You want to look your best every day — youthful, energetic, and alert. You take strides toward looking your best with a good diet, adequate hydration, enough sleep, and an exercise routine that keeps you healthy and young. When you need extra help looking fresh, your makeup bag has everything you need. Let’s look at 10 makeup tricks to help you look bright and fresh every day.

10 Makeup Tricks

Build Up Your Brows

Full, arched brows accent the eye and make it look lifted. Use a brow pencil that is a shade lighter than your eyebrow, or try filling in eyebrows with powder for a subtle and natural enhancement. Blend everything in with a spoolie brush to give your brows the most natural look.

Shrink Baggage

Wake up with puffy eyes after a poor night’s sleep? There’s an easy fix for that. Forget about the old cucumber slices on the eyes trick. Simply pop a couple of spoons into the freezer while your coffee is brewing and you’re eating breakfast, and place the cold spoons over your eyes to reduce puffiness around the eyes. Don’t forget to moisturize the area after you’re finished to prime your eyes for makeup.

Grab Your Eyelash Curler

Curled lashes will help open up your eyes, making them look wide and alert. They’ll also help your lashes stand out when you apply mascara.  Bonus Tip: heat up the eyelash curler for a few seconds with a hair dryer for a longer-lasting curl. If you desire a more classic look, think about using a lash lift starter kit. However, if you’re looking for a more classic look, using classic natural lash extensions can help you achieve it. These extensions add length, thickness and volume to your lashes, making them look thicker and more voluminous.

Use Bright Eyeshadow

Dark colors can be too severe, shrinking the eye and making it look tired. Stick to brighter pinks, nudes, and whites to help brighten up the eye and keep you looking fresh. Blend a white shade into the inner corners of the eye and along the eyebrow for even more lift and brightness.

Moisturize, Moisturize, Moisturize

This sounds like a no-brainer, but people skip this step all too often. Dry skin looks tight and tired, so to keep your skin looking fresh you must keep it moisturized. When your skin is still damp from showering or cleansing, it is most receptive to moisture. Apply your moisturizer just after you wash your face. Don’t stop with moisturizer before makeup, either — using cream, gel, and liquid makeups rather than powders will also add moisture to your face and keep it fresh and looking young.

Use A Sponge

Applying foundation with a sponge is gentler on the skin and keeps your makeup from looking cakey. Dampen the sponge under the faucet and squeeze out the excess water. Then pick up foundation from back of your hand with the sponge and dab it over your face, giving you even coverage.

Don’t Forget Primer

Foundation and eyeshadow primer keeps makeup from settling into fine lines and wrinkles, making you look aged. Look for a primer that contains brighteners to bring a fresh look to your face. It will also keep your makeup in place all day.

Highlight and Shimmer

A dab of highlight or shimmer in the right places brings light to the face, making you look bright and radiant. You don’t have to be an expert in contouring to make shimmer work for you. Just a bit on your cheekbones, brow bone, and forehead will do the trick. You can also place a dab on the inner corners of your eyes to brighten them up.

Try White or Nude Eyeliner

Black eyeliner on your lower lid tends to close up the eye and make it look harsh. Try a nude or white liner on the lower lid instead to open up the eye and bring life to the face. Bonus tip: Nude liner hides redness better.

Apply Concealer After Foundation

If you apply your foundation ahead of concealer, it’s easier to judge how much concealer you need once the foundation goes on. This will help prevent piling on too much makeup and making your face look too heavily made up. Be sure to blend the concealer into the foundation with your sponge to even out your complexion.

Let’s face it, everyone needs a little help looking their best sometimes. Whether you find yourself tired and stressed or feeling great, these makeup tricks will keep you looking well and refreshed all day long.