Getting ready for a night out using only Instagram beauty hacks

The makeup gods pretty much control Instagram — from the masterfully sculpted contour, to the bright and bold eye and lip combinations, makeup gurus run the Insta world. But, for girls like me, trying to achieve these professional grade looks can sometimes be quite the challenge. Lucky for us though, Instagram feeds have now become flooded with hundreds of makeup and beauty hacks to help girls achieve such #flawless looks.

So naturally, I just had to test them out to see just how ready they can make you for a night out.

Foundation – Sock beauty blender

Having already moisturized and primed my face as I always do, my first task in testing Instagram beauty hacks was to create a beauty blender out of a clean pair of socks. Yes, I said it, socks. This was a fairly new discovery, but from watching some of the Instagram makeup gods test it out, I was convinced that anything was possible. So I sat back, prayed for my skin, and braced for exactly what was about to go down. And shockingly enough, these forgotten pair of socks did a pretty great job at creating a flawless and even complexion.

To create this DIY beauty blender, start with a clean pair of socks — I recommend using a pair of mid-ankle socks since I found they create the most beauty blender-like shape. Now that you have your socks, start to roll the ankle portion of one of the socks inward and rolled up the other sock to place inside of the first sock thus creating that iconic beauty blender shape. After creating a ‘sponge,’ start to apply your favorite liquid foundation as you normally would.

Baking with baby powder

My next step was to prevent any under-eye creasing by now ‘baking’ my face with baby powder. By baking your face makeup, you use translucent powder to set your makeup and ensure that any creasing doesn’t occur in any areas of your face where your liquid or cream foundation and concealer is prone to creasing. The powder is left on the face and is later brushed away thus ‘baking’ your foundation to your skin and eliminating the creation of any fine lines in your undereye area.

Skeptical of exactly how this would work, I decided to just dive right in anyway. Taking this silky white powder onto my newly created beauty blender, I carefully applied it under my eyes in a traditional triangular shape as I would normally apply my concealer and awaited the results of this unusual beauty hack. And, after waiting a good five minutes, I brushed away my bake and revealed that baby powder actually does do a pretty decent job at ‘baking’ your foundation and under-eyes products.

Lip taping

After baking my face to perfection, it was time to take on one of Instagram’s most famous makeup hacks, lip taping. In order to create that perfectly shaped pout, Instagramers have been using none other than Scotch tape to outline their entire mouth. Leaving no room for misdrawn lines, this hack is said to ensure a perfectly sharp liquid lipstick application. So, there I was, taping my the edges of my mouth like a fool — but hey, at least I’d have perfectly applied lipstick right? Wrong. This hack was a total disappointment, not only did it create an entirely new lip shape, it also took off some of my already perfected foundation. Complete fail.

Contouring with cocoa powder

Next, I took on the hack that I had been the most excited to try — contouring with cocoa powder. I have seen countless Instagram accounts flaunting this inventive hack, and have even seen a few of the makeup world’s biggest names try this one out, so I couldn’t have been any more excited.

Breaking out the good old cocoa powder, I started applying it anywhere I would normally place my contour and bronzer. And damn, did it work! Using cocoa powder as a replacement for contour powder has become such a popular makeup hack and now, after using it, I can definitely see why. Cocoa powder has the perfect silky, powdery consistency for using it as contour and it’s natural coloring is the closest that you can get to not using an actual makeup powder. Although, having a little bit of a yellow undertone, this hack might not work for everyone — but being a pretty good shade for my ghostly complexion, I’d say it definitely did the job.

Contouring with a fork

Also using the cocoa powder alongside another hack, I journeyed into nose contouring as well. Ensuring that the end product of this nose contour would have the perfect shape, I used the newly viral makeup hack of using a fork to shape my nose. By using a fork placed on top of the bridge of your nose, you are to create a perfectly sculpted shape by using the spaces between the fork’s pronges as guidelines for contouring the sides of your nose. And although very unusual to place upon your face, the fork actually did a pretty good job at creating a subtle contour.

Spoon cut crease

Finally, I was able to move onto conquering the ever-so-coveted spoon cut-crease hack. Being the epitome of dramatic eye looks, the cut-crease has been perfected by the makeup gods and is cherished by all makeup lovers. And it’s been said that if you correctly align an ordinary tablespoon onto the eyelid, you will create a perfectly carved out cut crease that makes your eyes appear dramatically larger by creating a more empahized shadow and overall shape to the crease of your eyes. So I thought, why not put this one to the ultimate test.

Patiently taking the time to align this kitchen utensil onto my eyelid, I began applying the darkest of eyeshadow colors in hopes that I wouldn’t end up looking like an actual raccoon. Blending my life away I was actually able to achieve a decent cut crease, and needless to say I was ready to take on the world with this fierce af look.

Final look

Before I knew it, I was ‘beat to the gods’ and fully prepared to slip on my outfit and celebrate an awesome night out. And little did anyone know, I just applied my makeup with kitchen utensils and some baking ingredients — but who cares, work that cocoa powder contour!

@ambercallahann