Tips for Job Interview Make-up

If you’re going for a job interview and want to make sure that your first impression is a positive one.

The best advice for this is to try sticking to neutral shades of eyeshadow like tans, browns and creams, and avoid shimmery, glittery eyeshadows.  You don’t want to look too over-the-top, or even worse, appear sweaty from all the shimmer under the harsh fluorescent office lighting.

Ensure that your eyebrows are well-groomed, as this will show that you pay attention to detail, and use blusher instead of bronzer for a natural-looking, healthy glow.

Most importantly, you don’t want to distract the interviewer from what you are saying with badly applied make-up.  Key items to avoid are:  anything sparkly; anything too ‘stagey’ and over-the-top, like dramatic false eyelashes or bold blue eye shadow; anything applied poorly, for example wobbly liquid eyeliner, rather use a pencil to be safe and go for an easy, simple application.  Keep the fancy flicks and wings for after you’ve landed the job.  Lastly, avoid anything that fades unevenly and leaves a patchy finish, like red lipstick.  You don’t want to end up looking like you didn’t put enough effort into your appearance.

Make sure that your make-up flatters you and enhances your natural features.  If you never wear lipstick, don’t feel obliged to wear lipstick to an interview, they are not going to notice if you’re only wearing lip balm.  However, if you wear a shade of lipstick that doesn’t look good on you, they may wonder what you were thinking when you put it on.  Keep the experimenting for a different day.

If you are going to wear lipstick or some form of lip colour, choose a long-lasting formula (try Maybelline’s Super Stay 14hr or L’Oreal’s Infallible Lip Colour).  Stick to safe colour options like nudes, peaches or pinks close to your natural lip colour, or use a tinted lip gloss.  Red lipstick may be too distracting and could end up looking patchy halfway through your interview, and make sure that there’s no lipstick on your teeth.  A quick way to ensure this is once you’ve applied your last coat of lipstick, place your index finger in your mouth, close your lips gently around it and twist your finger slowly while pulling it out of your mouth.  Voila!  Excess lipstick on your finger and not on your teeth.  It’s not a very glamorous move, I know, but done in the privacy of your bedroom or bathroom when applying lipstick, it really works.

The phrase “less is more” definitely applies when it comes to job interview make-up.  Keep it simple and enhance your natural beauty.

For tips on how to expertly apply liquid or gel eyeliner (once you’ve landed that job interview, or if you really want to wear liquid or gel), see the previous blog post “Applying Eyeliner“.