Put Your Face on in 3 Minutes With These Mesmerizing Beauty GIFs

Updated on 3/23/2015 at 5:00 PM

As a beauty editor, I usually take the longer route when it comes to doing my makeup. After all, when you have the option of trying every product under the sun, why wouldn't you take your sweet, sweet time? But Estée Lauder may have made me a corner-cutting convert. The brand created a series of GIFs just for its lovely beauty counter ladies to show women the easiest ways to make up their faces. Not only are these GIFs gorgeous (hello, Joan Smalls), but they also featured tricks that I hadn't actually seen before. Being both nosy and beauty-obsessed, I had to know more. I asked Blair Patterson, director of global makeup artistry at Estée Lauder, what was going on in each one. We promise — these GIFs will make you feel not only totally hypnotized, but prettier, too.

The Eyes Have It

Cat eyes aren't as hard as they look, especially with this tip from Patterson. After drawing your regular line on, "angle your tool in the direction of the wing, ensuring the side of it is facing your hairline." You can use a pencil, powder, or gel formula to get that sexy tail, but to get a really durable look, use all three. Start with pencil to sketch, go over it with gel liner to amp up its appearance, and then set with powder shadow.

Blurred Lines

If you think you need a makeup artist on call to get a perfect pout, think again. "So many women are hung up on the correct way to use lip liner with lipstick, but the real trick is highlighting the Cupid's bow," said Patterson. By applying an illuminator to the perimeter of your pucker (and really focusing on the center of your top lip), a rushed lipstick application can appear flawless. Highlighter blurs any imperfections, so all that's left is your beautiful smile. Plus, it'll trick people into thinking you have a kisser so plump it could rival Angelina Jolie's.

XO Marks the Spot

Besides being a cute reminder to love our skin (even when it's being obnoxious), turns out these tic-tac-toe essentials are key to hiding a blemish. "With any kind of inflammation from acne, or maybe a mole or a scar, you're dealing with a raised area," Patterson said. Because the skin isn't totally smooth, just dabbing some concealer onto the spot isn't going to be the best way to hide it — and if you've ever tried to conceal one of those huge, sore pimples that never come to a head, you know that struggle. Patterson recommends drawing an X and an O on the blemish, because the O will "hide any redness surrounding the pimple, while the X applies the perfect amount of concealer to it." Ensure that zit stays hidden by adding a light layer of setting powder on top.

Easy E

Contouring is so simple we can do it in our sleep, but what about highlighting? Well, considering my name starts with an E, I'm pretty obsessed with this new trick. Starting at the outer third between the eyebrows, swoop a backward E down the side of the nose, and loop around the cheek at the highest point of the cheekbone. Besides being my and Estée Lauder's first initial, what makes the E so special? "Not only is it easy to remember, that loop on the cheekbone results in a more concentrated highlight on the highest part of the face," explained Patterson. So, if you don't have Joan Smalls's bone structure, you can fake it pretty darn well.