Good skin doesn’t need to be covered. It needs a plan. That was the whole point of Katie’s session — and the thing most makeup tutorials skip.
In the spring of 2024, Katie was coming off a junior season at Drake University that made her the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year and a finalist for the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award. More wins meant more banquets, more photo shoots, more cameras. Her routine hadn’t caught up. “Tinted moisturizer and put blush on and mascara, and that’s like it,” she told Jordan, then a StyldLife makeup artist based in Florida. “I see trends on TikTok or wherever on social media and I just have no idea what they’re even talking about.” What she wanted was simple: “I just need a makeup routine that I can follow.”
Starting with what was already working
Jordan’s first move was to take things off the table. “When I work with clients in person, if I already see that their skin is great, I don’t want to hide it,” she said. “I just kind of tweak some things here and there to let the skin shine while elevating the look.”
From there she worked on her own face, kit in hand, so Katie could watch every step up close. The everyday look started with color theory. A sheer dot of green corrector from L.A. Girl — “something I get at Walgreens or CVS” — cancels out redness. A peach corrector handles under-eye shadows, patted in with the ring finger, “because it’s your weakest finger — you’re not pushing too much.” Next came a light, moisture-rich base, the CoverGirl Simply Ageless Skin Perfector Essence, which Jordan called “tinted moisturizer on steroids,” then a Maybelline Eraser concealer in Katie’s actual shade, tapped onto spots only. No two-shades-lighter trick for every day. And for skin that runs dry, Jordan had one quick rule for trying anything new: put a little on the inside of your wrist first.
Then came definition without drama: a dark brown pencil from NYX instead of black, smudged along the upper lash line with a fingertip. A Rare Beauty liquid blush was tapped from just under the pupil up toward the temple, with a whisper across the nose for a sun-kissed look. The lashes got a curler and a tubing mascara, which wears all day without smudging and still comes off with cleanser and water. Katie’s reaction to the lash-curler trick, clamping at the base and again at the tips, was immediate: “Oh, okay. I never knew that.” The lips got a dab of Charlotte Tilbury’s Pillow Talk, and the whole look was set with spray misted at a 45-degree angle.
Turning it up for the camera
The second half was the version for photo days and events. Jordan explained why camera makeup feels like too much in the mirror: “In the moment, you feel like you’re putting on more. You’re like, I kind of look like a clown. But once the flash hits you, the flash naturally washes some of that out.”
So the base got fuller. She used a Danessa Myricks foundation, thinned with a little moisturizer and buffed on with a blush brush “for more of an airbrush effect.” It went out to the ears and down the neck, a step Jordan says even red-carpet faces sometimes miss. The liner turned into a small, soft wing, set with brown shadow and sharpened with a folded makeup wipe. Powder went on only after the last liquid product. A lip pencil went underneath so the color lasts.
Then came the part Katie had been waiting for. “I’ve always wanted to wear false lashes, but I just have no idea how,” she admitted. Jordan’s fix is to cut one strip in half for an easy demi-lash, do a little “lash yoga” to bend the band, tilt your chin up so your lid comes down to meet it, and line it up with the outer corner. “When I learned about looking down and sliding it on,” Jordan said, “that was a game changer.”
A routine she can own
The whole thing happened on one video call, with Jordan in Florida and Katie in Des Moines. Watching a professional work on her own face, in real time, gave Katie something a saved TikTok never could: the order, the amounts, and the why. “Once you explain it,” Katie said, “it’s a lot easier to follow.”
Jordan’s parting advice was the real takeaway. “There’s no rules,” she said. Practice, keep what works, and start with whatever you want people to notice most, so the rest of the look can support it. “Think about what the statement is,” she told Katie, “and reverse engineer from there.”
Ready for a routine that works on your face, on camera and off? Book a Virtual Makeup Session →
This story reflects a real, paid StyldLife client session, shared with our client’s permission.