Make-up Tips – Advice on how to get a Professional Look

Dressing for success is so much more than simply choosing an outfit that looks fresh, casual and yet professional. As I’ve come to learn from the Fashion for Business event created by Biz magazine, your professional image should not be underestimated, especially if you’re planning to advance in your career and achieve your goals.

The thought and care you put into your image as a career woman should not be limited to the outfits you choose for your business meetings, but should reflect in every aspect that ties together the whole ensemble.

A challenge many young women face nowadays is choosing a professional casual makeup, hairstyle and outfit that don’t overpower their look and let their skills and talent shine. When it comes to your place of work, less is more in terms of makeup. However, no makeup is as bad as too much makeup, as this reflects to your clients, investors and customers that your professional life casts a shadow over your personal one, that you don’t care too much about yourself to properly groom and take care of your image.

A woman’s professional appearance needs to support her professional accomplishments, which is why looking competent and confident is incredibly important. I for one, can’t imagine doing that without makeup and studies show that women who wear makeup at work are more likely to get promoted.

But before you get ahead of yourself and announce that you’re buying tonight, let me first give you some tips on how to achieve a professional, casual business makeup.

Business Make-up Looks

Groom your eyebrows and prep your skin – as per usual, makeup looks much better when your skin is healthy and clear. Keep a skin-care routine fitted to your needs, make appointments to see your cosmetician once a month and keep your eyebrows groomed and styled at all times.

Use professional makeup products – not only are these better for your skin, but they also wear better and help you maintain your look perfect for the entire day.

Keep it simple – you have to be able to do your makeup each morning, before you go to work, in about 10-15 minutes.

Keep it natural – less is more when it comes to a business makeup, therefore try to emphasize your natural features rather than distract everyone you talk to with an accent feature.

Choose a color scheme that compliments your features – the best color options for an office makeup are not the color trends of each year, but rather a range of neutral tones and complimentary shades, that make your eyes and hair color stand out.

The best eye shadow shades are beige, champagne, golden rose, vanilla, taupe, brown, camel, peach, plum, gray, chocolate, cooper, bronze or charcoal. 

Choose warm tones for the office – the fluorescent lighting in most office buildings is cool (bluish white). Because this tends to bring out pallor in the skin tone, you need to use makeup to your advantage to counteract sallow undertones and brighten the complexion.

Thus, regardless of your skin tone, choose warm tones for your eye shadows – golden beige, vanilla, peach, plum, chocolate browns, rather than blue, gray, greens, pink or purple shades. This applies to both lipstick and blush, so choose carefully!

Carry blotting tissues for touch ups – after lunchtime, I recommend stripping your skin of excess oils by blotting some touch ups tissues rather than powdering and caking your face. You can find some at MAC, Sephora or MUFE.

The most important aspect of your office makeup should be a flawless complexion, that stays perfect all day, regardless of bad weather or hot days. With that in mind, my strongest advice for a business casual makeup is that you pay attention to your complexion.

By choosing a good foundation according to your skin type, you can cut down on touch ups between meetings or in the office elevators and focus on the task at hand.

Make sure you apply a face primer before your foundation, and always blend the later below your jaw line to make the transition invisible to the naked eye.

Next, get rid of the dark circles under your eyes, that make you look like you haven’t slept all week. These send out the message that you are too tired to focus on your job or that you don’t have an organized life. To avoid any misconceptions, please invest in a quality under-eye concealer. If you have any skin issues at the moment, like blemishes or acne, you should try to conceal these spots as well. Stress and bad eating habits are contributing factors to these issues.

After your face is a perfect canvas, apply a sheer dusting of loose powder to set your makeup and make it last all day. Matte is always more appropriate for the office than a dewy complexion. A touch of peach toned blush and you already look more competent, fresh and ready for action.