Everyday Makeup vs. Video Makeup

Hey there, Paula Rizzo here, and I'm joined by a good friend of mine who I can't wait for you to meet. Her name is Eryn Halpern, and we worked together for years and years and years at Fox News Channel, and she was a makeup artist there and many other places throughout her career. And she helped not only to get, you know, all of the guests that I would bring in as a producer, help them to get ready, but also she helped me as well. She's helped to do my makeup in the past, both for personal and professional stuff and working with my clients now that I'm a media trainer as well. So thank you so much for joining me, Wren. You are gonna give us a couple of tidbits and tips and tricks on how to do our own makeup if we're at home recording videos, because now everybody is doing a video call at some point, so everybody wants to look their best. So tell me, what is the difference between makeup you would do for yourself for every day and then makeup if you're gonna be on camera? What should we be doing differently?

I think for starters, thank you for having me here. And for starters, I would say that, you know, the eyes are very important, so you need to frame your eyes. Definitely you need an eyeliner and mascara. Those are, you know, two important products to have. Underneath your eyes, you need a concealer. Concealer can be stretched out, you know. You want to first of all match your skin tone. It's a myth to use it a little lighter, but if you are going to use one product You only get a concealer that matches your skin. You can use it around the nose, around the mouth, anywhere if you have blemishes, and it gives you a bit of a more of a finished look. And definitely a lip color, could be a lip gloss, could be a lipstick or a sheer, you know, lipstick. All of these products will give you a little bit of a polished look, and you need to add a little bit more than you do every day. Let's say every day you just wear mascara, you run out of the house, you definitely need an eyeliner to frame your eyes.

Ah, okay, so framing. So this is something that I recently learned because you taught me. We did a little virtual class yesterday so that you could teach me to do my makeup just like this. This is not usually how I do my makeup, but this is Irene's teaching. And one of the things that I learned was that I needed to put liner underneath my bottom eye, and I never do that. But you're right, it makes such It makes such a big difference. It really makes your eyes pop even better.

Absolutely, because the eyeliner is what frames your eyes. So you do a line on the top, which is more, you know, sharper. And then you do a very light liner on the bottom. If it's too thick, just take a Q-tip, clean it up a little bit, make it thinner. If you are afraid, take a little tip of a Q-tip, go into your darkest shadow, and just push it into your bottom lashes, clean up, and you're all set to go. You're all framed.

So, okay, so we want definitely mascara, we definitely want eyeliner, and then the lip. Those are, if we had to just do the bare minimum, those are the three, right?

Yes, if you want to do bare minimum. If you want to do a little bit more, concealer is definitely a good idea. Everybody should have a little bit of a concealer. You never know, you could have not gotten enough sleep you've had a bad night, you want to be able to cover those dark circles. Also, another thing about concealer is you can use it right here on your eyelid. You can block the color of your eyes because sometimes people have a darker lid. When you put the eyeshadow on, if you are wearing shadows, is not going to look nice and clean. So you want to block that color and then start with your eyeshadow nice and, you know, fresh.

Yeah, this was a game changer for me. I didn't know that that's what you were doing when you were doing my makeup all these years. And so when you just showed me, I was like, oh, okay, I'll just start by putting all that concealer on the eyelids first. And it really changed the game. It makes the colors look so much better. It looks like what they're supposed to look like because you've blocked out whatever, I guess, pigment you have that's already existing on your eyelids. So that's— if anybody's going to do one thing, just put some concealer on your eyelids before you put on any eyeshadow because it really, really makes a big difference. What about colors? What should people be thinking about in terms of colors? I mean, I've had a lot of, through the years, had my makeup done and that kind of stuff. So I kind of know what colors work best for me. But what if there are people who are like, I don't know where to start, what should I be doing? What should I have at a bare minimum for, let's say, eyeshadow?

I would say go with 3 colors. One in the lighter shade, one in a medium light, and a darker shade. You can always blend them. Important thing also is if you have good tools. Just splurge on yourself. Get a flat brush. Get a brush that you can use in the crease and blend the eyeshadows. It's hard to blend it with your fingers. You could use Q-tips if you are a pro. If not, you can practice with a Q-tip. But I would say, I will show you a few palettes that I would think people can use. Let's say you are super light-skinned. You need to have at least 2 colors. This is a third, but I would go with a third color that is even darker. If you can buy neutral tones. Neutral tones basically work for everybody. These are the neutrals, are, you know, these colors, and these are the medium tones. And you can— one, if you want to go a little bit darker with these shades, so you can always go into these colors. If you're not a pro, have a tissue handy and just rub it on a tissue a little bit. You take the pigment off, and then you can start very lightly instead of going very dark.

