4 Ways to Step Up Your Style In Spring Break Photos!

Students of all ages rejoice when Spring Break rolls around, and many seize the opportunity to run off to someplace warm, soak up some rays, and forget about academic burdens. Sand, surf, and selfies are all a part of this annual tradition, but many factors on the beach can get in the way of capturing flawless photos. Windblown locks and dripping beach hair are the norm, waterproof makeup is never quite as waterproof as advertised, and once you get a sunburn…it’s all over! 

Luckily, now we can take photos when the mood strikes, and perfect them later. Ensure your Spring Break snaps show off the epic nature of your festivities! Check out these sunny suggestions on how to enhance your photos on the ride back to campus with YouCam Makeup & YouCam Perfect!

1. Get Foolproof Digital Makeup That Won’t Wash Away Or Smudge

Forget about purchasing a costly collection of waterproof cosmetics for your trip, and bring your YouCam Makeup App instead. This smart makeup kit lives on your phone, and allows you to enjoy a swim, snap a photo and apply flawless styles before you share your photos with the world. Here we applied the light and natural ‘Sunny’ look to achieve a beach-like quality.

2. Banish Beach Hair By Recreating Your Perfect Coif

It’s hard to look your best when you just crawled out of the ocean or a swimming pool, and that soaked beach hair is tricky to rock in photos. Use YouCam Makeup to recreate your natural chic hairdo in your post-swim pics.

3. Get A Group Selfie Where Everyone Looks Super Stoked

With so many factors that can spoil an outdoor group selfie – wind, sun, and arms that are too short – it’s quite a feat to get a photo where someone isn’t squinting, looking the wrong way, or somehow has their face obstructed. This spring break, grab a selfie stick and take your selfies with the Beauty Camera feature in the YouCam Perfect App. The selfie stick will ensure everyone fits in the photo and looks happy, and the Beauty Camera will instantly whisk away any imperfections on your friends’ faces.

4.When You Can’t Make The Tan, Fake The Tan

Some people are blessed with skin that easily looks sun-kissed and bronzed after a day by the water.  Unfortunately, for many of us sunburn is the more common result. If you can’t make the tan, fake the tan with YouCam Makeup. Grab a cute hat or a stay under a parasol, put on loads of sunscreen, and then add a little color to your skin with the app later on. Not only will you avoid the UV rays that can harm your skin – you’ll look great doing it too!

Cleary, the most important thing to pack this vacation besides a swimsuit and flip flops is your phone preloaded with your favorite apps YouCam Perfect & YouCam Makeup. Should you put together a to-die for beach ensemble, remember to share it with our Beauty Circle community – the next hot Spring Break fashion trend might be your creation! Whether you’re jetting off to Cabo, Cancun, or Miami, have fun, be safe & look great!

Better Spring Selfies Easy as 1-2-3

April showers may bring May flowers, but don't let those rain clouds ruin your mood or your photos! We've got 3 steps to make your selfies better no matter the weather. Show the world your best selfie using YouCam Perfect.

Step 1: Shoot a Great Selfie

Open YouCam Perfect on your Android or iPhone, and select the Beauty Camera to take a photo that automatically beautifies your face. Try out the camera with star icon to apply one of the 14 real-time skin beautification effects. Whether you want glamorous contours or nature soft light look, you can apply and see the effects before taking your selfie, just like a magic mirror!

Here are a few ways to improve the way your shots:

• Crop It Close and at an Angle- The background of your selfies is usually distracting and not the focus of your photo. So try a close crop at an angle on your next selfie  (not holding the phone right in front) to focus on YOU and not the background. 
• Follow the Rule of Thirds- Place your face in the top-right or top-left corner of the frame instead of directly in the center. Try to keep your eye line one-third down from the top and off to one side. 
• Use Both Hands- You can hold you phone with one hand or two to take your shot, but if you use both hands and the automatic timer, your arms can act as a nice, natural frame for your face.

  

Step 2: Perfect Your Selfie

Once you are satisfied with your selfie, use any of YouCam Perfect’s beautification tools to easily touch up your complexion for natural looking self-portraits that are perfect for sharing. Beautification tools that you can try include:

• Face Contour and Nose Enhance- Automatically contours your face for more definition 
• Face Reshaper- Like a virtual face lift, reshape your face to shed a few pounds instantly
• Blemish Removal- Remove lines, freckles and blemishes for baby smooth skin 
• Shine Removal and Blush- Remove unwanted shine and add natural rouge for a healthy glow
• Eye Enlarger and Eye Bag Removal- Enlarge your eyes and eliminate dark circles under your eyes

Step 3: Take It Up a Notch
To add another touch of elegance to your images, consider adding a Frame or Text Bubble to speak your mind. Place your photo into one of the stylishly designed borders, frames or scenes to make your selfie even more unique.

