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It’s one thing when you didn’t rest and you’re trying to look awake in the morning. But it’s another thing when you actually did rest but your face does not show. The good thing is makeup helps with both! Whether it’s dark circles, under-eye bags, or puffy eyes that make you look tired, there are things you can do to wake up tired-looking eyes with a little help from makeup so you can fake a good night’s sleep.
But before anything else, make sure you do your skincare routine. Because dry, dehydrated, and dull skin will always make you look tired. And to prep your eyes for makeup and help wake up tired eyes, you can include a Jade roller.
I start Jade rolling my under-eye area right after I wash my face and this really helps reduce puffy under-eyes. I keep it in the fridge for the cooling effect and trust me, this is going to make all the difference in your look.
You can also try under-eye patches to plump up tired eyes or use a refreshing face mist all over your face. Now that this is out of the way, here’s how to look more awake and wake up tired eyes with makeup!
How To Look More Awake With Makeup
1. Apply Eye Cream
Your eye cream is going to prep your undereye area for makeup and the application will help with puffiness as well. Get a little bit of product and use your ring fingers to dab the eye cream under the eyes and gently massage it and bring it to the upper eye area right below the brow bones.
2. Brush Up Your Brows
Brush your eyebrows up to give your eyes a lifted appearance, which is the easiest way to look more awake. Use a spoolie brush and go upward and outward several times to achieve full, fluffy brows. After brushing, you can fill them in using an eyebrow pencil in a color similar to your eyebrows.
3. Color Correct Dark Circles
If you have dark circles or prominent discolorations under the eyes, consider color correcting first. For the eye area, you need a peach-toned color corrector if you have pale skin tones or medium skin tones, and an orange-toned color if you have darker skin tones.
You get only a tiny amount and apply it only on the darker areas under the eyes and press it in to neutralize dark circles. Here’s a quick tip if you don’t have a color corrector and need to get resourceful. Try lipsticks in red or orange colors as they can substitute as color correctors.
4. Grab The Concealer
Concealer is a must if you want to look more awake with makeup! So it’s time to layer. Use your concealer for under-eye coverage. The trick is to focus only on the eye area and not get carried away by dragging the concealer down to the cheeks.
Apply one full dot of concealer on the inner eyes and one full dot on the outer corners. Use a damp beauty blender and slowly blend without moving too much outward to the temples. Apply the concealer as close to the lashes as possible on the outer corners.
This will cancel out discolorations that make the eyes look droopy. Don’t apply the concealer all over the eyelid but do apply a little right below the brow bone. Too much concealer above the eyes can make you look very pale. By the way, check out our tips on different ways to use concealer if you’re going for foundation-free makeup.
5. Use an Under-Eye Brightener
You can try using an under-eye brightener on top of your full-coverage concealer or mix the two as I do. Under-eye brighteners don’t provide a lot of coverage but they’re a lot more illuminating than concealers. So by mixing the two or layering them on top of each other, you get both coverage and bright eyes.
6. Apply Brightening Powder
If you’re going for a long-lasting look, bake the under eyes with an illuminating powder. This is to leave the eye area looking a little bright but also keep the concealer in place. Press the powder into the under eyes using a sponge and do this immediately after applying concealer. While you do your eye makeup, leave the powder there. And once everything is done, brush the powder away.
7. Use Beige Makeup To Brighten Up Your Eyes
For eyeshadow, use beige or champagne shades with a hint of pink as they’re amazing for waking up tired-looking eyes by giving the illusion of wider, bigger eyes. You can try one-and-done eyeshadows or cream eyeshadows and even eyeshadow pens as they’re easier to use and apply even if you’re a beginner.
8. Apply Brown Pencil
Deep, dark shades like black, and dark brown look amazing but darker shades tend to ‘close’ and ‘narrow’ your look. Black eyeliners don’t necessarily help with fresh, youthful-looking eyes. Instead, try an eye pencil with a light brown shade to define the eyes and apply it close to the upper lash line.
9. Use Nude Eye Pencil To Open Up Eyes
A nude eye pencil with pink undertones or even a white pencil opens up your eyes as light shades create the illusion of space. Use a nude eye pencil on the lower waterline to create this effect and instantly freshen up your eyes.
10. Highlight The Inner Corners
This is the easiest and fastest way to wake up tired-looking eyes. Use a highlighter, or an illuminating pen to highlight the inner corners of the eyes. Apply a little amount on the inner corners of the eyes and a little bit on the brow bone to instantly wake up tired eyes.
11. Curl Your Lashes
Curl your lashes. Curled lashes give the illusion of wider eyes and make you look fresh. Curling helps with the mascara application and enhances your own lashes. You can do this even if you don’t wear mascara.
12. Wake Up Tired Eyes with Mascara
A good mascara is the cherry on top. But if you still feel that your eyes are puffy, avoid layering too much mascara because I’m telling you, it will feel heavy and your eyes will get watery later on and ruin your makeup. But if not, go nuts and layer mascara by applying several coats.
Even let it clump a little. If you have small eyes, focus on the outer lashes to give the illusion of wider eyes. If you have big eyes, focus on the middle lashes and do several coats on there to lift up the eyes.
13. Erase Any Mistakes
Once your makeup is done, use a cotton swab and dampen it with micellar water. Press the cotton swab on any spots and fallouts to erase any eye makeup mistakes and clean everything up without running your makeup.
14. Finish Your Makeup
Your eyes make up only half of your face. So the rest of your makeup does have an effect on how fresh you’re going to look. Either do this step at the beginning of your eye makeup or at the end. But make sure you get a nice base makeup and don’t settle for a flat, dull-looking foundation.
Try glow lotions, illuminating moisturizers, and illuminating primers. You can also try multi-tasking base products like skin tints, CC creams, and tinted moisturizers to bring radiance to the skin.
So these are some of the best makeup tips and tricks to wake up tired eyes and look more awake, especially when you’re tired. Don’t forget the importance of skincare and include a good eye cream as it helps a lot!
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