8 Flawless Makeup Tricks to Help You Look Less Tired

Home Beauty Face and Body Care

Freelance makeup artist and ‘Reader’s Digest’ photo editor Emma Kapotes demonstrates how to fake well-rested skin for those days when your face gives away how few Z’s you got last night.

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Step 1: Start with a clean slate

This is especially important if you went to bed without washing your face last night and remnants of yesterday’s makeup are sticking around. A gentle cleanser is ideal, says Rich Campbell, who’s worked as a makeup artist for 25 years for brands like Origins, Dior, and Chanel, and is the director of education at Dermaflash. Follow up with your regular daily moisturizer. Here we used Aveeno’s Ultra-Calming Daily Moisturizer. Hydrated skin perks you up because it naturally makes skin look more glow-y and vibrant. These are the morning habits of people with great skin.

Ali Blumenthal/Rd.com

Step 2: Smooth on tinted moisturizer

“I like a natural look for summer,” says Campbell, who recommends grabbing a tinted moisturizer with a built-in SPF 30. (Note: if your regular moisturizer already has an SPF 30, it’s not necessary for the tinted moisturizer to have it as well. The key is that one of these provides sun protection.) “These blend in nicely and even your skin tone, leaving skin looking sun kissed,” he says. “In summer, a little illumination is a nice touch,” he says. We combined two different tinted products to give our model Taylor the perfect match for her skin tone: Benefit Cosmetics The Big Easy Liquid to Powder SPF Foundation in Light and bareMinerals Complexion Rescue Tinted Hydrating Gel Cream in Vanilla.