First dates can really set your nerves on edge. You want to make a great first impression. On the other hand, you may not even know if you’ll wind up liking the person you’re hanging out with. What if they hate cats, or hang the toilet paper backward, or eat pizza with a fork and knife? There’s so much going through your mind!
Then there’s the whole aspect of getting ready. What are you going to wear? How are you doing your makeup? What magnetic lashes should you wear? The way you present yourself is the first line of communication. A first date will always go better if you’re true to yourself. You’ll find out right away if the real you and the person you’re dating are compatible. Put your best foot forward— this one might be a winner.
Expressing Yourself Perfectly
Before a first date, you’re probably focused on looking hot. Or at least what you believe most people would consider to be hot. You should be focused on looking like you.
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Your goal should be to style the best possible version of yourself instead of copying someone else. If you’re trying really hard to convey the message that you’re someone you’re not, you’re already getting off on the wrong foot.
It’s also not sustainable. If the person you’re going out on a date with turns out to be your forever person, they’re going to know what you look like after you’ve had a horrible stomach virus. They’ll know what you look like when you’re stressed out at work. When you forget to shave your legs. When the chlorine from the pool tangles up and dries out your hair, and you emerge looking like the Loch Ness Monster.
The point is not to focus on a facade that won’t be sustainable in the long term. The best first date makeup highlights all of your features. It makes you look like the most radiant, healthy, gorgeous, glowing version of you. After all, that’s exactly who you want your soulmate to accept.
Put down the picture of whichever Hadid, Kardashian, or Jenner you had in mind. You’re perfect the way you are. You can take out your other makeup inspo later and play with new makeup concepts once you’ve gotten to know your date a little better. Let them fall for who you are first.
Where Are You Going?
In addition to highlighting your features, your makeup should also be appropriate for where you’re going. You won’t need to look red carpet ready if you’re having an unconventional first date.
If you both love animals and you’ve decided to volunteer at a shelter together, maybe save the heavy glam for a different date. If you’re going to a rooftop bar at night to listen to jazz and sip artisanal cocktails, taking out the curling iron and the champagne highlighter would be more appropriate.
What You’ll Need
This look can be dressed up or dressed down for any first date. It’s the key to being the most perfect, confident, glowing version of yourself. It uses staples that most people who frequently wear makeup will already have in their makeup bag or on their vanity. Your everyday favorites will play a strong role in developing the perfect first date look.
- Your favorite daytime or nighttime lipstick. It doesn’t matter what color it is, as long as it’s your favorite. If you’re comfortable in it, you’ll smile more. You’ll talk more. You’ll feel like you look beautiful. You’ll exude positive energy.
- A light to medium coverage foundation
- A light to medium coverage concealer
- Setting powder or setting spray
- Your everyday contour and highlight
- A neutral cheek color that looks like your natural blush
- Your everyday brow product
- A cool or warm-toned neutral quad of eyeshadows, depending on your personal preference
- A light lash like Classy Lash for the daytime or a casual date, or a bolder lash like Happy Lash for a nighttime or formal date
- Brown or charcoal eyeliner
- Mascara
Your Base
Apply your base makeup as normal. Using light to medium coverage will allow a little bit of your natural complexion to show through. It will also avoid the appearance of a cakey face.
If you have oily skin and it gets warm, you don’t want to worry about your foundation breaking up in the middle of a date, so make sure that you use setting powder or setting spray (or both). If you have dry skin, you might want to use a moisturizing foundation to keep your skin feeling comfortable and looking glowy for the duration of the date.
Keep your highlight and contour subtle— don’t beat your face like you might for Instagram photos or a professional shoot. There’s nothing wrong with expertly crafted razor-sharp contour and highlight— especially in bright photos. You want to consider the lighting conditions of your date. Chances are, you won’t be under any bright spotlights.
You might be in soft or ambient romantic lighting on a date, and the lighting will add shadows to your face. Think of the lighting in cozy bars, intimate restaurants, or quaint coffee shops. It’s usually not very bright. If you’ve already placed shadows on your face with heavy contouring, you might look a little strange in low light conditions where shadows would naturally appear. Most people don’t think to do their makeup for what they look like in the dark, but for a date, this is almost always what you want.
Well-groomed natural brows are always a hit. If you’ve plucked, trimmed, threaded, or waxed recently, your brows should be a breeze. Just focus on filling in and neatening up the shape with a pencil. If you don’t have much of a tail on your brow, you might want to gently pencil one in. If you have naturally full and thick brows, you can just leave them be.
The Eye Look
Then, take out your eyeshadow quad. This can be a premade quad or just a group of four shadows that you often use together. You want a neutral matte shade that’s close to your skin tone, a mid-tone shade that’s slightly deeper, a shimmer shade, and a darker matte shade. For warm tones, think creme brulee, golden bronze, and dark chocolate. For cool tones, think vanilla, cool slate, and pewter.
Lay down the neutral matte shade from lid to brow bone to act as a base, and take a matte mid-tone shade to add definition to the crease. Use the shimmery shade all over your lids— bronze or gold for a warm toned quad, and taupe or pewter for a cool-toned quad. Then, take the darkest matte shadow (usually chocolate brown or smoky charcoal) to add definition to the outer corner of the eye.
You can put some of the lid shade on the lower lash line and smudge it out towards the outer corner with your deep matte shadow. Then, use your eyeliner to define your lower lash line further. You can apply it to your waterline if you prefer. This helps to further define your eyes without giving you a harsh line of eyeliner on your waterline.
Lashes, Baby
Use a couple of coats of mascara on the top and bottom lashes. Then, apply a thin strip of your magnetic liner along your upper lash line. Pop on your magnetic lashes, and they’re all ready to go. Finish off with some setting spray.
Lips
It’s best to save your lips for last. If you have a favorite non-drying liquid lipstick, that would probably work out best. You probably don’t want to fuss with touch-ups throughout your whole date, and liquid lipstick is less likely to come off on a wine glass or a coffee cup.
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If your favorite lipstick is a traditional stick formula, try filling both lips in completely with a matching lip liner first. The lip liner has a little bit of a grab to it. It will help the lipstick stay on longer. When it wears away gradually, your lips will be almost the same color underneath. This will help your color last longer.
There’s also the option of lip stains or lipstick that also serves as a stain. You might not ever need to touch these products off. Instead, they’ll very slowly and subtly fade away over the course of many hours. You may be back home from your date before a lip stain is completely gone.
Express Yourself With Your Makeup
The best date makeup is everyday beautiful makeup. It shouldn’t take you too long to apply. It would only be a little more makeup than you wear to work, but not as much makeup as you’d wear to the club. Unless, of course, you’re going to a club.
We’re willing to accept that our tips might be completely wrong. Your version of you is what matters the most. While these are great general guidelines for someone who may not be sure what to throw together or has too many first-date jitters to be creative, that may not be the case for everyone.
If you’re happiest and you feel most like yourself in lime green eyeshadow and bright blue lipstick, you have to do you. Your happiness and authenticity are what matters above all else in love.
