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.

How to Apply Real Makeup From YouCam Makeup Looks

With YouCam Makeup, you can create virtual looks on your own selfies using so many colors and techniques. But what's the fun in playing with virtual makeup if you can't recreate the look in real life? Well you CAN and it's EASY! I've put together a step-by-step guide showing you how to get started creating your real life makeup looks using YouCam Makeup as a guide. Not only will you get to try out limitless new makeup ideas, but you'll also save time and money by creating the virtual look first before you apply products in real life.

Step 1: Select a Preset Look or Create a Personalized Look

After playing around in YouCam Makeup, I decided to try on one of the pretty preset looks called "Pure" that works for an afternoon out with the girls or even in the workplace. After selecting the preset look, I clicked on the check in the top right corner to save the changes on my face. Then, for more personalization, I adjusted the colors in the preset look by selecting specific areas including Mouth and Eye. I changed my lipstick to a brighter color pink lip and the eye shadow to a more purple iridescent shade.

Next, to see all the products and application techniques used in the virtual makeup look, click on the heart-plus icon. Here you can see all the products, colors, and how they were applied. You can also go a step further and save this look to use again in the future.

  

Step 2: Review the Products Used in your Look

After you've clicked on the heart-plus icon, you can see what products and colors were used to create your look in this "Save My Look" list. This is the blueprint you can use to apply the makeup look in real life! Don't forget to scroll down to view the full list of the products. 

If this is a look you created yourself or modified from a preset look as I did, you can also choose "Save" at the bottom to name the look and use it again in the future. Or you can choose "Compare" to see a close up before and after image (as the tiny preview image in the bottom right corner shows).

Step 3: Gather Your Makeup to Begin Applying

Now you don't need spend a fortune at Sephora or go running to the drugstore to buy a ton of makeup to create the looks in real life. A makeup kit with the essentials is enough to create most of the traditional makeup looks in YouCam Makeup (of course recreating our costume looks require many more products!)

If you are just getting started and aren't sure what products you would need to create your YouCam Makeup looks on your own face, you can get some ideas for a budget makeup kit such as this drugstore starter kit of makeup essentials from blogger Hairspray and Highheels or the ultimate makeup kit for $100 from blogger Cara from Maskcara.com.

My makeup kit includes an eye shadow palette with a variety of colors to play with, powder blush, liquid black eyeliner, a simple black mascara, a few different shades of lipstick and a few makeup brushes including essentials like an eye shadow brush and blush brush (without mentioning my everyday skin basics like foundation, powder and concealer).

Step 4: Use Your "Save My Look" Blueprint and Start Applying

Now the fun starts as you begin following the makeup blueprint step by step to create your look. I started with the easiest, lips and cheeks. I dug through my makeup bag and found the lipstick that was most similar to the color I chose in YouCam Makeup. I applied a two-toned blush for the apples of my cheeks and sakura pink lipstick color that is subtle yet refined. One trick I use to get the color of lipstick I want when I don't have hundreds of colors to choose from is to layer two different colors together OR use darker shades as stains by blotting off excess color to reveal a lighter lip color.

Before (left) and After Applying Lipstick and Blush (Right)

 

For the eyes, I always start with eyeliner first, then lashes, and finally apply the eye shadow. The eyeliner I used was a basic liquid black liner that is a good product for creating almost any of the liner styles in YouCam Makeup. Liquid liner gives you a more defined and dramatic look and is typically longer lasting than a pencil. Start with a fine line at the inner corner of the eye, and as you work your way to the outer corner, make the line slightly thicker. You can also line the eye and go back over with a liner brush and black or dark brown eye shadow to fill in the area closest to your lashes. Then, I applied mascara to the top lashes only. Clean up any mess or stray lines with a cotton swab and a little water/makeup remover.

After Applying Eyeliner and a Coat of Mascara on My Lashes 

Eye shadow can be intimidating, because there are so many colors and you might not know where to put each of the colors to achieve the look you want. We try to make it easy for you by providing a color map to help you place each color exactly on your eyelid according to the number we indicate. For this look, I went to my most colorful eye shadow palette and took the lightest white color #1 that actually goes under the inner corner of the eye, then I took the periwinkle color #2 to cover half of my eyelid and then used the darker purple color #3 at the outer corner. The percentage of each color shows you how much product to apply.

After Applying Eye Shadow on my Eyelids According to the Chart 

The Final Result...

After applying the whole look according to the YouCam Makeup blueprint, the result is pretty close to my virtual creation! I'm very pleased with how it turned out and can't wait to create my next YouCam Makeup inspired look. If you've created you own looks in real life using YouCam Makeup as the inspiration, share them with us in the comments below or on our YouCam Perfect and YouCam Makeup Facebook page.

YouCam Makeup (left) versus Real Makeup (right) 

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

The Secret to Taking the Perfect Selfie

Getting that gorgeous self portrait just got even easier! Show off your best selfie in 3 easy steps using the best loved selfie beautifying app YouCam Perfect that is now fully integrated with the mobile cosmetic kit YouCam Makeup.

Thenextweb praised these two CyberLink beauty apps, saying YouCam Makeup is great if "you’re sending a wallet size photo to your parents or kids or have to get a LinkedIn shot up quickly," or you can use the features of YouCam Perfect to give you "a more natural selfie fix."

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Step 1: Perfect Your Selfie

Open the YouCam Perfect app, and select the Beauty Camera to auto beautify your face. You can continue to Edit the image if you want to use the other great YouCam Perfect features such as effects, frames, and scenes as you normally would. Or choose Makeup to use the virtual makeup kit in YouCam Makeup.

After capturing the image with YouCam Perfect & using auto beautify. Menu to continue editing.

Step 2: Apply Makeup 

Now you're ready to play with all the true-to-life makeup tools in YouCam Makeup including tools to enhance your Skin, Face, Eyes, and Mouth. Mix, match and try hundreds of different lipstick, eye shadow, mascara, or foundation color combinations. Or experiment with the preset Looks such as Office Lady, 40s, and Rocker-themed for instant, effortless makeovers in just one touch.

I tried out the "Rocker" look in the photo above, then customized it by choosing my own lipstick color and eyeliner. Use this mobile beauty toolbox to highlight your best features and try out new looks before you apply the makeup in real life!

Step 3: Add Frames or Make a Photo Collage

To add another touch of elegance to your images, select the output options of YouCam Perfect Edit or YouCam Perfect Collage after saving your makeover portrait. Choose from a variety of uniquely designed borders and frames. 

You can also create a photo memory to share with your friends or family with the “smart collage” photo collage. Create great looking collages quickly without worrying about the details of getting that perfect placement. YouCam Perfect now intelligently crops your photos by automatically detecting faces and retaining the important portion.

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Bring out your beautiful side! 

Download these 2 beauty apps today for free on the ITunes App Store for iOS and on the Google play Store for Android.