Cree Synster wrote:
Clean your brushes! If you use brushes on one person, make sure you CLEAN the brush before using it on another person.

The best way to get better at make up is practice. You can read and watch different techniques all you want, but you really learn it by practicing on yourself. You can practice on friends too for fun, if they let you. You get to learn all the contours of the face and how certain colors look on different people/skin tones/etc...

There's a TON of different make up tutorials on youtube. The "easiest" to learn is the "natural" look where minimal makeup is used to just create a "fresh" look (foundation, light blush, lap balm, mascara, maybe eye shadow/liner).

A natural look is NOT easy.

Alabaster Crowley wrote:
A natural look is NOT easy.

I concur, it takes a lot of practice and a skilled hand to create a make-up look that looks like the model has next to nothing on their skin.

Beyond that though the best way to learn really is going to depend on you and what exactly you consider the basics. While you're definitely going to have to get hands on at some point the way in which you initially approach the technique should be in a way that makes sense to you. Personally I'd suggest reading through a few books, watching a few videos and ultimately getting a private lesson from an MUA but with all of that said there are some things to keep in mind, the main ones being that not everyone works the same, that if something seems unsafe it likely is, and that you need to be mindful of the individual model and what allergies or aversions they may have.

Good Luck!