HOW TO: Take PERFECT Makeup Swatch Photos

Love the look of those makeup swatch photos but can't quite get them right? This post is for all my beauty blogger and makeup loving friends who are looking for an easy way to take perfect makeup swatch photos.

Makeup is messy, and can sometimes get all over the place, and when you're trying to take a photo of your brand new purchase swatched down your arm, it can be pretty annoying when everything smudges and gets all over everything!

And since you guys loved my post on how to edit your Instagram photos, I decided to also do this one on how to get your makeup swatches nice and even. Hopefully you find it helpful!

Read on to see my tips...

So let's get started!

Plus makeup remover and cotton tips if you're a little clumsy like me!

So first up, I'll demonstrate how I create an even makeup swatch on the back of my hand. And yes, this is definitely a time consuming process if you have a lot of products to swatch, but if you're patient, the end effect looks really great!

First step is to snip four pieces of tape and stick and unstick it on the palm of your hand to get rid of some of the stickiness. If the tape is too sticky, it will ruin your final swatch when you pull them off! Once done, stick down the pieces of tape on your skin so they have a rectangular space in between them (for where your swatch will go).

Then take your makeup product that you want to swatch, and fill in the space between your tape. The best part about this method is that it doesn't matter if you're messy with it! The tape acts as your guide and will make sure everything is straight and even.

And then the best part... rip that tape off!

If you have any uneven edges or smudges from removing the tape, a cotton bud and a bit of makeup remover will help you smooth out the swatch (the same as what you'd do with your liquid eyeliner!).

So let's try this out on a larger scale with a full set of liquid lipsticks. If you want to see the actual blog post that these liquid lipstick swatches appear in, you can read it here.

Same deal as before, I've created my swatch 'stencil' using the sticky tape so I have a guide all along my arm to swatch the entire collection of these liquid lipsticks. How crazy does it look?!

Aaaand I just keep going, filling in all the spaces with my makeup until they're all done. 

When you've got multiple swatches on the go, a tip is to remove your tape very slowly. Otherwise you'll get little smudgy bits, but that's nothing a cotton bud and a little makeup remover can't fix!

And once you're done, all you need to do is get that camera out and snap away! If you want tips on how I edit my Instagram photos to get that crisp white background, check out my post here.

And there you have it! Hopefully these tips have been helpful, and please let me know if you have any requests for more posts like this in the comments!

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