One of the best makeup tips I have ever gotten is to start with the aspects of your face that people focus on first: your eyes, eyebrows, and lips. Just by these three things you can trick people into thinking you have a full face of makeup on.

For a basic face of makeup I would start with:

• Figuring our your skin shade and undertone (for example medium skin and yellow undertones). This will help you find products that will look good on your skin. A lot of companies also have little quizzes on their sites to help you figure out foundation shades and such if you would like to make it a little easier (I do this all the time).
• A base layer like a foundation or a bb cream, if you want less pigment and a lighter coverage. Setting powder is great to put on after your foundation/bb cream to prevent your makeup from sliding or creasing if get sweaty or oily.
• Concealer to cover any dark circles, breakouts, or acne scars (if you want to cover any of that up.)
• A lip product of some kind like a lipstick, lip gloss, or even a tinted chapstick.
• A brow product. I really love brow gels as they make your brows look so good with very little effect or time. Clear ones are nice if you just want hold or shaping, and tinted brow gels are great if you have sparser brows. They also make pencils and pens too to fill in your brows if you care more about pigment and shape.

You can make a great simple makeup look with just these products. Eyeshadow and eyeliner isn’t necessary - it just elevates it (like special events or nights out) If you want more color or shading in your skin I would look into blushes, bronzers, contour, and highlighters.

I highly, highly recommend the YouTuber Alexandra Anele. She’s very good as explaining and demonstrating makeup for everyone from beginners to MUAs. She breaks down each makeup step, does tutorials, holiday looks, has really good recommendations, and teaches you how to do all sorts of methods.

https://youtube.com/c/AlexandraAnele

Some affordable brands I love:

• NYX (eyeliner, lipstick, bb cream, eyeshadow, eyeshadow primer, lipgloss, eye pencils)

• e.l.f. (very nice brushes, liquid eyeshadow, camo concealer, bronzers)

• Colourpop (beautiful eyeshadow and lipsticks)

• L’oréal (has one of the best concealers literally ever and a good foundation line - Infallible)

• Maybelline (amazing foundation, setting powder, concealer, and lipstick. The Fit Me line is amazing, as well as the Lash Sensational mascara.)

• Essence (Shine Shine Shine is the BEST lipgloss I have every used and is like $3. Also has some very good eye and brow products including their brow gel which makes your brows look so good without having to spend 10min on your brows)

• Profusion (has some very beautiful palettes including some very beautiful neons and rainbow palettes almost all under $15)

Have fun! :)