10 Common Makeup Mistakes

Using an HD setting powder / a setting powder with flashback to an event/occasion using flash photography

You have to be careful with setting powders when you are going to be taking pictures. If you watch beauty YouTubers, you may remember James Charles’ “Flashback Mary” situation as he likes to call it. There are a lot of setting powders that will cause flashback when taking photos with flash, or in other words, creating a white cast in the picture. 

Now here are a few ways that you can try to prevent this from happening. Stay away from HD setting powders when you know that you are going to be getting photos taken. Always look at reviews before buying the powder, learn from other's experiences! Give it a test run beforehand - especially if it is for your wedding or something important as that. In the test run, do the makeup how you plan to the day of the event, then take photos with both flash and non flash in all different types of lighting so you can get the best idea on how not just your powder, but your makeup as a whole will look.  

It isn't always the James Charles whole face situation, it can be this Miley situation as well. You can obviously see the flashback/white cast of the setting powder around her mouth to keep her red lipstick from bleeding. 

Using the wrong tools to blend eye-shadow

It is truly baffling to me the tools that I will see some people use to try and blend/apply their eye-shadows. It is the reason why a lot of people claim they are terrible at doing makeup - it’s just that they aren’t using their tools correctly.

Now I’m not going to go in-depth in this post on what brushes are meant to be used when, but there are a few details that I want everyone to know. Small more densely packed brushes are meant for detail work: adding depth to the eye-shadow, working on the lower lash line. The more fluffy brushes are meant to be used in the crease to lay the color down and blend it out. 

Not blending eye-shadow

This kind of goes hand-in-hand with using the wrong tools to blend eye-shadow. There are a lot of people that have decided that they aren’t good at blending, so they just won’t blend at all. This is when they end up with sharp, blotchy eye-shadow. 

Even when you are using bright and vibrant colors the goal is to make the makeup to look as “natural” as possible. In order to do this, you want to blend the eye-shadow until you have a nice gradient from the darkest being at your lid/crease and the lightest being at your brow bone. 

Using shimmer eye-shadow in the crease 

This is going off of the same concept of contouring the face. Highlight where the sun hits, contour/bronze where there would be shadow. Adding shimmer, even if it isn’t a light color of the shimmer, is giving the highlighting effect to the eye. This can give the eye two effects: it can make the eye look slightly puffy because you are making the crease of the eye stand out instead of staying in, and it can make the eye look like a disco ball, and not in the fun way - in the way of the eye looking to busy.

To avoid this, make sure and try only using matte shades to the crease, then using shimmer shades on the lid, inner corner of the eye, and brow bone to frame the eye. More often than not, doing your eye-shadow this will make your makeup most flattering.  

Not priming the eyelid/face

Have you ever gotten up and put on your makeup in the morning, then when you go and look in the mirror around midday it looks faded, missing, or blotchy? My question for you is: Do you/did you prime your face before applying your makeup? This is a highly forgotten, yet very important step in starting your makeup. One that I forgot in my makeup in this picture. The only part of the makeup that still looks good and put together is my lashes.

 

A common misconception with priming is that you need to buy one of those expensive primers for it to work - and that just isn’t worth it. No, you can use your moisturizer as a primer. You just need something down for your makeup to stick to, and most of the time your moisturizer can do that job. I would recommend getting your makeup on within around 30 minutes of applying the moisturizer. Now this is based on skin type, if you have oily skin, this might not be enough to get your makeup to stick, you would want to consider a mattifying primer.

Now if you are wanting some extra moisture, need that mattifying effect, want to diminish the appearance of pores, or just want something extra for your makeup to grip onto, primers are also great! There are great high-end and drugstore options to choose from depending on your needs and budget. Just remember that a primer does not replace a moisturizer. 

Angling the line of your winged eyeliner too high or low

On the left side, I kept the wind angled too flat, or low. It's placed correctly angled on the right side.

Winged eyeliner is not easy, at least for me. Even after doing it on a semi-regular basis for the last 6 years, it is still something that I find hard. Bearing this in mind, I don’t find this as cringe worthy as some of the other mistakes that I have listed here. It is very easy to angle the wing of your eyeliner too high or too low.

