How To Do French Makeup

There is something about French women that makes them look effortlessly chic and flawless. Perhaps, it has something to do with the fact that Parisian women don’t look for perfection or transformation of any kind when doing their makeup. Instead, they rely on makeup only to enhance their natural features. Therefore, they like to keep their makeup routine minimal and quick. This ‘less is more’ approach helps them in nailing the barely-there makeup look while embracing their imperfections.

To break it down for you, we’ve put together some French makeup tips, a tutorial, a few Parisian beauty secrets, and a bunch of cult-favorite makeup products from popular French brands. Read on to achieve the eternally cool “I woke up like this” makeup look.

French Makeup Tutorial

When it comes to French makeup rules, it’s all about striking the right balance. A heavily-colored lip is balanced by neutral eyes, while dark eyeshadow is paired with a neutral lip color. French women like to keep it classy, and their goal is to achieve a healthy, natural-looking glow. You’ll never find their makeup looking cakey or stale. Here’s what you need to nail their look.

What You Need

• Lip balm
• Eyelash curler
• Brown eyeliner pencil
• Mascara
• Concealer
• Highlighter

Step-By-Step Natural French Makeup Tutorial With Pictures

Step 1: It’s All In The Prep

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Before you begin, cleanse your face and follow up with a toner. Apply a gentle moisturizer and a lip balm to make your face and pout look fresh and hydrated.

Step 2: Curl Your Lashes

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Strong lashes look extremely flattering with a natural look. Curl your lashes with an eyelash curler, and use a metallic brown eye pencil to enhance the spaces between your top and bottom lash lines. Apply some mascara to your top and bottom lashes.

Step 3: Groom Your Brows

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Brush your eyebrows with some brow product on a spoolie to give them a clean, groomed look. Remember, brows play a crucial role in any makeup look.

Step 4: Time For Concealer

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Use a dewy concealer in a shade that matches your skin tone on areas that need coverage, like the under-eye area, spots, and redness. Blend it in thoroughly to achieve that natural, flawless coverage. French makeup is all about minimalism, so you don’t need to use brushes. Your fingers work just fine for this look.

Step 5: Get The Glow

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Gently dab a balmy highlighter with minimal shimmer on to your cheekbones, the bridge of your nose, Cupid’s bow, and the inner corners of your eyes to make your features really stand out. It also helps create an even, iridescent glow all over your face.

And voila! Here’s the final ‘French girl’ look.

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Now that you know how to nail that sublime French makeup look, check out the 5 best French makeup products that you can use to achieve it.

The 5 Best French Makeup Products That You Need To Try Out

1. Givenchy Bouncy Highlighter Cooling Jelly Glow

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This highlighter’s cooling jelly effect is super refreshing and perfect for every season. Its unique bouncy texture leaves your skin with a dewy golden finish that flatters every skin tone. You can put it on your cheekbones, brow bone, and Cupid’s bow for an all-over, luminous glow that never fades away.

Pros

• Long-wearing
• Paraben-free
• Suitable for sensitive skin
• Natural finish

Cons

• Expensive

2. Dior Lip Glow – Berry

Review

This sheer balm from Dior enhances your natural lip color while moisturizing and protecting your lips. Your lips look fresh, full, and radiant as if revived from within. If you’re looking to achieve a natural flush of color, this satin-finish lip balm hits that sweet spot between makeup and skin care.

Pros

• Conditions and nourishes your lips
• Plumps lips
• Long-wearing
• Natural finish

Cons

• Expensive

3. Lancome Teint Idole Ultra Long Wear Foundation

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For the most natural flush of color and coverage, try this Lancome foundation that goes on sheer and can be built to complete coverage. It looks like skin and allows your skin to breathe. It also holds up through sweat, humidity, and water without clogging your pores. It maintains your skin’s pH level, so the color stays put all day long without caking or creasing.

Pros

• Blends well
• Long-wearing
• Buildable coverage
• Available in 45 shades

Cons

None

4. Sisley Phyto-Blush Twist – Petal

Review

This cream blush from Sisley turns to powder upon contact with your skin to provide the benefits of two textures: the smooth, velvety finish of a powder in a long-lasting creamy texture. It gives your cheeks the most natural flush of color while nourishing your skin. Here’s the best part: this blush is super weightless and it provides your skin with an instant dose of glow and radiance.

Pros

• Long-wearing
• Buildable color
• Hydrates your skin
• Non-comedogenic

Cons

• Expensive

5. Talika Lipocils Legendary Eyelash Conditioning Gel

Review

French women are big on naturally strong and curled lashes. This conditioning gel from Talika Lipocils coats your lashes with a unique transparent gel designed to enrich hair fibers with strengthening ingredients like lecithin and plant extracts. If you’re looking to enhance the natural beauty of your peepers by thickening, lengthening, and lending shine to your lashes, you need to try out this product!

Pros

• Conditions lashes
• Prevents lashes from falling
• Lengthens and thickens lashes
• Paraben-free

Cons

None

American and French styles of makeup are often pitted against each other because of their conflicting approaches to beauty. Check out the next section to find out how they are different.

American Vs. French Makeup Routine

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While the American makeup routine is often about looking flawless, French makeup trends have a more relaxed approach. American women are also more interested in quick solutions as opposed to French women who regard beauty as an essential, long-term investment. They stress more on skin care from a very young age, and they definitely don’t seem to like spending hours before an event to get ready. They are also less flashy, and their style is more about quiet elegance.

Basically, the French like a less complicated, more pleasurable and natural approach to beauty. You will never hear a French woman talk about the hours she spent getting a blowout because she almost always wakes up with perfectly tousled hair.

Listed below are a few beauty tips that you can follow to get the perfect Parisian chic look.

Beauty Tips That French Women Swear By

• Skin Care Comes First

For the French, glowing, healthy skin is crucial to their beauty regimen – it’s just the French way of life. They make sure to focus on the prep before putting anything on their makeup. They are also strict about their nighttime cleansing routine and using an SPF.

All this starts from a very young age.

• It’s All About Simplicity

French women don’t spend a ton of money on too many products. They choose makeup and skin care that works for them – a few essentials, and that’s about it. You won’t find their vanity flooded with contour palettes and four different kinds of foundation.

• The Red Lip

A bold red lip is a fashion statement for French women, and usually when they sport a red lip, they don’t wear any other makeup with it.

• No To Contouring

Contouring is way too dramatic for the average French woman’s makeup routine. They like to let the natural contours of their face and skin show through, even if they have wrinkles and fine lines.

• Perfection Is Never The Goal

It’s the nonchalance of French women that makes them so attractive. They are not concerned about looking too put together. So, their hair is never perfectly set, and they love showing off their unique attributes, like their freckles.

That was our take on French beauty and makeup. What do you think about this no-nonsense approach to beauty? Let us know in the comments section below.