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Even (fake) Ke$ha has to deal with post-party complexion woes after a fun night out. But don’t let the fear of a hangover face put you off partying – for anyone who’s ever had to deal with the shame of swollen under eyes and sallow skin, here are five easy hacks to keep you looking fresh and fierce after a night of sin. And just in time for TGIF too.
 
1. BB/CC Cream (vs. Foundation)

We recommend: SK-II Auractivator CC, $109, available at SK-II counters
First things first, moisturise. Funny how a whole night of liquids and drinking still leaves you dehydrated, huh. Toss your usual full coverage foundation and opt for a lighter BB or CC cream instead – your focus should be injecting moisture back into your dehydrated skin; thick foundation will only look cakey and further dry out your skin.
 
2. Red Lipstick Under Your Eyes
 
We recommend: L’Oreal Paris Color Riche Star Collection Lipstick in Blake Lively’s Pure Scarleto CSR6, $21, available at Watsons and Guardian
Are you crazy, you yell, my eyes are red and puffy enough as they are! Trust us when we say this hack is more fact than makeup magic, because “priming” your under eyes with red lipstick before concealer actually helps get rid of pesky dark circles. It all comes down to colour correcting – neutralising the greenish tones of your under eyes with red reduces the darkness, and makes for a lighter, smoother base palette to layer your concealer over. Word of caution, though, that lipstick is often formulated to be rougher than what’s appropriate for your delicate under eye area, so try not to use this on a regular basis! Also, it unfortunately does nothing for eyebags – sleep does.
 
3. Mattify Alcohol Spots

We recommend: NUDESTIX Concealer Pencil, $34, available at Sephora
The key here is to stay matte – as if that weren’t already a daily challenge. When concealing your alcohol-induced breakouts, steer away from liquid concealer, which will only make your spots more dewey and draw attention to them. Instead, try a stick or pencil concealer that instantly reduces shine of your pimples. If you want something a little more moisturising, give cream concealer a shot, but don’t be too heavy-handed with your coverage.
 
4. Nude/White Eyeliner For Your Waterline
  
We recommend:  Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes Inner Rim Brightener in Nude, $28, or Marc Jacobs Beauty Fineliner Ultra-Skinny Gel Eye Crayon in (Big) Eyes, $35, available at Sephora
Ah, the classic ‘Make your eyes look bigger’ hack. Fortunately, this handy trick of tightlining your waterline with nude or white eyeliner helps to reduce redness from your eyes as well. The eyeliner creates the illusion of extending your eye whites to give you larger, more awake looking eyes. Just be careful not to poke yourself in the eye and worsen the redness.
 
5. Coral Blush
 
We recommend: M.A.C. Year Of The Monkey Powder Blush in Modern Mandarin, $39, available at all M.A.C stores and counters
The beauty of basic colour correction steps in to save our sallow hungover skin again! If the BB/CC cream doesn’t provide sufficient coverage for your sickly looking complexion (damn you, alcohol), a coral blush over your regular pink blush will take care of that. The orangey tones in coral blushes help negate the greenish-grey undertones in your skin, so you can walk out of the house looking like you didn’t just step off the set of The Walking Dead.
Here’s to living young, wild, and free!
 
Featured image from Barely Productions YouTube

Building your collection of makeup brushes doesn’t have to break the bank. While it’s the makeup artist brands such as M.A.C and shu uemura that we’d still turn to for the widest range of brushes and top-quality hairs, we’ve also learnt along the way that the lower-priced brands can do the job pretty well, too. Here are the options that can help save you quite a few dollars – so you can spend more on makeup, of course.
 
LANEIGE

We got real excited when Laneige launched these late last year, especially because the brand said they were designed for Asian women (i.e. smaller eye brushes to apply eyeshadow more precisely, for example). The range of 15 brushes feature mostly face and eye brushes, with a few duo-fibre options for a better finish.
From $12 for a concealer brush to $36 for a duo-fibre face brush, available at LANEIGE boutiques.
 
ZOEVA

This set might be named the Rose Golden Luxury Set Volume 2, but when it goes for under $130 for three face brushes and five eye brushes, all dressed up in a reflective rose gold, it’s closer to being a steal. And you get a nice pouch to store it all to boot. We’re particularly keen on the large buffing brush, a wonderfully soft and fluffy way to get your powder to go on flawlessly.
$121.99, available on sephora.sg.
 
