Has applying makeup ever made you appreciate your facial features more? Or did you grow to love one that you weren’t so keen on before?
My nose — I never liked it, but then I discovered it really wasn’t so bad after all, because it didn’t look better contoured!
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I didn’t realise before that I had cheekbones and some semblance of a bone structure. I still need to contour it but it doesn’t take that much effort to define them. Also, I never appreciated my lips until I started playing around with lipstick!
Probably my cheeks! I have a really round face, but blush is the one (colourful) thing I always make time for getting ready even when I’m in a rush. I used to wish I had a smaller (or at least more angular) face because it always made me feel like I had chubby cheeks! But now I think they’re a great canvas for my fave makeup product 😀
For sure!! I have almond shaped eyes, and very large lips, and always avoided winged liner and bright lipstick. But slowly working up to it taught me to love my eye shape and to love my full lips 🙂
Most definitely my eyelashes! I never really thought about them much, but now I realise I’m quite lucky they’re so dense, and slightly (emphasis on the slight part!) naturally curled. 🙂
Absolutely. Nothing brightens the face quite like framing your eyes, and hey, my eyes aren’t too shabby at face-brightening. 🙂
I don’t believe in good/bad features, so while I don’t exactly appreciate my features more via make-up, I certainly notice some things more and generally feel neutral about it. The one exception is noticing my watery eyes, but I doubt that’s a feature.
I think so. It made me appreciate my high cheekbones and the shape of my nails more. I have learned to enhance them with makeup and it’s make me like them even when not wearing any makeup/polish.
Actually no, it has made me more aware of all my flaws, lol… But I do know now how to emphasize the good parts and ‘hide’ the not-so-good parts.
my eyes and lips :))) i liked them before, too, but now i like them more.
My coloring in general can wear almost any color well – oddly enough the exception is beige. My eyelids are big enough to place several colors and my lashes are long enough mascara formulas don’t matter much.
I don’t wear beige either – what’s the point? It’s so colorless and my reason for wearing makeup is to give my face a healthy look not a boring colorless one : )
Except for eyeshadow, I won’t wear beige, either. Maybe at 50 I’m just “old school,” but I always thought that the entire point of applying makeup was to make yourself look healthier, not paler. That’s why I completely skipped the nude lips frenzy; beige lips make me look wan and colorless, while a berry shade, like Illamasqua Salacious, brightens up my entire face, highlights my white teeth, and makes me look at least five years younger.
Eyeshadow is an exception, since I wear eyeshadow for depth and emphasis, rather than to add color.
My lips. I always hated my full lips growing up but now I love them! Lip liner and lipstick has really helped me to appreciate them
neither I, I’ve been trying to contour my face and it never worked
I’m really, really pale (redhead) with blond eyelashes and used to be so paranoid about ever going out in public without mascara and eyeliner; I thought my eyes looked so tiny. But by playing around with make-up, I’ve gotten used to different looks and can now see my un-made-up pale face as just a different look (ala Tilda Swinton or Lady Gaga when she was doing the albino thing).
I think makeup has increased my confidence in all my features! I never really hated any of them to begin with, but as I’ve learned how to apply makeup and different makeup looks, I think I’ve come to appreciate my features more.
I have small eyes with now droopy lids. Working through various eye make up techniques has made me appreciate my eyes more. Also, with makeup I have finally found my cheekbones!
i used to hate my oblong face and really long neck. i look like a frikin giraffe in some photos. my neck is as long as my face :)). but lately i have come to termes with them.
contouring/ bronzing has helped a lot. its in my everyday routine.
people with high cheekbones and round faces have a more youthfull apperance and suposedly get fewer lines around the eyes….well at least that’s what i’ve been told. here’s hoping…
Round faces do tend to ‘puff out’ the wrinkles! I lost a lot of weight and was distressed at how gaunt my face looked – and more little wrinkles. I gained the
weight back and am happy as can be!
At the risk of sounding vain, I’ve always “appreciated” my features, with or without makeup… I have no significant flaws or disfigurement, so that’s something I’ve *always* been grateful for. Anything else, I can simply “adjust” with makeup techniques!
I am by no means “perfect”, but I see people on a regular basis who have been born with significant deformities, or have had disfiguring conditions/accidents, and when I see that, I’m appreciative of what I have…
I used to feel really self conscious about my lips because they are very full and I hated the comments that people used to make to me about their size.
When I started wearing lipstick though, I started to appreciate them lol.
Chi-Chi, I heard THAT!
Beginning when I was a child, and continuing right through early adulthood, I got frequent snide remarks, from “friends” as well as strangers, about my “fat” lips. In high school, I even got called “n-word lips.” (I’m Caucasian, but hate hearing that word in any context). I don’t know what these people’s problem was, but now when I see someone my age with obviously “enhanced” lips, I chuckle evilly to myself. :)
Not long ago, some former high school classmates of mine (NOT the same ones who’d jeered; I avoid them now) actually remarked, “Carla, you have *perfect* lips!”
It was nice to hear.
When I first started wearing makeup the first thing was a simple eyeliner on my water line. I couldn’t believe how different I looked! That was the beginning of my love of makeup. I find it makes every aspect of my face look better : )
I can say that I never paid much attention to my eyelashes, but when I wear mascara people think that I have on falsies. Playing them up is fun.
