First faceup - Mistakes were made XD

My first thought its that you're doing an awful lot of detail for just one layer.

I leave the eyelashes and detail staff until the very end - after I've got all the layers of pastel blush, and lip colour, and shading right. That way if I get any of the fine details wrong, I only have to wipe that layer, and not start again with all the blushing and shading because I got an eyebrow, or the eyelashes wrong.

I'm useless with brush detailing, so I do the eyebrow hair details (sand the eyelashes) with very sharp watercolour pencils, starting with lighter colours and adding in darker ones to refine them.

I'm not an expert, however, so others may be doing things in a different order and using different methods.

Teddy

 

i think eyeshadow choice is really up to you and the look you’re going for, as unhelpful as that sounds usually i put together a little pinterest board of eye looks i want to go for, and go from there. blues can definitely work for eyeshadows by building up the layers, to get less of that soft bruise effect!

do you have any watercolor pencils (just easier to wipe off) on you? i noticed when i started using those on one layer and then going in later with the paint helped my strokes. And making sure the paint had an ‘ink like’ consistency. it’s hard to describe the perfect feel of that consistency unless you’ve worked with inks often, but it’s mostly just a balance between water (or your thinner of choice) and paint. if you’re using gouache or acrylics then it should be fine with just water.

waiting for the sealant to dry was also a big take away. if it’s MSC giving it that 30 minutes really is crucial

overall, good work! the blush and the lips are really nice in my opinion! love that sparkle

 

Something I've found that helps with brush strokes is checking the thinness of your paint. I had a lot of trouble getting fine lines until I tried thinning my paints with a bit more water or media.

Not bad for a first attempt though! I'm still pretty much a newbie as well, and it's definitely better than my first try!

 

I've found makeup brushes work quite well for pastels since they hold powder better than most paintbrushes--and using an eyeliner (or other small, usually angled) brush to put the lip pastel on keeps things neater, then gently brushing the excess off with a soft, fluffy brush.

You can also remove the excess lip pastels with a kneaded eraser. This can create a somewhat sharp line, so if you want to make the lip outline softer again, just go over the edges with a q-tip/cotton swab after erasing.

 

The eyebrows came out pretty dodge the first face up, and then the eyelashes weren't much better but after I've practiced a few times I'm slowly getting better.... But still need more practice haha