Courtesy of Danessa Myricks Beauty
Danessa Myricks is as expert as it gets when it comes to the beauty industry. She’s a makeup artist (emphasis on art), educator, formulator, and founder of Danessa Myricks Beauty. The brand is beloved for its innovative formulas and powerhouse pigments that everyone is obsessed with, from Sephora shoppers to beauty editors.
Their newest complexion product, the Yummy Skin 10/10 Barrier Boost Serum, launched last week, and it’s already a favorite. We sat down with Myricks to talk all about it—but, of course, we also had to talk about product ideation, shade ranges, and for her expert tips that we can implement into our own routines.
As a Black woman-founded beauty brand at Sephora, Danessa Myricks Beauty refuses to be put into a box. Their pigmented formulas and range of shades work, regardless of your color or undertone. It doesn’t leave anyone out—and that makes all the difference.
“It’s just really a question of the intention when [other brands] start [formulating], and you literally have to have that intention from the beginning. It can’t be an afterthought at the end,” Myricks told E! News. “One of the things that we do differently here is that I don’t approve the base formula until I see it in the deepest tone that I plan on making.”
Whether she’s developing a product or applying makeup on a client, nothing is made without careful thought and consideration. That same attention to detail can be felt in her love for beauty education, including every piece of advice she gave us. So, keep scrolling to see all the Danessa Myricks-approved tips and shop the products that follow her advice.
Prepping the Skin Is Essential
For Myricks, the first ten minutes (or longer) of every makeup application are dedicated to preparing, priming, and hydrating the skin with a sheet mask, a microcurrent device, and a cooling facial roller. “I would really focus on the skin, like hydrating it and plumping it out,” she told E! News. “I realized early on that literally determined how well that makeup was going to look at the end.”
The ordinary makeup wearer, though, would rather skip it for the sake of time. Her mission was to find an easier way for people of all skin types and skill levels to achieve that prepped, hydrated skin. “When you do that, it literally wakes up your whole face, and it just gets your skin ready to receive everything that you’re about to put on top,” she said.
Danessa Myricks Beauty Yummy Skin 10/10 Barrier Boost
Formulated with ten molecular weights of hyaluronic acid and ectoin, this serum promises to plump, hydrate, and protect your barrier. “I really was so leaned in to making sure that this absorbs really fast and it impacts the skin without leaving any excess residue,” she said. “It really amplifies the efficacy of anything that you’re putting on afterwards.”
EADEM Mami Wata Barrier Strengthening Face Mist
Ecton is a stand-out ingredient that Myricks mentioned. “I like to think of it as like the bodyguard for the cells,” she told us. This face mist by EADEM includes it in its formula alongside panthenol, cica, glycerin, and aloe vera to soothe and hydrate sensitive skin.
ByUR Vita Giving Daily Aqua Serum Mask (30 Count)
If you have the time to do a skincare prep routine before makeup, a five-minute sheet mask is a perfect addition. This one by K-Beauty brand ByUR is formulated with hyaluronic acid of different molecular weights, peptides, vitamin C, and more to brighten and hydrate.
Avoid Using A Single Shade For Your Face
“We have been sold a myth,” Myricks told E! News. “Everybody is looking for their one perfect shade of foundation. And if you look at it in reality, the face is three-dimensional.” Whether you have dark spots and hyperpigmentation or not, no one has a single shade across their entire face. Normally, there are lighter shades in the inner portions and darker shades in the outer portions.
“If you do find one thing that can go over your entire face, it probably has more coverage, and also it’s flattening out everything beautiful about the dimension of your face,” she said. “[That’s] why you have to go back and add blush and bronzer, and contour. You’ve got to put all of that dimension back because you erased it.”
Myricks’ expert recommendations? Use several shades that match the dimensions of your face, or use correcting pigments to seamlessly balance your face if you have unwanted dark spots or redness.
Danessa Myricks Beauty Yummy Skin Soothing Serum Skin Tint
Infused with vegan collagen peptides, ceramides, and squalane, this serum skin tint has a skincare-like formula and features light coverage and a radiant finish in 20 shades that include corrective pigments inside the color formulations.
m.ph by Mary Phillips Underpainting Face Highlight & Contour Palette
A great option is a face palette that includes highlighting and contouring shades that match the dimensional shades of your face. Available in three shade options, the m.ph underpainting palette includes one color corrector, two highlighters, and two contours.
Danessa Myricks Beauty Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder
This revolutionary product is unlike anything else on the market. It’s a weightless balm-to-powder that creates a blurring barrier that gives you light coverage and primes your skin for any complexion product.
Stila Correct & Perfect All-In-One Color Correcting Palette
“Around my mouth is maybe four shades deeper than the rest of my face. So, I have to think differently. I have to think about correcting and neutralizing those tones to create the appearance of a more even tone,” Myricks told E! News. A correcting palette like this one is a good one to have in your collection.
Face Mapping Your Makeup Routine
Your face is unique to you, so why should your makeup routine and application match someone else’s perfectly? It shouldn’t. Myricks calls it face mapping. “The way you design your makeup, and your coverage should be specific to your face and its individual needs,” she said. “It’s not this generic blanket. I think that’s what really creates the frustration.”
The first step to mapping out your face is to manage your texture and skin type. Then, figure out what you want, and answer some questions: “What are some of the challenges? Can you explain your own face? What are some of the things that happen during the day? Do you find that your nose is sweaty, or do you have oiliness throughout your cheeks, but the rest of the face is dry?”
Once you have those specific details settled, you have to figure out what finish and coverage you want. Then, build your products. “I want people to like look at themselves. Just focus on you. This is all about you. What do you want? What are your desires for your face today? And let’s work from there,” Myricks told E! News.
Without realizing it, I’ve been doing this as I’ve been reinventing my makeup routine and collection. Below are some products that have worked for me and my extremely dry skin.
Editor’s Pick
Prada Micro-Correcting Blurring Concealer
No concealer I’ve tried has worked on my extremely dry and sensitive undereyes. This new Prada concealer has been the only exception. Infused with micro-filter pearls, peptides, and squalane, it’s magic for my face map.
Editor’s Pick
Armani Beauty Luminous Silk Natural Glow Blurring Liquid Foundation
Myricks said your face mapping won’t be the same every single day. I usually go either bare face or a light hydrating skin tint, but when I want some higher coverage without drying me out, I opt for the new formulation of the Armani foundation.
Editor’s Pick
Westman Atelier Mini Petite Baby Cheeks Lip + Cheek Cream Blush Stick
Another product infused with hydrating ingredients like jojoba seed oil and raspberry leaf stem cell extract. Westman Atelier’s cream blush stick gives you a healthy flush of color that looks lovely and beautifully radiant.
Looking for more expert recommendations? A Chinese astrology expert says what beauty product each sign needs for the Year of the Horse!
How We Choose
The E! Insider Shop editors and writers search the internet to find the best products out there. We interview expert sources, comb through customer reviews, and use our own personal experiences to make shopping easier for our readers.
As an editorial team, we independently create content and determine coverage based on research, reporting and what we think our readers would like to read about. The goal of our content is to provide a service and inform readers who are on the hunt for the latest products to help make their life better. Items are sold by retailer, not E!. Pricing and availability are accurate as of publish time.
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