How To… Look Your Best In Pictures

I’m going to bust a myth right now – everyone can be photogenic. A lot of looking your best in a photo comes down to lighting, angles, and letting your true self shine through. While the last part is totally up to you, here are a few tips and tricks to show off your best sides in every picture.

Embrace makeup primers

Makeup primers may seem a little excessive for the day to day, but for bigger events when pictures are a necessity a primer is a full proof way to keep your makeup in place.

Primers help to avoid smudging, and keep oil production at a minimum. Urban Decay makes an eye potion primer that is a cult classic, and if you feel that a face primer is too heavy, just apply your facial moisturizer and let it set for five minutes before applying foundation.

Keep your skin matte

Oil is the arch nemesis of profile picture-worthy photos. As someone with skin that has oily tendencies after a long day, the most full-proof ways I have found to keep my skin matte and natural looking is to use oil blotting pads or apply a little matte translucent powder, Laura Mercier makes a great one.

If you need a quick fix and are near a bathroom, the wax paper toilet seat covers that some restrooms offer are great! Just take one, tear out a small square, and dab your T zone. It’s a trick I swear by, and great if you need a quick fix and are unprepared!

Take pictures outside as much as you can

Natural light is an easy way to promote your best features. Photographers like to arrange shoots for when weather is slightly overcast or mildly sunny, as rays don’t overpower the camera. Any natural light will do, let the sun do the work for you!

If it’s a really sunny day, make sure to stand with the sun facing you instead of behind you. Though it might make you squinty for a few seconds, if you stood with the sun behind you it would make you appear in a shadow in the photo.

Use powder with yellow pigments

Disclaimer: as long as yellow pigments don’t clash with the pigments in your skin. But for the most part, yellow tones can be very complimentary. Foundation powders with yellow pigments also look much more natural than shimmery powders. Shimmery or heavily translucent powders can give you a washed out look or make you look shiny in pictures because light will reflect off of them.

Highlight your best features

I believe that you always look your best when you’re the most you, in your most natural and confident state. So highlight your best features that make you feel your best – curl your eyelashes, use a little highlighting gloss on your lips, or toss your hair around until it’s messy and just go with it. I’m not kidding, that’s my favorite part of photographs.

But in all seriousness, the real trick is just knowing what works best for you. If you have great eyebrows and want to show them off, use a little highlighter under your arches. For showing off plumper lips, use a lipliner that matches the natural shade of your lips, giving a nude but fuller look. If you’re all about your legs, lotion with a little shimmer or a few drops of baby oil goes a long way.