Sephora

Sephora has always had a mind-boggling range of makeup brushes that cater to every inch of your face, but this set of latest additions manages to seriously impress us with how affordable they are, despite being the kind of brushes that are usually used by the pros. There’s the Airbrush Blender Brush to give high-definition coverage, and the Contour Kabuki Brush that works for bronzers, illuminators and foundations and helps sculpt the face.
From $24 for a Brow Definition Set to $50 for a Pro Airbrush Blender Brush, available at Sephora from 31 March 2016.
 
Ecotools

 
Here are brushes for a good cause: Ecotools makes their brushes using recycled aluminium and renewable bamboo, all cruelty-free. And.. they’re actually good (we’ve seen many a glowing review online). What we also like is that they can be easily found in the drugstores, and amassing a whole collection of face and eye staples is gentle on the wallet.
From $6.90 for an Eyeliner Brush to $30.85 for a 6-piece Brush Set, available at Watsons and Guardian.
 
Real Techniques

When it comes to affordable, quality brushes, Real Techniques is probably the brand that comes to mind. You can get an entire starter set for the face or eyes at under $50, and it’s true that the brushes come pretty close to their more expensive, professional-level counterparts: the hairs are delightfully soft, and they blend smoothly enough.
From $15 for a Fine Liner Brush to $45 for a Duo-Fibre Collection, available at Watsons and Guardian.
 

When it comes to contouring, it can get real crazy. Case in point:

Makeup is the most amazing thing in the world !! Love this by @belladelune #clowncontouring #makeup #tutorial #fashion #dollface #highlighting #bronzing #muah #smile #instmood #ilovemyfollowers #lovewhatyoudo

A video posted by Imagestudios (@worthyofwomen.videos) on Feb 6, 2016 at 7:35am PST

This is  known as “clown contouring”, first started by beauty vlogger BellaDeLune (the one in the above Instagram video). She might have first put this out there to get back against her haters who called her a clown because of the makeup she wore, but it soon took Instagram by storm – people actually began to put on this crazy amount of makeup on their faces, to achieve a Kim Kardashian-level contour.
It might all have started from Kim K, but contouring became a serious trend in the past couple of years, and we couldn’t seem to get away with scrolling past a contouring selfie on Instagram, or a video tutorial on YouTube. But contouring might get kind of crazy on the Internet – it’s just not practical to put that much makeup on your face each time you want to add some extra definition to your facial contours – but we like to take these posts as just a little occasional inspiration for picking up our oft-neglected bronzer and highlighter.
Don’t be scared off by these clown contouring examples, though. We promise it doesn’t have to be a requisite skill to working some contouring into your daily makeup routine. Whether you’re a complete newbie, taking your first tentative step into the world of bronzers and highlighters, or one of these Instagram experts who already has clown contouring down pat, we have product recommendations for all skill levels. Time to make those cheekbones pop, girl.
 
Skill level: So what’s the difference between bronzer and highlighter? #clueless 
 
NYX Sculpt & Highlight Face Duo
$20, Sephora
Simple: The sculpting shade is the darker one, and you highlight with the lighter one. And they’ve already matched both shades for you, so you just have to choose from one of the three combinations based on your skin tone. Just swipe the respective colours on with the doe foot applicator, and use fingers to blend.
 

NUDESTIX Sculpting Pencil
$34, Sephora
If you prefer a less liquid formula, NUDESTIX’s double-ended contouring pencils are also pretty foolproof. These pencils still go on creamy, and have a matte finish – just draw onto the face, then use your fingers to smudge.
 
Skill level: I’m no Kim K, but I know my way around a contouring brush… mostly.
 
 

M.A.C Zac Posen Powder Blush (Duo) and 168 Large Angle Contour Brush
$52 and $69, M.A.C Sephora ION, Ngee Ann City, Robinsons the Heeren and TANGS at Tang Plaza from February 25
The darker shade of the blush duo is a matte natural brown that you can brush under the cheekbones and the jawline; after, the pearlised pink coral can go on the cheeks. Use an angled brush like this one to achieve a natural finish.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate in SS16
$108, Tom Ford counters
This limited edition shade features a shading colour called “Lavish Pink”, with pink undertones to add some extra luminescence to the skin. The formula is super sheer, so you need to know how to layer it if you want more obvious definition; but put it on the right spots, and your skin will catch the light in all the correct places.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Skill level: Please, I can do a whole clown contouring tutorial.
 

