Want an elegant glow? Blend in a dot of shimmer cream into your foundation before applying. Sebastian Trucco makes a product called "Skin light", a face and body glow gel that lightly dries and sets, making your foundation last all day as well.

Make sure your powder is light in shade and matte. Use a soft fluffy eye shadow brush to dust lightly over the discoloration. Tip: You want to tint the discoloration, not mask it. This trick should soften the darkness and skin tone by 45%. The foundation and concealer will do the rest.

For concealer to last all day, try a stage brand found in most beauty supply stores. Ben Nye, Joe Blasco, Cinema Secrets and my favorite Kryolan are known for their highly concentrated pigment and staying power. Thicker and stiffer in texture, these pansticks, concealers and new water-based formulations offer longer lasting coverage. Just mix with a dot of your foundation for an easier blend.

This is an old Hollywood makeup trick, when all there was was Pan Stick and greasy cream-based foundations. Old movie makeup artists would blot foundation to remove the oils and then set with pressing powder to keep the makeup on under hot lights. This trick still works today, even with the lighter, oil-free foundations on the market by pressing out any oils and leaving just the pigment and color on the skin. This trick, also, is what makes the skin look like skin, and not a foundation mask.

A photo trick that we learn fast is not to apply a lot of powder. This is what makes your skin sweat and appear shiny in photographs. Try this trick at home. Just apply foundation and see how your skin feels. Then press powder on, and within 15-20 minutes, your skin feels tight, and break-through shine starts to come through. Why? Your skin is reacting to the 'feeling' of the powder. Find a light weight powder by trying this test: Lightly blow loose powder into the air. If it appears to float, you have a lightweight, oil-free powder. If it falls to the ground, it's heavy and you'll feel like you're wearing a ton of makeup fast.

OOPS! Okay, you look like a clown, wrong color, too much... now what? With a clean dry sponge, pick up a light layer of loose powder and 'erase' as much off as possible. Too bright or too dark? Take a slightly dampened sponge and clean off as much as you can. Us either water or moisturizer on your sponge, which will pick up and 'dilute' the color... it just may be enough to fix it and make it work. Still too much? As a last resort, apply watered down foundation over it to achieve a 'see-through' flush.

Do you find your blush streaking? Pick up your blush by lightly tapping the blush with the tips of the bristles into the product. If you are sweeping the brush across the color, you'll pick up about 10 times more color than you need, and you waste a lot of product. Shake off any excess. You should barely be able to see the color on the brush. When applying blush, don't "sweep" the color across the cheeks. You'll usually end up streaking the color on, and then having to go back to 'correct' and 'blend'. Instead, smile, and tap on gently going across your cheeks. By tapping the color onto the brush,and then tapping it onto the cheeks, you'll avoid a splotchy blush look.

Want lips to last all day? Try the new long-lasting wear lipsticks, like Max Factor's "Lipfinity". Apply the color coat first, let dry, and then apply your regular lipstick shade over it before the Moisture Coat. The Moisture Coat gives a soft sheen, and seals in not only the stain, but your lipstick at the same time.

Want to update your older matte lipstick shades to the new shimmer based tones? Apply a light shimmer eye pencil, or eye shadow on lips and apply your darker lipstick on top... just a little will do and you'll have a new shade. A soft chestnut brown eye shadow applied on lips first will also darken any shade that's too light.

Use a Concealer Pencil on your lips first, fill in, and then apply an older, dark lipstick. The concealer pencil lightens up the lipstick by about 3-4 shades. Or apply a dot of concealer on the bottom of your lower lip and gloss over to blend.

Want a great shiny mouth? One of the best lip glosses I've ever tried is, believe it or not, Wet & Wild's Lip Gloss Wand in "Clear". Glossy enough to rival some of the more expensive brands, with great staying power and ranging only around the $1.00 price range. Can't beat that.

Use a shine gel to set your eyebrows and bring a glow to you eyes. Lanza's Shine Gel in it's easy one-touch dispenser gives a great sheen.

Take your mascara and an eyeliner brush, and lightly line the eye with your mascara. Once it's dried, smudge again, and you'll find that your eyeliner will stay on forever. If your mascara is waterproof, that's even better.

Revlon's Colorstay Extra Thick Lashes in "Waterproof" is a recent find that works great. And remember to curl your lashes before, not after mascara

Ardell makes a great eyelash glue that when dry, feels weightless. Make sure to get the glue that's white and goes clear when dry. That way you can easily see where you're placing your false lashes, and the clear tone will not interfere with your eyeliner. I like applying the false lashes after the eye makeup is completely finished.