this. I definitely think this product is worth a splurge. Oh yeah. So I'm going to go in with the new N17, one of your brushes. I love this brush, by the way. Me too. It's one of my favorites. Same. And I'm going to show you how you can actually use this for cream and powder products. One of the benefits of it being dual sided is you can use it for cream and powder. So I like to use this side for the cream products. And when I'm doing cream blush, I actually like to go to the products with the brush. Is that how you apply it? Yeah, same. Versus going to the skin with it. I just feel like I'm able to really build lighter layers and I have a little bit more control over the application. That's so true. You have way more control. So I just got a little bit on the lighter side fibers. And I like to kind of press and then swipe down, but pull the brush up. So basically what I'm doing is I'm blending out, but I'm also migrating up a little bit to give the cheek a little bit of a lift. But I also like to apply blush. I know the whole trend right now is like high blush and further back. I love to see blush though when I look in the mirror. I like to see it. No, I love it both ways. I think blush is beautiful no matter what. Okay, so now we've got the cream blush applied. You can see that really pretty glow. This product doesn't have any pearlescence or shimmer to it. She's getting that glow from the texture of this. And I don't want to lose that glow. So next I'm going to go in with a powder blush. So I'm using MAC Mineralize Blush in the shade Warm Soul. This is one of my favorites too. I mean, personal favorite for years. I actually love it. Did you work for MAC when they launched these? I did too. Yes, I remember it every day. I have these like sentimental feelings about products that launched when I used to work there. Oh, same. And this is one of them. So this has a bit of a sheen to it. So it's like pearlescence, it's shimmery, but it's very, very light shimmer. It's a very refined shimmer. I'm going to go in with the other side of the N17. And I'm basically going to lightly sweep this on top of that cream blush. Just kind of set that cream product in place. Whenever you put a powder on top of a cream or a liquid, it's going to set it and lock it in. But I did want to pick a product that had a slight pearlescent to it. If I were to go in with a matte blush, it would really mattify and we'd lose that glow. So it's real important to choose a product, a powder product that's going to keep that glow that you're going for. That's a really good tip. Yeah. So you still have that pretty glow, that nice shade. The shades coordinate well together. They do. They actually, they work perfect together. It's kind of locked in. One of the things I love most about this brush is the dual-sided fibers, because it gives you a lot of flexibility. And the products that you can use with it and the way you can use it. For this technique, we use the lighter fibers for the cream blush product, and we use the darker fibers for the powder product. So it's really great. One, you don't need two brushes. And you don't also, if you have one brush, you don't have to worry about cleaning it in between uses. The lighter fibers are actually going to do a really great job of picking up a little bit more product. The darker fibers are going to do a really great job of applying product a little more natural and a little bit lighter. So you can use that technique when you're thinking about, for example, like a highlighter. I love a really soft highlight. But sometimes I stay away from highlighters that are really heavy, because I'll apply it and it's too much. So in that case, I would use the darker fibers for that product. That's actually a great thing to point out, for sure. But if I were using a highlighter that was really subtle and I wanted to pick up more, I would use the lighter fibers to get that. I love that. That looks beautiful. It is pretty. And it's my last all day. You have a very soft touch. I do. I didn't even feel that. You do too. Are you putting blush on me? It's so soft. I love it. When I heard the expression, I'm going to beat that face, I'm like, oh, that sounds terrible. I know, I know, it was so big too. Yeah, I'm not going to beat your face. I'm just going to do a little whisper. Well, since we're talking about highlighter, let me show you. I'm going to go in with the Fenty Beauty pillow-watt highlighter. So it's got two sides. We're going to go with the lighter side. Love it. We're going to go in with the darker fibers first, and I'm just going to lightly pick up. And I like to apply highlighter on the high planes of the face, kind of where the light would naturally hit the skin. And I have a really soft touch. I always like to build in really little layers. I always tell people, I do wear a lot of makeup, but I don't want to feel or look like I have a lot of makeup on. I love that. Yeah, so now we just have a soft little natural kind of highlight. When you turn, you can see that when the light hits it. On the other side, let's do the same product, but we're going to flip it and we're going to use the side that picks up more product. I'm going to apply that. I think I did it twice, two applications. So let's compare apples to apples here. We get more of like a gleam from here. I feel like that highlights more intense. It's kind of beaming a little more. We use the same product. The only difference is the brush that we use and the fibers that we use. So brushes really have an impact on the overall finish. They really do. That's such a good thing to point out. You can get such a different look with the same product, just with a different brush and a different tool. So one of the questions I get asked a lot, you probably do too, is like, how to color correct? You know, if you have really dark circles and sometimes, unfortunately, concealer doesn't do the trick alone. No. Right? If you have really dark under eyes, what you need to do is neutralize and cancel out that darkness and you need to do it with a color corrector. So I'm going to show you how you can use a color corrector and a concealer in one step. So I'm going to use a concealer that's closer to Nikki's skin