Nikki's Make-up Tips

Broadcasting vs Pictures/Videos

When you're a camgirl, it's crucial to ensure that your makeup is done right. The way you do your makeup on a day-to-day basis may not work for camming or photos. For example, do your makeup as you would for a day out shopping, then take a picture of it with your digital camera and another photo with your webcam. Compare the photos from your camera and webcam with what you see in the mirror. Notice the differences? You need to base your makeup on what you're using to present yourself. Just heading out to shop? Use the mirror. About to broadcast? Use your webcam. The same applies to whatever you use to take photos and videos; take some snapshots and adjust your makeup as needed. This applies even to the lightest of makeup. You might feel like you have on full-coverage foundation and your eyebrows look great according to the mirror, but once the lights are on and you snap a few pics, the images could say otherwise. Your eyebrows might appear washed out, and the lighting might reveal a little patch of blackheads! (This has happened to me, and I was very frustrated.) No one wants to spend time photoshopping what could be fixed with makeup (at least I don't!).

Nikki's Kit of Essentials

There are a handful of things I've learned that I absolutely need, whether it's for broadcasting or for photos and videos! Here's my little essential makeup kit:

• Primer: This is obvious enough! Keeps your makeup from running with all those hot lights on!
• Foundation or BB Cream: Everything needs a good foundation. A house without one...it wouldn't end well. Be sure to match the color to your collarbones or neck! If you want to really amp up your look, get a foundation 1 or 2 shades lighter and 1 or 2 shades darker for highlighting and contouring. A concealer palette also works for this!
• Powder: It can be skintone or translucent. I actually just use baby powder! This sets the foundation.
• Brow Pencil/Powder: It may not be useful in your day-to-day makeup, but lighting can really wash out your brows, so fill them in! (Mine are actually fake, in case none of you have noticed. ;p)
• Palettes: Invest in some palettes. There are palettes for eyeshadow, blush, and concealers. BH Cosmetics has some great, inexpensive palettes. This way, you have a variety of colors to suit whatever look you're going for, and as mentioned earlier, concealer palettes are great for contouring and highlighting!
• Eyeliners: On Amazon and eBay, you can find multiple colored eyeliners for very cheap, but they still work well. Also, invest in some liquid eyeliner; felt tip is a great option for those who have trouble with it!
• Mascara: Did this really need saying?
• False Eyelashes: Even super natural-looking ones can really bring out your eyes more. If you're like me, you like your boobs big and your lashes bigger! You can check out your local drugstore or order huge packages of them online. Make sure you practice putting them on, and invest in a good glue! DUO is a great glue brand. Also, try experimenting with lower false eyelashes to get super big eyes.
• Lip color: There is a HUGE variety in products you can put on your lips. Lip tar, lipsticks, lip gloss...experiment and find what you like! Lime Crime has a cool lip gloss that looks like a matte velvet when applied, very sexy!
• Proper Tools: Stock up on brushes and different tools for makeup. I recommend getting beauty blenders (knock-offs, not name brand) and one or two sets of brushes. I currently use a 12-brush set from Amazon, the 32-brush set from BH Cosmetics, and beauty blender knock-offs I got as a set of 4 from Amazon. Learn how to use them with a little bit of Googling! Eyelash curlers are always awesome as well!
• Liquid Makeup Remover: This is a great tool for when you make a tiny mistake on your eyeliner. Dip a Q-tip in the liquid and gently fix it! That way, you aren't removing ALL of the work you just did.

Why You Should Learn to Contour and Highlight

As most of us know, lighting can really wash out our face. That's why contouring and highlighting can really come in handy. It can make lips appear fuller (or less full!), your nose appear thinner (or wider!), or amp up your cheekbones. Done right, it can improve the way you look on cam and in pictures, and you can even use it to make your features look bigger and better! It may seem overwhelming at first, but it's quite simple. You just need to follow the natural lines of your face. For your cheekbones, suck in your cheeks, and starting at the very edge of your face, place your darker color. For your nose, follow your eyebrows straight down and go around the tip of your nose to connect the sides. There are many tutorials for this, and there are different techniques for different faces! I honestly recommend watching drag queens do their contouring. While it seems very, very dramatic, you can tone down and develop from their techniques. That's what I have done! They also use contouring and highlighting to fake cleavage, which we can do to ours to make it better!

Nikki's Tricks

To get a perfect line of shadow and liner is to use tape! Place a piece of tape at the corner of your eye and set it down at the angle you want to achieve. Put on your shadow and eyeliner, then remove the tape! You can also use a little bit of shadow to blend it, but a hard line also looks very sexy! Use black eyeliner as a dramatic liner for dark lips. I use a black liner with dark reds and purples. Draw the line on carefully, then apply your lipstick. Blend them together with your finger, then add another light coat of lipstick. Voila! Speaking of lips, use concealer as a lip base. The color looks more vivid, as well as lasts longer. Top it with some translucent powder for heavy staying power! To get my "big doll eyes" look, I use circle lenses, as well as creating a fake lower lash line. I bring my eyeshadow and eyeliner about 3mm under my actual lash line.

Finally: EXPERIMENT & PRACTICE!

I can't emphasize this enough. Experiment with colors and techniques to see what you like and what works! As they always say, practice makes perfect. Even if you aren't going to do anything in particular, take some time to perfect your blush application or your brow filling!