Or, use a combination of the Lens Flare, Light Leak, or Blur tool to get a personalized look and one-of-a-kind selfie as I did in the photos below. The Lens Flare tool sets the mood and adds style to your images. Lens Flare filters add a burst of creative light to your images that adds personality. The Blur tool will leave the background slightly blurred so that your face is the focal point in the image.

In the Deco tab, you will find many tools to decorate your selfies. 

The Perfect Selfie

Show off your beautiful side this spring with YouCam Perfect! Share your perfected selfies with us by posting them on YouCam Perfect’s Facebook Fanpage, on Twitter with the hashtag #YouCamPerfect, or on our Instagram account with the tag @YouCamPerfectOfficial.

Download YouCam Perfect for free on the ITunes App Store for iOS and on the Google play Store for Android.

Your 5 Must-Try Spring 2015 Makeup Trends

Fashion Week has come and gone, and finally spring is here! When it comes to spring makeup, we can tell that we definitely won't be seeing the same old boring colors or floral prints. Spring 2015 is filled with daring and surprising trends, and we've picked out some of our favorites from this year's Fashion Week to share with you. The looks that top our list include purple plum lips, the fine-lined cat eye, slightly kooky face embellishments, bold blue shadows, and makeup au naturel.

Here's what we think are the top 5 prettiest trends that you should try out this spring. Get inspired by our favorites and re-create them for yourself using YouCam Makeup!

1. Purple Plum Lipstick

While spring is typically a time for brighter colors, this year we're going bold with a wine-stained purple lip color. The berry cherry lips are trendy this spring, such as the lips we saw in Dolce & Gabbana's show. At Trussardi the models with plum lips also looked fresh and stylish. While I wasn't a fan of this color at first because of my pale skin, once I sampled the color I was hooked! Just be sure to play around with the color and tone of the plum lipstick you choose, just to make sure it matches your skin tone.

2. Fine Lines, Eyes of a Feline

 

We saw a love of the cat eye this year at Fashion Week, from the winged cat eye at Oscar de la Renta to the more abstract lines of Suno. While this look is classic, it is anything but boring. With YouCam Makeup, you can try on all different colors of liner and styles of cat eye (from thick and daring to thin and classic lines). For this look, we paired it with a simple light pink lip and light peach blush to keep the focus all about the eyes.

3. Pretty Little Face Embellishments

One of the surprising trends we saw this year was face embellishments. If you are feeling more playful but don't want to go completely costume, try adding a bit more artistic flair with a few hearts on your cheek or peacock feathers on your lids. But not to worry, you don't have to be a real artist to get these facial adornments. YouCam Makeup has many preset Looks (both traditional makeup and costume styles) including ones with facial tattoos and crazy lashes.

For this Look, I applied the Look "Lovestruck" to get the hearts, and then I toned down the eye shadows and lips for a more wearable style. To view all of our face embellishments, you can try out any of YouCam Makeup's preset looks. Simply open the YouCam Makeup app and click on "More" > "More Makeup" > "Looks" OR when you are inside the app playing with makeup simply click on "Looks" and click on "+" to see all preset looks.

4. Bright Bold Blues

 

If the other makeup trends are too toned down for you, this blazing blue trend will do the trick! The shades of azure on the upper and lower lids scream for attention. We saw graphic blue cat eye makeup at Honor and smudged light blue eye shadow at Emanuel Ungaro. To achieve this look, I played with the shades of blue and turquoise selecting the shadow style with color on the lower lid. A navy blue liner, light coating of mascara on top and bottom lashes and a matte nude lip complete the look. With this look, I'm feeling ready for a night out in high heels with friends! 

5. Barely There Natural Makeup

Wouldn't we all like to wake up looking flawless without makeup? If you weren't born with perfect skin, you can still achieve the minimal look and show off your healthy complexion with just a little foundation, blush and bronzer. We noted the nude makeup trend many times on the runway this year. We saw Donna Karan favor bronzed skin in an ode to summer, but Gucci kept the model's skin translucent and fresh by applying a foundation shade identical to the their natural skin tone. For this look, we evened out the skin tone by applying foundation and removing under-eye circles in the app. I then applied one of the natural makeup preset Looks calls "Office Lady" with a warm coral blush and eye shadow and pale pink lip.

To try on your own virtual makeup looks, get YouCam Makeup for free on your iOS and Android devices.