tone. And then I'm going to use a concealer that has a lot of peach in it. And I'm just going to use a very minimal amount of this product. This concealer actually has really great coverage. And I find that the consistency is a little thicker. Like it blends out really well, but I find that it's a little thicker. So I'm just going to do two dots of the peach and then I'm going to go in, I'm going to apply two dots of her concealer color. So instead of going in with the peach color corrector first and then going with your concealer, it's kind of saving you that step. I'm going to go in with the N16 concealer brush and I love this brush because you can actually use it and get full coverage from your concealer. You can get really natural sheer concealer. Like how I get full coverage, it's more dense at the base and flat. So I'll find like, what I'll first do is I'll kind of spread the product real softly underneath the eye, just so that I don't have to use a whole lot of product, but I still get coverage in the area that I need it. Once I've kind of spread it, then I'll use the side of the brush and I'll gently kind of press it into the skin. This technique is really going to help you get the most out of the product that you have, get the most coverage out of the product you have. Pressing is going to get the most coverage. Once I've got the coverage that I want, what I'll do next is I'll take the tip of this brush. The tip of this brush has slightly longer fibers that are a little softer and flexible. I'll use that tip of that brush to gently, I'm doing really, really light pressure here, to gently just kind of blend and sheer out so there's no harsh lines on where this concealer ends. I can also use the tip to sweep under her lash line and conceal that little area. A lot of us tend to have darkness at the lash line. It almost kind of looks like veins or like a deeper undertone. I have a lot of that. Yeah, so I'm just doing this to kind of really conceal that little area. Oh, wow. Perfect. Yeah. So much better. Yeah. I mean, you do, you can really tell the difference there. And I didn't have to use a lot of product. That's the beauty about using a color corrector is that you can use less concealer. The trick is using half the concealer that you would. Color correctors are a game changer. They're something I can't live without. And they don't have to be intimidating. No, that was a really approachable way to color correct is just using that peach tone in a regular concealer formula and not having to go grab an actual color corrector that could be like a little intimidating because they're vibrant colors. Yes, right. How do you use it? Right. It's a little, it could be a little intimidating. So that's a really great, like approachable way to color correct. So while we're talking about concealer, another question I get all the time, and I'm definitely struggling with this as I get older, is how do you keep your concealer looking natural throughout the day? Like it looks pretty when you first apply it, but then four or five hours later, it can accentuate texture. The skin under our eyes tends to be thinner. It's also the first place we start to show signs of aging, like fine lines, texture. And concealer is a heavy product, so it can magnify that. I always recommend applying a serum underneath the eye. So you can use like a hyaluronic acid serum that you put on your face, or you can use a product that's specifically for under the eye area. The key is that it's very lightweight. So this one is Pixi Botanical Collagen Eye Serum. I haven't tried that. It's really good. I like to keep mine in my skincare fridge, actually. It feels good in the morning. That's another pro tip. Yeah. I just do a little light layer. Even if I've already applied my eye cream, like let's say you apply your skincare in the morning, and then 30, 45 minutes of time passes, you have your coffee, and then you go sit down to do your makeup, rehydrate under the eye. Even if you put eye cream on 45 minutes ago, put this on just before concealer. Don't put a whole lot on. Just put enough so that you kind of get the skin to be hydrated and a little tacky. You can use your finger just to press it in. And then you go in and apply your concealer. That feels so nice. Doesn't it feel good? Yeah, it's like a drink of water. Yeah, it is. That area can get really dry. So for concealer, I'm gonna go in with the House Labs Concealer. And I'm gonna just put a little bit in the inner corner, a little tiny dot there, and a little bit in the outer corner. I'm gonna be going in with the N16 Concealer Brush again. I just love this brush. This brush has a nice tapered tip. It's more pointed. You were really particular about the tip of this brush, which I loved. Yeah, that was really important. Yeah, because it gets right here in the inner corner so well. So I'll use the tip to kind of build coverage right there in that inner corner. And then I'm gonna use the tip and kind of sweep the product that I applied in the middle and the outer corner together. And then once I've kind of got it all under her eye, I'll gently press to just build coverage. So switching the motion. Yeah. The key is getting the most coverage from the smallest amount of product that you can. If you go in with too much concealer, that's another reason why it can look cakey or heavy throughout the day. This looks very skin-like. I love this concealer. It just feels so nice going on top of that serum. It also helps the spreadability of the product. So if the product is able to spread and move on the skin more easily with less resistance, it's gonna look more natural. I actually literally feel wide awake with that serum. It's a really nice drink of water for my eyes. Yeah, it almost gives a little bit of a glow. That's a great tip. Plumps up the skin. So it minimizes the appearance of fine lines, texture. Yeah, that's a great tip. So that was so much fun. I am so happy I got to be here. That was a blast. So much fun. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. If you guys enjoyed this video, be sure and check out this video where I share more pro makeup artist tips. As always, thank you guys so much for watching and have a beautiful day.