The Ultimate Guide to Leveling Up Your Appearance
The first installment of "The Ultimate Guide to Leveling Up," is how to level up your appearance or improve your physical look. Improving your appearance has many benefits that are often overlooked because many people have this idea that it is shallow. But in fact, improving your appearance helps improve your self-confidence and self-esteem, it shows others how they should treat you, it's a way to express your creativity, it is a form of self-care and it can be used to attract certain friends or a certain type of partner. If you are someone who is trying to level up and create a more feminine appearance this guide will help you do just that.
1. Exercise. The first part of leveling up physically begins with getting your health right by exercising and cleaning up your diet. When you feel your healthiest this will translate to improving your confidence and of course your health. For exercise, start slow and simple and build your way up. If you are someone who doesn't exercise at all start doing 5 minute workouts for a week. This will help build the habit of exercising. You can also go on a simple walk for 10 minutes. Once you have mastered this, you can slowly try moving up to longer workouts. Try to find exercises that you enjoy. This will make working out exciting and not just something you have to do. For me, I love to dance, so I do a lot of dancing as exercise. If you enjoy biking, go on a bike ride a few times a week. If you enjoy hiking, go on long hikes. Whatever exercise you choose, start with doing it 3 times a week for 30 minutes. Depending on where you live, there may be a lot of gyms that are still closed, so at home workouts are a great alternative. YouTube videos are a great resource to use for at-home workouts. Look for ones that don't require any equipment if you don't have any. In addition to exercise, you also need to work on improving your diet. When it comes to weight loss, believe it or not, this is more important than exercise. To keep it simple, eat more fruits and vegetables, drink more water, cook at home more than you eat out or order take-out, keep a food dairy to keep track of what and how much you are eating, and when it comes it comes to weight loss, reduce your portion sizes and make sure you are in a calorie deficit. A calorie deficit is simply when you consume fewer calories than your body expends. For more information on how calorie deficits work or resources on diet and at home workouts, check out the links below.
At Home Workout Videos
Diet Tips
What is a Calorie Deficit - Women's Health Magazine
12 tips to help you lose weight
2. Take care of your skin. Learn what type of skin you have and start building a routine that works for you. There are 5 basic skin types: normal, dry, oily, combination and sensitive skin. Normal skin is well-balanced. It is neither too oily or too dry. Dry skin is skin that has trouble retaining moisture, it may feel tight, rough and look dull, Oily skin produces excess sebum. It looks shiny and may have large pores. Combination skin has a mix of skin types. Typically the t-zone (your forehead, nose and chin) may be a different skin type than your cheeks. And sensitive skin, which is prone to inflammations. If your skin is sensitive, try to find out what your triggers are, so you can avoid them. Regardless of your skin type make sure you drink plenty of water, never wear makeup to bed, moisturize, and wear sunscreen even if you have a dark skin complexion.
Ultimately, it's important to take care of your skin as you age to achieve a nice healthy glow. No amount of makeup will cover up bad skin, so make sure you learn to type care of it. If you are having serious problems with your skin that you can't seem to get under control, a trip to the dermatologist may be something to look into.
3. Start developing a feminine style. The next obvious step is to work on your style. Begin by cleaning out your closet. Get rid of clothes that don't fit, are too old, are ripped and stained and don't fit into the new feminine style you are trying to portray. When rebuilding your feminine wardrobe start by getting basics. You'll need a couple neutral basic coloured short and long sleeve shirts, simple pants (not leggings) mainly in black or any dark neutral colour, jeans that fit really well and a few plain cardigans. Don't forget to update your undergarments. You'll want some t-shirt bras, strapless bras as well as nude coloured and black bras before you start buying fun coloured girly ones. Make sure you get a bra fitting or measure yourself, to make sure you get ones that fit and are comfortable. In terms of underwear, it is important to have some seamless underwear to wear in case you are wearing something that shows panty lines. You could also wear a thong but thongs can be uncomfortable and could lead to problems like yeast infections, so be careful. Lastly for undergarments getting some shapewear or slips to help create a smoother shape is also important. Slips are also great to wear with dresses or skirts that are thin or a bit see through. Once the basics of your wardrobe have been established, you can start buying more fun feminine pieces. Play around with different types of dresses and skirts, tops, pants and jackets in soft colours like pink, yellow, orange and blue, in different patterns like floral and polka dots. Don't forget about accessories and make sure everything you wear fits you well, suits your body and is something you are comfortable wearing. You can really shop anywhere and find pretty feminine pieces but some places to try are listed down below.
