Beautiful mature lady using a brush to apply makeup
For as long as you can remember, you have loved everything to do with makeup. From “borrowing” your mom’s lipstick as a little girl to spending your allowance on nail polish and colored mascara as a teen, you have plenty of experience with foundation, eye liner and lip gloss.
Recently, you decided to take some of this knowledge and create your own beauty tutorial for YouTube. You’ve probably spent some time viewing other beauty tutorials online, and you may have noticed these videos are not created equally — some are clear and easy to understand while others are blurry and disorganized.
In order to create a beauty tutorial on your smartphone that people will actually want to watch and comment on favorably, check out these tips.
Invest in a new smartphone
If your smartphone is on the older side, it’s time to upgrade to a new model. Cameras and video shooting capabilities have improved significantly on mobile phones over the last couple of years, and a top-quality camera will help create a better looking tutorial. The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is a terrific smartphone to capture your beauty video. The 12 MP rear-facing and 5 MP front-facing camera take crystal-clear videos, and thanks to the phone’s 4GB of RAM/32 of ROM, you won’t have to worry about running out of memory.
Decide what video you want to create
Spend some time thinking about your various cosmetic and beauty skills and decide what type of tutorial you want to make. Then, once you make up your mind, create an outline of what you will cover during the video; this will also help you realize what supplies you need.
Buy needed supplies
If you are doing a tutorial on eye shadow, for instance, you probably don’t want to show the world your half-used boxes of shadow and your much-loved applicators. Purchase new cosmetics for the tutorial and set it aside. To help keep your camera steady, spring for a tripod for your smartphone. You should also use a backdrop while filming your tutorials — this way, viewers will focus on you and not whatever you have going on behind you. Head to a local fabric shop and purchase about a yard or so of a solid-color fabric that complements your coloring. It’s okay if it has a bit of sparkle in it, but stay away from vivid prints and patterns that will distract your viewers.
Go for natural light
As Sharon the Makeup Artist notes, good lighting is almost as important as having a great camera. If you can, find a spot in your home that has great natural lighting; in most cases, this will be near a large window. Clear away some furniture if you have to and set up a small table with the window in front of you, then hang the fabric on the wall behind you or hang it on a portable clothes rack.
Get ready to film
Now comes the super fun part — filming the tutorial. Make sure you have everything you need right in front of you, and run through your tutorial a few times before filming it. If you have a lot of supplies, put them in a clear makeup organizer for easy access. When you are ready, set up the camera in the tripod, and take some short practice shots to check for lighting and that you are fully on screen. After everything checks out and you are ready to go, film the tutorial. You might have to do a few takes, and that is perfectly okay. Watch what you have filmed and decide which video you want to post. Use the YouTube tutorial to launch your wonderful beauty advice to the world.