How to do a M.A.C face chart! MAC Face Chart tutorial in 5 easy steps!

In the past I have had questions about how to do a MAC Face Chart! There are tons of ways to do them, a lot probably better than mine, but I'll briefly explain how I do mine, just in case anyone wants to have a go! You can google the image of the face chart and print it out, either one per page, but I like to do two per page.

Step 1: Find a blank chart (like this one!):

First of all you need to download (or you could use this one) a face chart. You can print these out onto normal paper, but I'd suggest using artist/watercolour paper, as you can use different mediums such as cream or liquid and the paper will be thick enough for you to blend and play with different textures.

You can use any product you like, have a practice on a chart with some of your make-up and see what you feel most comfortable with! I like to use eyeshadows for a lot of my work, with liquid eyeliner and lipstick. I also love the NYX jumbo eye pencil in Milk for making eyecolours pop, and Too Faced Lip Insurance primer for lips.

Step 2: Create the skin:

(This was done on photoshop, not with charts and make-up, I will redo with charts another time!) Start to create the skin for your face. You can use a liquid all over like Studio Fix fluid or Studio Sculpt, but I just like to use powders as that's what I'm most comfortable with! To start I take a MAC #224 brush and either Mineralize Skinfinish in Medium, or Brule (light nude) eye shadow and apply all over the face to make a base skin colour. I then take Wedge eye shadow by MAC (light brown) and shade around the edges of the face, building up colour with Texture by Mac (Orange-y/brick colour). Texture is a great skin colour on paper! I like to take a Bent angled liner brush (I just use an E.l.f one) and draw a line/crescent shape from the high planes of the cheekbone all the way down to create a cheekbone (as you can see in the picture) I like to start doing this with Espresso eyeshadow (you can use any rich brown) then intensify it with Mystery (a very dark, cool brown). For a very defined look you can leave it like this, but I like to blend it out with the #224 brush and some more of Texture. Draw two crescents from the brow to nose to create the top of the nose, then with pencil draw on the outer part of the nostrils, and shade with Texture and Espresso to make a nose. Go in with a few different browns and play around until you get a good looking nose!

Step 3: Eyes!

Once you've built a nice base with your 'skin' products, you can start on the eyes! There is no set order to what products you use when, but I like to do eyes next. If you have a way that you personally like to use eye shadow, try that out, but I always like to do it a certain way with face charts as obviously they are different to faces! You can apply straight to the paper (like I did in the photos of my face charts up there) or use a base (NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil, MAC Paint Pot etc) I like to do both, depending on the look!

Once your base is applied (or not) take a blending or pencil brush (#217 or #219 are good) and blend a light colour inbetween the brow bone and the crease. For example in this look I could use a very light lilac, light pink or light purple. Once you've blended it, pat your medium colour all over the lid, I used the medium purple here. Also take a pencil brush and swoop it all over the under eye area. Take a slightly darker purple and run it through the crease with a small brush (angle, pencil or liner would work) then intensify the outer 'V' with a really dark colour, in this case a dark, intense purple. You can add more colours, a pop of colour in the inner corner or whatever you like from this point on!

Step 4: Liner, Lashes and Brows!:

(Sorry about the awful brows- it's very hard to do eyebrows on a computer haha!)

Colour in the eye of your chart- it will really bring it to life! I love to do electric blue eyes! Take any pencil or liquid liner and line the eye, less is more! Do it as you would your own eye. Then take the liner place it at the lash line, then gently flick out to create lots of little eyelashes. Start with one at the edge, one in the middle facing upward, and one close to the inner corner facing the opposite way to the first one, then build up.

For brows use medium brown or dark brown shadows with an angled brush, liner brush or pencil brush. You can use pencil or liquid liner for a more definer look. Again, apply this as you would to your own brow, but have a light hand and be careful!

Step 5: Lips and Finishing Touches:

For the lips feel free to get creative- pick fun colours and if you like, draw a pencil line and create a new shape! This is what I did with the photo of my chart abouve, you don't have to stick to the original design you can play around!

Start with a lip primer, like Too Faced Lip Insurance, then apply your lipliner or lipstick with a brush. You can add any finishing touches like a bit of blusher, or touch up any parts you feel need a bit of extra colour. Cover up the blank side of the chart abouve, then the coloured side and you can see the huge impact make-up makes!

I love doing face charts! Almost as fun as the real thing!