Shein - lot's of options, low prices
Lulus - great for cute dresses
Zara and H&M - great for basics
Nubian Skin - bras, panties, shapewear and more for brown and dark skin women
Plum Pretty Sugar - feminine robes, dresses and sleepwear
4. Perfect your hair. Once you have your fashion underway, the next step is to focus on your hair. Hair is really important because even if you are dressed very simple and are going out running errands, your hair can hep elevate your look. The first steps when it comes to your hair is to take care of it and make sure it is clean and neat. Depending on your hair type you may or may not need to wash it every day or every other day or even once a week, but it's important to make sure it looks neat and smells good. Use hair products that have pleasant smells or try a hair perfume. Once you have it under control, the next step is to find at least 1 go-to hairstyle. This style needs to be something that is easy for you to do, no matter how much or how little time you have. It also needs to be something that works well with your face and personality. It can be a high ponytail, a sleek bun with a middle part, wearing your hair down in loose curls, a high puff or a go-to long and straight closure wig that is easy for you to apply. Whatever works for you.
Feminine Black Hairstyles - Pinterest Board
Feminine Natural Hairstyles - Pinterest Board
On a final note, I know that the common idea is that only long, straight hair is considered feminine or pretty, but that is simply not true. The most feminine and prettiest hairstyle on you is the one that suits your face the best and helps boost your confidence. The reason I say this is because, when you have a look that helps increase your confidence, you'll carry yourself well and people will be drawn to you.
5. Master a simple makeup look. The final step to leveling up your appearance is to master a simple, yet feminine makeup look. Makeup can help accentuate your features and pull together your whole look. You don't need a lot, especially on a daily basis, in order to achieve this look. To start, the first step to a simple and feminine makeup look is to take care of your skin (see number 2 in this guide). Your face is the base to your makeup so having clear, moisturized and healthy skin will help your makeup look better and will mean you don't need to use as much.
Face: Face makeup can be as simple or as complex as you need it to be, depending on how much time you have and how heavy you want your makeup. For your face if you want a more natural look use a light coverage foundation or skin tint. You can also skip foundation altogether, or only use a bit of concealer in your foundation shade on parts of your face you want to cover, like a blemish. You can also use a bit of concealer under your eyes to help brighten them up. Again, if you are going for something more natural and quick only use a little. Contour and highlight if you wish. For a natural look, use a powder over a cream or liquid contour and again, only use a little.
Eyes: The main part of your eyes that I recommend you highlight are your lashes. Longer, thicker lashes can really help you look more feminine and more put together with very little effort. This can be as simple as applying some mascara, or you can apply fake natural looking lashes, or get lash extensions if you are comfortable with that. If you are also going to be wearing mascara, I recommend applying some clear mascara before your actual mascara to really get that full lash look. In addition to your lashes, make sure your brows are in order. Learn and practice how to create natural looking full brows and also make sure you are keeping up with cleaning any stray hairs or a unibrow.
Lips: A lip gloss in a natural pink or brown colour that suits your skin tone is all you really need to pull together your look. You can also add a lipliner to help really define your lips. If you are a darker complexion, I really recommend a brown lipliner with your gloss especially if it is a colour that you are having a harder time matching with your skin tone.
On a final note.
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