Backstage at New York Fashion Week, makeup artists got inventive with their use of beauty products. Here, the best hacks we learned to get the most of your makeup. 

 

Concealer As Lipstick 

At 3.1 Phillip Lim, makeup artist Francelle Daly used NARS Soft Matte Complete Concealer as a lipstick.  “The look is inspired by a travelling nomad, a wanderer—it’s minimal no-makeup makeup,” she explained. To make it look modern, only matte-textured products were used. “Because there is no shimmer in the concealer, it really highlights the lips in a nice monochromatic way,” said Daly. Using an eyeshadow brush, they feathered it onto moisturized lips. (Applying it directly would be too intense of a look.) Use a shade two shades darker than the one you would use on your face. For deeper skin tones, try one shade lighter. 

 

Mascara As Eyeliner 

Also seen at 3.1 Phillip Lim: applying mascara with a brush. Daly dipped an eyeliner brush onto the wand of NARS Climax Mascara, “kissed” the root of the lashes with it, then dragged about halfway up the lash. “It’s a defined lash without being too cosmetic or mascara-y,” said Daly. “If you have short eyelashes, it’s much easier to use a brush rather than a wand to get into the nooks and crannies of the lashes because sometimes the wand deposits too much colour.” 
 

Lip Balm As Highlighter

Maybelline makeup artist Grace Lee is a fan of using the brand’s Baby Lips Lip Balm on places other than the lips. At Jonathan Simkhai, she mixed Maybelline Strobing Sticks with Baby Lips and applied on cheekbones and the bridge of the nose for a “beautiful” highlight with the “right amount of shine and dewiness.” One place to avoid highlighting: the tip of the nose. It’s an unnatural place to add light, said Lee. “No one naturally has a shiny tip of their nose,” she explained. 

 

Highlighter As Lip Enhancement 

At Brandon Maxwell’s Texan-beauty-inspired show, makeup artist Tom Pecheux said he applied highlighter around the lips—which were lined with M.A.C Cosmetics Lip Pencil in Whirl and topped with Baby B Lipglass—to create the illusion that they were fuller. 

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