practicality

Practice, pretty much. Also, my Kevin Aucoin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevyn_Aucoin) books. Thumbing through one at a bookstore might help enough that you don't need to buy it. Tutorials, whether video or print, can give me ideas or tricks I didn't think of incorporating before. ^__^

I totally fail at makeup too, but if you're really stuck on method, there's YouTube. Seriously, a lot of people put make-up tutorials on YouTube. (One of my friends learned how to iron a shirt there!) They're pretty helpful, but of course, the ultimate maker of awesome is still practice, practice, practice.

Study stage and theater makeup. For speed it's definitely a matter of practice, but if you study show makeup you'll learn all the tricks about everything from proper coverage to crazy tricks like making realistic wounds. You'll also learn about how much color you need where based on what the lighting will be. People who look normal on stage look like clowns off stage, but that same intensity of makeup may be necessary for certain effects in normal lighting.

I never wear makeup, but being a backstage manager taught me everything about makeup I'd ever need to know. I'll try to find some resources for you, I don't have any of my books anymore but I'll find out what the titles were and see if I come across any good sites.