Mm, got it. What about matching your makeup to the outfit that you're wearing? How do you feel about that?

I think the trends are changing all the time depending what you do. If you're talking, let's say, doing a serious commentary on politics, you don't want to see the person wearing purple, light purples, greens. Those are distracting. You want to stay with the muted colors. So the muted colors are the browns, the grays. Even if you wear purples, go with the deeper tones or softer tones. Nothing with too much of a pigment. They're very distracting. But I think I don't like the too much matchy-matchy. I think the eyes should be soft. The lipstick could be matchy to your shirt, but you wanna stay still on the softer tone. You don't wanna have too much block of a color. It's very distracting. Mm-hmm.

And what about lipstick? So, you know, I like lip gloss, but I know that you like a good liner. I don't always do the liner, but what do you think as far as colors and glosses versus matte?

I think they all work depending on the preference. Some people are just not makeup people, so they don't wanna wear lipstick. But if you are a lipstick person, By all means, put on a nice color that matches your top. You know, it brightens you up, especially on camera. We lose, you know, we lose a lot. So if you are especially on video, so a little bit brightness like what you're wearing today is perfect. I love that color. If it's a gloss, it's a gorgeous color. So, you know, wear something bright.

Let's talk a little bit about hair because that's another thing. You know, a lot of times when we're doing these videos, you're just seeing the front of our head. So it doesn't matter what the back looks like so much. So what are some tips and tricks about hair.

The crown back here is important. Smooth that out. Take a look at yourself before you go on camera. See if you look presentable. You may have flyaways. Take a little hairspray, spray it on your hand, and just, you know, groom yourself. If, let's say, you're in between colors, you can't get to a hairdresser, there are products in the business that you can use. I have used it actually today talking to you. Something like this. It's a stylist. And you just go in the color, you push it in the corner here, and then boom, your grays are gone.

What is that one called? What is that one called?

This one called Style Edit. I bought it on Amazon. Some of the hairdressers that I was working with, they were using it all the time. I was like, oh, that's great, I should have it for myself and in my kit. So I have it. Other products are X-Fusion. We use this on men and women. Let's say you have a lot of gray going on here, You take the color, it comes in different colors. You just shake it on the top and you get rid of the gray and boom, you have nice presentable hair.

Amazing. What about giving yourself some volume? I said to you the other day, I'm like, I don't even know how to use my curling iron. I wish I knew how to use it, but I don't know what I'm doing. And you were like, don't even worry about it because you have another option.

Yes. You can just blow out your hair as well as you can. If you want to give a little bit body, These are the girl's best friend. Ah. They're very easy to work. You can take a piece of your hair. If you want volume, you're gonna hold it up, wrap it in the curler, just turn it like this, spray it with a hairspray, wait 5 minutes, and then just hold the end of it and just take it out, and you get a nice, you know, body, and, you know, the ends will look good. And you'll be all set to go.

Yeah, it's such a smart and easy thing. And when you said it to me, I was like, "Of course!" Then I'm thinking like back at our days at Fox, all the anchors had those Velcro rollers in their hair all the time, right? Like in the makeup chair, they'd have it, or they'd be in the newsroom, you'd see them with one big thing before they went on camera. So it brought me back to our days in the newsroom, which is so fun.

Absolutely.

What about wardrobe? You know, I know a lot of times people will ask me, you know, "What should I wear? What looks best? What should I—" You know, I always tell people to wear jewel tones, and not to wear anything too distracting, anything that's a pattern or anything like that. What do you think?

I agree with you 100%. I think jewel tones, colors are really great for women and for men, the ties that are not too much design in them. We used to have an expression on camera, it goes moiré. Yes. Means it gets fuzzy. Most people don't understand what is moiré. So it gets fuzzy and it's distracting. So stay simple. Simple is better. And also it comes down to jewelry. I would go very simple with the jewelry. You don't want to have clunky earrings. You don't want to have clunky necklaces on. Those are all distracting. People can, you know, they're too busy. Oh, where did she get that necklace? What are those earrings she's wearing? They can't listen to the content. So I would say stay simple. Simple is the best. Awesome.

This has been so amazing. Thank you, Arren, so much. And I'm excited to show you how I do on camera with my new look now. Thank you for my tutorials. My pleasure.

It's nice to be here with you.