I have a lot of make-up pet peeves, and even after watching so many different make-up gurus on Youtube who uses various techniques and have different styles of make-up, there are just some things I can't accept.
1. False lashes sans eyeliner
Unless you're using false lashes with transparent spines, 9 times out of 10, your false lashes will have a black spine. I mean, don't you feel weird that your "natural lashes" grow from your eyelid? Lashes grow from the lashline, not the eyelid itself.
Correct way: line your eyes with eyeliner of your choice (black, please, 'cause unless your lash-attaching skills are impeccable, chances are, the spine will show). Stick on your false lashes, allow the glue to dry completely, then go over the spine with black liquid liner to even out and blend the lash spine to the eyeliner.
Trust me, it looks much more natural this way, regardless of the type of lashes you use. If you really want to sans the eyeliner, stick your lashes below the lashes, not above. If not, you could opt to cut them into smaller segments for better control.
2. Stark-white inner eye corners
Make-up gurus often instruct us to "apply a shimmery/pearl/white/beige/light colored product" to the inner corners to highlight and bring light to the eyes. This theory holds true, unless you decide to whip out your poster paint and dot them at your inner corners.
Having too shimmery or light inner corners just look very unnatural, and in my opinion, somewhat creepy. Highlighting should be extremely subtle, so that when the light shines on your face, the product catches and reflects the light. It shouldn't be extremely obvious.
Correct way: less is more. Subtlety is the key to highlighting. Just enough to brighten your eyes should do, any more than that and I might scream at you in the streets if I see you. =x
3. Shimmer/glitter liner gone wrong
There was this one time I was on a mall trip with friends, and we met another one of our friends who was working at one of the boutiques. She had on false lashes sans eyeliner (refer to point number one), and also silver glitter eyeliner at her inner corners (point two) and all over her lower lashline. I almost strangled her.
Anyways, personally I find glitter/shimmer liner to be used as an accent over regular eyeliner, not on it's own, especially those that are light colored. And unless it's a dark glitter, having glitter liner on in broad daylight is WEIRD.
Correct way: layer it over another product, so that it looks more natural. If it's gonna be stark, you might as well skip it, especially for daytime. And avoid applying it anywhere under the eye - it's just weird.
4. One-color lids
Sure, using one eye shadow color on the eyes aren't bad, if they're blended well. But then there's the case of using that particular color of shadow, and treating it like beige shadow - some apply it (not blend) all the way up to the brow!
Firstly, it looks weird as hell. Secondly, if you're using shimmer shadows, it looks even weirder. I dunno, it just gets to me.
5. Stark lipstick with wonky edges
This applies especially to red lipstick. There was once I was in Singapore, and we were taking the shuttle from my aunt's condominium to the MRT station. My older sister and I sat beside each other, and as the shuttle picked up more people from the neighboring communities, and from there came a young lady, I would say not more than 30 years old.
My sister and I promptly squished together to make one space due to the crowd in the shuttle. She was quite pretty - her hair was pulled up into a top bun, I liked her clothes at that time, but I just couldn't take my eyes off her lips. She had this stark red lipstick on, and the edges of the lipstick didn't go with the edges of her lips.
It just looked so weird - it's like putting the wrong set of lips on Mr Potatohead's face. Using a brush would increase precision, or a method I use is apply the lipstick, then gently blur the edges so that it's not so harsh.
6. Top-heavy eyes
The entire world is about balance. Having super dark and dramatic lids, without applying anything to the lower lashline is just WEIRD. Especially to those girls who wear super dense lashes in broad daylight - some of them have so much going on the eyelids, that sometimes it looks as if their lids are swollen.
Some say, "day make-up can't be so dark!" You're right at that, but your lids are already so dark, it won't hurt to put a little dark shadow on the lower lashline to balance things out. And to avoid looking like a zombie or panda, either find a good concealer, apply the dark shadow really close to the lashes, or both.
7. Neglected brows
I find that beautifully blended shadows on lids, are sometimes ruined by untamed/undefined brows. Not so much those with thick/bushy brows, but more of those with sort of fuzzy, light brows. Like they're not really there, but they're just visible enough.
The eyes are the windows to the soul, and nice windows have nice frames. In this case, the frames are your brows. If you're not comfortable having the typical arched brows, just groom your brows to their natural shape, ridding it of stray hairs.
When it comes to make-up, just lightly fill according to the shape with a powder (easier) or pencil (remember to blend) that matches your hair color. For dark haired people, go for one or two shades lighter. For light haired, go one or two shades darker.
The brows should be darker at the arch, then fade out to the front and back.
8. Wrong placement of blusher
This especially applies for pink blusher. Blusher is a cosmetic tool to fake an appearance of blushing, which is when blood rushes to your face and colors your cheeks. Natural blushing usually occurs at the apples of the cheeks.
Where application of cosmetic blush is concerned, usually it would be on the apples of the cheeks, blending up toward the hairline. I have seen girls who took "apply blusher on the cheeks" literally. The blusher is applied liberally to the entire cheek, and especially for those with clogged pores like me, make them look like they have a skin allergy.
Blushers have different colors and undertones. There's pink, orange, coral, red, etc. Test each blusher to see if it suits your skin tone before purchasing it.
9. Unblended foundation & BB cream
Somehow this is a more common thing than you think - given the many methods of applying foundations, as well as modern day time restrictions, it's quite easy to just underblend the foundation/BB cream.
This is especially for those people with oily skin, or the BB cream consistency just stays liquid-y or creamy - the product will continue to be in the movable state, thus will move more easily. To fix this, a thin veil of fine powder will help set the product in place, and help it last much longer.
I think the bottom line is to just make sure that you take a little more time to blend out the product to avoid looking streaky, which is why I usually don't wear make-up unless I'm sure I have the time to do it.
10. Heavy eye make-up that accentuates uneven eyes
None of us are born with perfectly symmetrical eyes, let alone faces - at least I haven't seen any. One way or another, each eye will be slightly different from the other. Michelle Phan just recently evened out her eyelids using eyelid tape - wearing it for over 22 hours a day for 3 months.
Some, like me, live with it. One eyelid has always been more hooded than the other, but now I have to resort to using eyelid tape when doing make-up - my eye infection hasn't completely went away yet, so my right eye has now a "double eyelid", which basically just means a more pronounced crease.
In some cases, those with uneven lids wear extremely heavy make-up - lots of dark shadows, and a super heavy, thick set of false lashes, which further accentuates its unevenness. Why I say so? When your eyes are uneven, your lashes tend to point in different directions - false lashes always depend on the eyelid to define its shape. Sticking on super heavy ones is practically screaming "I HAVE UNEVEN EYES!!!"
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Well, I guess that's all for this post. Just as a disclaimer: whatever is written up there, as well as anywhere else on this blog, are purely my own opinions. No one has directly influenced what I write (indirect influences coming from all directions, though).
I am, by no means, claiming that I am a professional at make-up, neither am I claiming that I know a lot. I just have a blog, I like make-up, and I like to share my thoughts.
The world of make-up is dynamic - products are now multifunctional, and there's no particular rule to what you should use for what part of your face anymore (sometimes). Like everything else, make-up styles and techniques change. Trends change. For now, this is how I feel about make-up, which is why I would almost never let anyone else do my make-up.
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