Unlike celebrities, most of us can’t afford to keep a professional makeup artist on staff. In reality, most of us don’t even have the funds for a bag of pricy beauty products. We make due, which often means scooping out the dredges of your favorite matte lipstick with a makeup brush or customizing your perfect blush or eyebrow color by combining a few different shades. Here’s how you can ensure a beautiful face every day, using our tips and tricks for flawless makeup application:

1. Wear a dark lip with confidence

Many of us are envious of dark red and wine lips on celebrities yet wouldn’t dare wear them ourselves for fear of feeling harsh. However, you can wear a dark berry, purple, deep red, or oxblood lip with confidence using this easy beauty hack. Tip: Simply apply your dreamy dark shade of matte or cream lip color and swipe away a tiny patch right in the middle of your upper and lower lips. You can fill in that natural lip patch with a flattering shade of natural lip stick and press your lips together so the subtle two-tons will appear less gradient and harsh.

2. Enhance those eyes

While a sweeping cat eye may be outside of your makeup hacks, it’s still easy to glam up those eyes. Tip: Employ the tip of a liquid black eyeliner and place a strategic dot between each lash right at the roots. This dot effect makes your last line appear thicker, and your eyes shine.

3. Lipstick doubles as blush

Chances are if a lipstick shade flatters your lips, it will flatter your cheeks as well. Using your favorite shade of lipstick (but never lip gloss) across your lip and cheeks will give you a seamless blush. Tip: First rub the tip of your favorite lipstick into your pointer and middle fingers, and then use these digits to gently pat the apples of your cheeks to transfer the color. If the color is too harsh, blot with a bit of moisturizer.

4. Give your face a wake up call

In an ideal world, we’d all get 8+ hours of shut eye a night and wake up glowing and refreshed. However, when life and stress get in the way of your beauty sleep, this little trick can banish dark undereye circles and wake up those eyes. Tip:  Post-concealing those dark circles as best as you can, dab a tiny bit of highlighter or gold or silver shadow into the inner corners of each eye.

5. Mix shades

Make up shades, like eyeshadows, blushes, and even eyebrow pencils come in pretty standard shades, which means the perfect shade for your brows might not necessarily be available at your local makeup counter. Tip: Never fear, don’t be afraid to mix powders and liquid brow pencils until you find that perfect, multidimensional filler.