Hollywood actresses seem to have it made. They look great – in part because of make-up artists like Christina Smith who know how to work with celebrities (like Giselle Bundchen, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Kate Hudson) and bring out their best features and minimize their flaws. She has become known as the Queen of camouflage make-up.

The rest of us aren't quite so lucky. We struggle with finding the right products. Once we do find them, we sometimes struggle with getting our looks just right.

So we look for tips. We talk with the make-up artists who work the counters. Once we're able to get past their insistence that we buy an entire line in order for it to work, once we realize that we're able to pick and choose from different product lines, we'll find that we are able to take start making progress.

It also helps when we get tips from celebrity makeup artists like Christina Smith who offered the following tips when I recently spoke with her.

In order to start looking more like a star, it's important to develop a daily beauty regimen. The key is to find products that are specific to your skin type and to make sure that you have five essentials: a great cleanser, moisturizer, a night cream and eye cream, and a serious concealer.

Each day should begin by washing with a great cleanser, followed by moisturizer, sunscreen and then your makeup. Of course, if you have larger pores, you'll want to take steps to minimize them. Though there are products that you can use to minimize them, there are simple steps that you can take that don't require an additional purchase.

For example, one of the simplest ways of minimizing your pores is to use a cold wash cloth on your face prior to applying your makeup. If that's not enough, you can mix moisturizer into your makeup – thinning it – before applying your makeup to those areas.

Your base will help to even out your skin tone, and, if your hope is to find makeup that will help you to bring back a healthy glow, choose an illuminator base. A base with a bit of pearl can give your skin a healthy, youthful glow without shine.

Shine, after all, is something that none of us want in our makeup: it seems to bring out flaws. The right shading, on the other hand, can help to create a slimmed appearance. Shading creates an appearance of receding; lighter colors, on the other hand, help to highlight or bring something to the foreground.

Shading and highlighting can be used along the neckline as well as around the eyes. A touch of shimmering eye shadow will keep your eyes bright and bring back a youthful spark.

Of course, that spark won't be as easy to notice if you have dark circles around your eyes. Fortunately, there are ways of minimizing those dark circles. You can choose a Smart Cover concealer hide the circles – so long as you stay away from shades that are too white or too dark.

Your brows can also highlight your eye and make them pop. It's all a matter of thinning your brows to create an arch over the center of the eye – and knowing when to quit. Remember, you don't want to thin your brow too much: if you're nervous about doing your brows yourself, go to someone to do them for you.

You may not have someone who does your makeup daily, but that doesn't mean that you can't look great. The key is finding the right products, practice and remembering to keep it simple: after all, you will be applying your makeup every day.