Here is a little trick to make it easier to put your eyeliner where it is supposed to be: from the angle of your lower lash line to the tail of your eyebrow. Take a piece of scotch tape and stick it to your hand a couple of times to get a little bit of the stickiness off of it so it won’t pull on your eye, and stick it to the angle that I just described that it is supposed to be. Now you have a guide.

Make sure you do this trick before the rest of your face so: one, your face makeup isn’t ruined by the tape, and two, if you do accidentally mess up on the eyeliner - you’ve only ruined the one eye and not the whole face of makeup.

Keeping your makeup products in the bathroom

This is something that practically everyone does that grosses me out, and makes me cringe so hard. It is very unsanitary! Makeup, especially your powders, need to be kept in a dry temperature controlled environment to maximize the life of the product, and to minimize the bacteria in the product. Once moisture gets into a powder, which can easily happen when in a humid environment of a bathroom, it no longer performs in the capacity that it was intended and expires sooner. 

Keeping your makeup in the bathroom where there is humidity from your showers increases the bacteria in your makeup products (both powder and cream), then you go and put those products on your face! Then if you want to get really real, if you don’t shut the toilet lid when you flush, fecal matter is sprayed around the room. So even if your products are closed, when you get them out and put them on the counter, then pick up the brush/sponge and tap it into the product, then you have put those particles into your makeup, then onto your face. 

 If you have been getting breakouts and can’t figure out why, you might stop keeping your makeup in the bathroom. I personally have a makeup area in my bedroom where I have hand sanitizer placed right there so I can keep my hands clean before working with my products.  

Blending your blush + contour downwards 

I genuinely hope that this makeup on Lindsay Lohan is a joke, but it does do well for showing an exaggerated effect of very harshly blending her contour downwards, not balancing the face, and leaving the line of discoloration between the contour and hairline. (The next 3 mistakes!)

Blending your blush or contour downward can have the unwanted effect of bringing the face down - making the face look droopy, older, and sleepy. This is why a lot of people find contouring so hard, and not turning out how they want it to; because they aren’t blending upward. You want to blend the blush/contour upward so that the face is given a lifted appearance making you look more sculpted, thinner, and awake. It’s a simple thing that makes all of the difference when doing your makeup. 

Not balancing the face when bronzing/contouring the cheeks but not forehead

There is a “rule” when it comes to contouring/bronzing that is: highlight where the sun would naturally hit the face, and contour where there would be shadow. Now here is where there is the exception, even though there would never necessarily be a natural shadow on your forehead, you want to provide balance to your face. If your contour/bronze your cheeks but not your forehead then your face is imbalanced. 

Even if you have a small forehead that you don’t want to recede any more by contouring it, you still need to put the littlest amount of color to the outer most perimeter of your forehead to provide balance. Now if you have a normal to large forehead, you can actually make it look larger by not contouring/bronzing it when you have your cheeks. 

Not blending contour into hairline leaving line of discoloration 

One of the things that makes me cringe the most that is the most preventable, is not blending your contour into your hairline. If you do not blend your contour into your hairline, it leaves a line no no color between where your contour and your hairline. It takes away the illusion of slimming or adding structuring your face when you see your face from an angle. If can also make your face look muddy even when you are using a color that is flattering for your skin tone. 

How you can prevent this when you are contouring, hold your hair back with one hand, look in the mirror at your cheek and hairline, and contour making sure you get into your hairline. Don’t worry about getting makeup into your hair. It will easily come out. I have bleach blonde hair and I have had no problems with cream or powder bronzer staining/ not being able to get out of my hair. If it is super noticeable, you can use a makeup wipe/remover and wipe it off of your hair (just be careful to not wipe it off your face) and anything else will come out the next time you wash your hair. 

*Bonus*

Raccoon eyes eyeliner

Now this is something that I was guilty of all through middle and high school. I looked absolutely trashy and I admit it (there are photos way worse than this, trust me! This was just the first one I could find that could get my point across). I ignored everyone when they told me that it didn’t look good because I just knew that it looked great! Why? I really have no clue. I think that had I been told in a different manner that it didn’t look good and why that I would have been a little more receptive. 

So black eyeliner all around your eyes. This really closes the eyes off and makes them look much smaller than they actually are. Because of this, they can also make you look very run-down and tired.