Visiting the beauty store and buying top brand make up is all very well, but that doesn't mean you're optimizing your make up collection so it saves time, money, the health of your skin and makes you look your best, too. The secrets of great eye make up can start with something as simple as what face wash you're using, so here are five steps to making sure your peepers look their very best.

1. As we've already mentioned, having a good cleanser, toner and moisturizer are paramount for good skin health and eye beauty. There's actually little need for face wash, unless you suffer from a specific skin condition that requires a prescription wash. If not, then simply rinse your face with lukewarm water (too cold or too hot will shock the pores into producing lots of oil, or not enough so it becomes dry) and then use a cleanser that's right for your skin on cotton pads until you are removing no more dirt. Find an equally suitable toner and pat this onto your skin using clean fingertips. Finish with a soothing moisturizer that is, again, designed for your skin type. If you suffer from dry or puffy eyes try a colloidal oatmeal moisturizer as this reduces inflammation.

2. The next step is to have your eyebrows and eyelashes tinted, if you feel they are too dark or too pale for your complexion. Doing this optimizes your eye make up because it reduces the risk of Kohl, eyeliner and eyebrow pencil smudging and looking messy. Tinted eyelashes won't clump as they do with mascara and you can simply curl them and not have to worry about doing anything else. To make them appear thicker simply apply a thin coating of Vaseline, which also helps them grow stronger and longer.

3. Always remove your make up before bed. Keep cotton pads and your cleanser or a gentle eye make up remover next to your bed or your toothbrush so you don't forget. Not wearing mascara will make it ten times easier to remove make up as there's simply not as much there any more. Reapply a thicker layer of Vaseline to eyelashes, eyebrows and lips before bed to keep them moisturized throughout the night as this is when they grow the most and need the most nutrients.

4. Tip four is buy yourself a good set of make up brushes. Try to have two flocked sponges (brushes with small sponges on the end) for pale colors that are both matte and glittery. Use this for the base color and then an angled brush sweeping inwards from the outside of the eye for darker colors. Have a larger and soft brush for blending eye colors together (not the same one that you use for face powder) and an eyebrow brush.

5. Our final tip for optimizing your eye make up is to either take lessons, buy books or watch tutorial videos on YouTube of how best to apply make up. It's quite a specific art that doesn't always come naturally to everyone. Most of us need a few pointers on simple things like from which side of the eye to start sweeping from and which brush to use for which job.

Stan Tian

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