MAKE UP FOR EVER Pro Sculpting Palette
$80, Sephora
This one is definitely professional level – you’ll need to know what you’re doing to navigate the four shades here. There’s one for highlighting, one for contouring, one for shimmer and one for colour – MAKE UP FOR EVER recommends using their #106 and #408 brushes.
 
 

Tarte Tarteist Contour Palette
$69, Sephora from 3 March
Okay, this palette takes it up a notch – six colours which the brand promises will make you lose “5 pounds in 5 minutes”. It helps that the shades are numbered, plus there’s a visual guide included to teach you how to use it. Still, we wouldn’t recommend using this unless you’re sure about where you’re putting all these colours, because it sure requires some skilful blending.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Main image: Hood By Air Spring/Summer 2016, courtesy M.A.C.
 
 
 
 

No, we didn’t actually manage to get our hands on the Lip Kits (sigh), but to make up for the little hole in our heart we put together a handy list of dupes instead – so you can get the same look of Kylie’s luscious lips, without having to bid $1000 on eBay.

Candy K

Dupe: Anastasia Beverly Hills Liquid Lipstick in Pure Hollywood

   
Undoubtedly the Kylie of all the lip kits, this pale nude pink with brown undertones leans closest to Kylie’s signature nude brown. We recommend the Anastasia Beverly Hills Liquid Lipstick in Pure Hollywood – the pale mauve nude is a dead ringer for Kylie’s MLBB look.
 

Dolce K

Dupe: Colourpop Ultra Matte Lipstick in Beeper

   
Unfortunately, LA-based Colourpop only ships to the U.S., although that hasn’t stopped fans here in Singapore from sourcing them off eBay or Carousell (us included). Tried and tested, the Ultra Matte dries in an almost identical finish to the couture-esque perfect pout, and Beeper wins critics’ consensus for Dolce K’s dusty rose brown dupe. If you manage to get your hands on one, good on you.
 

True Brown K

Dupe: Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipstick in Dominatrix

      
This rich chocolatey brown is another Kylie classic – but King of liquid lipsticks Jeffree Star reigned first with Dominatrix, a dark chocolate brown with maroon tones matching those of True Brown K. YouTubers and beauty blogs alike swear by it, and so do we.
 

Posie K

Dupes: Milani Liquid Lipstick in Lust / NYX Soft Matte Lip Crème in Prague

 
  
The first of Kylie’s exclusive Valentine’s Day collection, Posie K swatches in a beautiful magenta pink, but turns almost neon on the lips. Jenner/Kardashian magic? Probably. Either way, it made for a tough call between hordes of plummy liquid lipsticks out on the market that are just as pretty. In the end, we narrowed it down to Milani’s Lust and all-time favourite NYX’s soft matte lip creme in Prague. The former leans to a more wearable, everyday mauve; Prague adds a little excitement with the pop of vibrancy – Posie K unfortunately sits smugly in the middle.
 

Koko K

Dupe: OFRA Cosmetics Long Lasting Liquid Lipstick in Laguna Beach

Koko K is one of those nudes that bears a frustrating resemblance to every other nude on the market, yet proves you wrong when swatched alongside shades you were positive could pass as dupes. At first glance it’ll even look similar to Candy K – though more obviously pink. Luckily, we unearthed an almost perfect dupe in OFRA’s Laguna.
 

Mary Jo K

Dupe: NYX Liquid Suede in Kitten Heels

Ah, the classic red – how could Kylie’s lip kits not include one? Mary Jo K, named after Kylie’s grandmother, is a bright blue red with a hint of fuchsia. Every lipstick junkie will know that not all reds were created equal; we’d love to add this baby to our own collection of reds (all different, we swear), but since we can’t, we’ll be adding NYX’s Liquid Suede instead. And at almost 1/4 the price too.
 
Featured image from instagram.com/kyliejenner