sweetenme asked: Hi I've only recently started wearing makeup but its really minimal. I find that when I first put on my makeup (bb cream, concealer, Mac MSF) in the morning it tends to look a little too dry and cakey but through out the day it starts to look extremely muddy and dark like I'm not even wearing anything at all. How can I keep my makeup looking as natural as possible and have it last through out the day? Also I have combination skin.

First, with combination skin you have to sort of treat two different skin types. Make sure your skin is treated like it was dry skin by using a good moisturizer, avoiding drying face washes and skin care and exfoliating weekly and use makeup products as if your skin was oily like long wearing foundations, primers, powders, etc. This is what works best for my oily skin. 

To solve your dry, cakey problem make sure to exfoliate weekly and moisturize your skin before foundation! When your skin is dry and flakey your foundation won’t look very good ontop of the skin. BB Creams arent usually cakey looking so i’m assuming it’s your skin thats the problem. Exfoliating your skin weekly with a face scrub will make your skin more smooth by scrubbing away dry flakes and helping shrink your pores so your foundation will look more flawless. Moisturizing before foundation will prep your skin for foundation so it’s smooth and moisturized and creates a layer between your skin and foundation so it will blend and sit better on the skin.

It seems like either your moisturizer isnt moisturizing enough (if youre even using any), you have dry skin or youre applying too much power. Or all 3! Using too much powder will also cause your skin to look cakey and dry.

BB Creams also arent very long wearing which will cause it to look muddy because it’s wearing off through out the day. I’d recommend a more long wearing foundation or using a foundation primer. Foundation primers act like glue sticking the foundation to your face so it won’t fade away.