Foundation is a bit of a beauty Catch-22. It can cover redness and breakouts, but it can also look heavy, cakey, and dry if you’re not an application pro. Luckily, with the right technique, you don’t have to be. Instead of sweeping foundation across your entire face, you might want to try a different technique used for years by makeup artists to get glowing, natural looking skin: foundation mapping. Which, really, is just a fancy way of saying applying foundation only where you need it. Because you’re only using coverage where it’s needed, the idea is that ‘mapping’ gives the illusion of wearing very little makeup at all.

“It’s an effortless way to create your makeup base,” says celebrity makeup artist Tobi Henney, who particularly likes this technique in the summer.

As someone who struggles with acne and dry skin, I’ve been especially curious about this technique since I’d heard about it. No matter how hydrating the formula, foundation always, always looks entirely too visible on my skin, clearly showcasing that, yes, I have a full face of makeup on. But I feel uncomfortable not covering up my acne and refuse to go without foundation.

After prepping my skin as usual, I started by applying Paul and Joe Moisturizing Primer to blur and illuminate, so even the areas I was leaving bare wouldn’t be totally naked. Henney says that the most important step is choosing the proper foundation. It should be a perfect match for your skin, and “should be light to medium coverage, nothing too heavy.” I went with my L’Oréal Fresh Wear 24HR Foundation, as it’s the closest match to my skin tone, and is lightweight with a natural finish.

“Focus on applying the foundation on your T-zone, any uneven skin tone, redness, or blemishes,” Henney says. “Let the rest of your beautiful skin shine through.” I’m dealing with a lot of breakouts right now, so for me I focused on covering my forehead, chin, and some discoloration on my cheeks, leaving my nose and cheekbones bare.

Blending is key for this technique, and Henney recommends using either fingers, a dense brush, or a Beautyblender to really work the product into the skin. I used a Beautyblender as it’s great for picking up any excess foundation. After applying foundation on my breakouts and dark spots, I found it helpful to blend back over my entire face with the damp sponge just to make sure there were no harsh lines between where I had makeup on and where I didn’t.

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