Answering your Latina makeup questions

Lana Ogilvie shot by Rico Schwartzberg. Makeup by Luis Casco
Lana is Canadian born but of Caribbean, Scottish, Maltese and African descent.

I frequently receive e-mails from readers asking me questions about makeup, application tips and tricks, how to get a job in the industry, etc.  As many of these questions and answers may be of interest to you, I thought it would be great to share them with my readers.  Maybe you have your own suggestions and if so, I would love to hear them and share them as well.

A lot of your questions are about the same subject.  Finding makeup for the woman of color, wether she is Latina, Indian, African or all the shades in between.  That is why I chose the above picture of Lana, she's a gorgeous girl but finding the right foundation for her can be a problem.  Her under eyes have a slightly bluish tint and her skin is a mixture of many undertones.  If you have been there or know someone struggling with their makeup read some of the tips below:

Here's a question I just received:

I am a 40 year old woman of Dominican descent. I have olive color skin with darkerunder eye circles and am a complete mess when it comes to makeup, specially how toapply it. I was lucky to come across Zalia Cosmetics for Latinas in Jersey Garden 

Mall in New Jersey approximately 4 years ago. It seemed that the creator of this 

makeup line was finally onto something. 

However, after about a year or so they have since vanished and now I am back to struggling with the usual american products that are very hard to match your skin tone to. I came across your Bio while googling hispanic makeup,etc and am very 

impressed and excited for you. It's wonderful to see a fellow hispanic being featured and recognized all over the world!

I was wondering if perhaps you could briefly tell me what products would
work well for my skin tone or what products work well for Latinas.

And here's my answer:

Thank you so much for reaching out to me.  I know and feel your frustration and I think that many companies are starting to address women with your same issues but it still seems to be something hard to find.  As far as some brands go, I think 

that you should look at Bobbi Brown for their foundations, powder and concealer.  Without seeing you it's hard to tell but Make Up Forever's HD foundation is great If you are on the darker side some of Iman's foundations also work really well (a bit heavy but you can dilute them with a wet sponge).  As far as drug store brandsL'Oreal has a nice selection of colors.  And of course, MAC has a wide array of 

colors- if you are in a city that has a "Pro" store I recommend you to go there and have them match you a foundation.

If you have dark under eye issues you could always try a salmon concealer applied very lightly and try doing it AFTER you've applied your foundation (Eve Pearl's isa great one) Another thing about concealers is that the creamier they are the moresheer their coverage will be, which simply means that if you really need coverage you should try to use a stick or one that comes in a pot as opposed to a tube.

* Don't forget to test the foundation in natural light- try it at the jawline and
take a mirror by a window and make sure that the color disappears. Invisibility
is what you are striving for!
Wish you the best of luck and keep me updated on your progress. 
 
Gracias!

Luis