If you look up facial aesthetics, you may see the term “soft-maxxing.” So, what exactly is soft-maxxing about?
Soft-maxxing is enhancing your appearance while staying affordable. Additionally, soft-maxxing is not permanent. You can “take off” your soft-maxxing efforts at the end of the day. Therefore, anything you do that is soft-maxxing is a short-term way to look better. Examples of soft-maxxing include makeup, skincare, clothes, hair, etc.
Soft-Maxxing
Soft-maxxing is anything you can do to enhance your appearance without going through surgery, getting permanent results, or spending a lot of money. If you have heard of looksmaxxing or hard-maxxing, it is the “softer” and temporary version of it.
The main idea of soft-maxxing is that anything you do to enhance yourself will not be permanent. For instance, makeup can drastically improve your appearance, but you can take it off before you go to bed. You can change your hair color to better suit your style and skin tone. If you don’t like the color, you picked you can easily change it, or the color will fade.
Soft-maxxing is ideal for people who do not want to spend money on costly plastic surgery procedures or undergo any risks. It is also suitable for people who feel scared of going under the knife to enhance their appearance.
Soft-maxxing is also good for people who are fine with how they look but simply want to tweak their appearance to feel and look better. You will not permanently alter your appearance if you try soft-maxxing.
Of course, there is a bit of leniency when it comes to the affordability of soft-maxxing. There will always be more expensive hair dyes, makeup products, clothes, etc. However, you do not have to spend that much on soft-maxxing if you do not wish to.
The Basics of Soft-Maxxing
Skincare
A great way to enhance your look and look effortlessly great daily is by taking care of your skin. However, coming up with a skincare routine can be a bit tricky.
Ideally, you will want to speak to a dermatologist, especially if you have skin concerns or are a complete beginner. You cannot simply copy someone else’s skincare routine because we have different skin concerns, types, allergies, etc.
Firstly, you want to start by finding out what your skin type is. From there, you can look for products that you can use.
There are five basic skin types: normal, dry, oily, combination, and sensitive. However, the Baumann Skin Type Indicator is more technical, as it states that there are 16 skin types (Baumann et al., 2008).
It is fine for beginners to stick with a dermatologist’s advice and the five basic skin types. You could also try to use natural, well-known products to avoid damaging your skin.
Most beginners would be with a cleanser, toner, moisturizer, and sunscreen. However, you may need specific products to address certain concerns. For instance, you may need to get prescribed ointments for fungal acne.
Makeup
Makeup can be a bit tricky if you are a beginner. Focus on learning what type of eye, face, lip, etc. shape you have first, and it will help you learn how to do your makeup.
For instance, you need to learn what your face and nose shape are to strategically contour and highlight. Refer to this guide:
Of course, people can have a mixture of face shapes. It would be best if you did a bit of experimenting to see what works best with your face shape. For instance, you could have round cheeks and jaw (like a round face shape) but have a small, tapering chin (like a heart face shape).
Remember, the idea is that you want contour to slim down certain areas, like puffy cheeks, a very big jawline, or a large forehead. You want highlighter to highlight areas you want to emphasize, like the tip of your nose, the very center of your forehead, and your cheekbones’ highest points.
Next, you need to consider your eye shape. You can refer to this photo for ideas:
Of course, you can somewhat break the rules of eye makeup when you feel confident. You can change the way you do your eyeliner, eyeshadow, etc. to do different eye makeup styles. There are tons of tutorials online that you can follow to help you.
For beginners, here is a quick look at five things you can focus on first. You can add more steps when you feel confident.
- Primer
Primer helps your makeup stay put all day long. Depending on what kind of primer you get, it can reduce pores’ visibility, decrease redness, etc. Depending on your skin type, you can get a primer with a matte or dewy finish. - Foundation
Foundation smoothens out your complexion. It also helps you even out your skin tone if you have an uneven skin tone. Ideally, you do not want to cake on your foundation to hide your blemishes, even if it says “heavy” coverage. Concealer will do that job for you. - Concealer
Concealer does precisely what it says – conceal your blemishes. Ideally, you want to get a concealer close to your skin color. If it is too light, it can emphasize your flaws. - Eyebrows
Your eyebrows help shape your face, so do not forget them. There are different kinds of eyebrow products, from pencils to pomades, so feel free to see which suits you best. People with thick brows can benefit from products like brow powder because it can fill in sparse areas. - Mascara
Eye makeup can be intimidating. Luckily, you can open up your eyes with something simple like mascara. You can get different kinds of mascara to get a natural look, longer lashes, dramatic and thick lashes, etc. Most mascara formulas are very similar – it is usually the wand itself that is different.
Of course, there is much more to makeup than the basics listed above. There are many makeup techniques, “rules,” etc. that can help you use makeup to your advantage.
Color Theory
Color theory is crucial when it comes to soft-maxxing. You can use it to make better choices when choosing colors of makeup, hair, and clothes to get.
To make color theory simple, you can determine which “season” you are with the Color Me Beautiful theory. It is based on four color types: spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
Two variables determine what seasonal type you are. The first is the undertone of your eyes, hair, and skin (cool/ashy or warm/golden). The second is how light or deep your overall skin and hair coloring is.
For a straightforward example, you are a summer or winter if you have ashy hair with no red or golden highlights, and you have a cool, blue-ish undertone. You are a spring or autumn if you have naturally red hair with a warm undertone.
However, that is a very basic example. For instance, winters usually have dark hair, but they can also have nearly platinum blond hair on rare occasions. You can look more into the Color Me Beautiful theory to learn what season you are.
Additionally, there are different types of each season. The variants of the seasons are light, deep, warm, cool, clear, and soft. For instance, you can be a clear winter or spring if you have turquoise, amber, bright green, or blue eyes with medium-brown to black or bright blond hair.
Here is a quick look at the 12 color types:
You can use the Color Me Beautiful scheme to help you choose better hair colors when you dye hair, choose the most flattering shades of makeup and clothes, etc. The theory helps you choose the colors that brighten and enhance your overall look.