OMG! This made my day! For me it’s my mono lids! I used to lavish people with double eyelids. I even used double eyelid tape and glue at one point! But after doing eye makeup with mono lids, I have loved how I can easily make my eyes pop. Plus there’s the fake “crease” effect I’ve learned to master. Anyway, love my mono lids now~
I’m so happy to hear this. I’ve always thought monolids looked so exotic and beautiful.
DEFINITELY!
I’m 50 now and, rather weirdly, I am much more comfortable with my appearance than I was when I was much younger and most would say better-looking.
When I was young, I felt like I needed to use makeup to conceal and correct my numerous “flaws.”
Then in 2001 a sudden major illness landed me in the hospital, and away from makeup and mirrors, for several months. Always before, I’d operated on the assumption that I looked “terrible” without makeup, but visitors and hospital staff kept remarking about “how pretty” I was. That made me question how I’d viewed myself, especially when a doctor refused to believe I had appendicitis, because I just didn’t “look sick enough.”
After I finally got home and resumed wearing makeup, it was like looking at a stranger’s face, and this stranger had large, pretty eyes, smooth skin, and full, nicely-shaped lips. This face seemed easy and fun to apply makeup to, because I was more satisfied with the way it turned out. Makeup had become less of a disguise that I needed in order to look even presentable, and much more of a fun and pleasant way to look more polished and “even prettier.”
As for a feature that I once disliked, but later “made peace with,” my lips are a classic example.
In elementary school, junior high, and high school, I got teased about my “fat lips,” and tried every way under the sun to make them look smaller. Oh, the hours I spent “lining just inside the natural lip line with a brown-toned pencil,” like the magazines all directed. It didn’t work. Now I LOVE my full lips, especially since they help give me a more youthful appearance. In fact, I play them up with the bold, bright colors that suit my coloring anyhow.
Makeup is so much more fun now!
I didn’t like my eyes coz they are not as big as my “ideal self image”. So I started with heavy eye makeups all the way included from winged eye to tons of different variation of smokey eyes. But years later when I started working , my routine has been compressed to a 10-min quickie which pushes me to do everything minimal. And that’s the moment I started to realize my eyes don’t have to be that big to look good. I’m now down to one skinny stroke of black eyeliner and 2 coats of mascara, and I’ll be good to go.
It’s kind of the opposite – the more I look at my features the more I am displeased with them. But I do like playing with makeup so I power through it.
By applying and experimenting with makeup, it made me realise that I had pink undertones to my skin (which is why my foundations were never right) and how to use eyeshadows to emphasize my eyes, which are an unusual shade of grey/blue.
Eyes and Lips: Whilst I’ve always worn eyeshadow I could never be bothered wearing mascara on a daily basis – just once or twice a week – until 3 years ago. Shocking I know! Now I’d never dream of going out without putting some on. My eyes also feel naked without my winged eyeliner as it emphasises my almond eyes. As far as my lips go – a pop of colour just brightens up my face no end ( and makes me appreciate that actually they’re not so bad after all!)
I love adding blush to my full cheeks, volumizing my long lashes and calling attention to my Cupid’s bow by highlighting it and lining my lips!
I never hated my eyes when I was younger, but I have hazel eyes: Reddish-brown inner ring with the outer ring being green flecked with gray and yellow. People always commented on my eye color. My best friend had perfectly true hazel eyes: no color variation, just a perfectly even green-brown iris. Really amazing. So her family didn’t even consider my eyes hazel. They insisted my eyes were brown. Others insisted they were green or gray. So, I was too stupid to know my own eye color, apparently. I just wished they’d look green all the time.
Makeup helped me bring out the green, and I learned what shades bring out the other colors. I learned to embrace the changeability of hazel eyes and have fun with them. The best part is I can wear almost any eye makeup color and it will look great.
I also appreciate my lips more with makeup. They are very full, but so pale; hardly any pink in them at all. Lipstick of even the lightest shade defines them and makes the most of their large size. My lips are also downturned, which I used to hate. But once Kelly le Brock started modeling and big pouty lips came into style – and never left – I played up my permanent pout and never stopped.
Now, I just need to find something to make me feel good about my nose…
I can understand how you felt about your eyes! Mine are hazel too but greener than brown, and as “hazel” in eye color is called “honey” in my native tongue, Spanish, and I’ve got no yellow in them, I was perpetually confused about my own eye color and never knew if they were green or gray or brown or what. It wasn’t until I came to the US that someone described them as “hazel”!
I’m glad I’m not the only one that got mixed messages. I’ve heard amber or golden-brown (honey-colored) eyes called hazel as well, but I don’t know why “hazel” means two such completely different eye colors. It’s very confusing.
Absolutely! My eyes are dark grey on the outside, then light brown and green on the inside. They’re definitely not honey or amber colored. It’s a little problematic for eye shadow because a lot of colors simply don’t look good around my eyes. Navy, pinks and reds, gold and grey look best on me, especially reds as they make my eyes look greener.
I like navy, purples, burgundies, pinks, reds, golds, oranges, coppers, peaches, and greens to make my eyes look greener. Violets, grays and teals make them more gray. Blue-grays and darker blues make them more brown. I find straight-up blues the most difficult to wear. They have to have to lean violet or green to look good on me. Frosty or shimmery light blues and greens look awful on me. Browns look great, but don’t really change the color. They just look more hazel, I guess. It’s so much fun to play with all the colors, though and see what effect they have.
I hope this doesn’t sound too strange, but I’m saving your comment as a guide for me to know what colors to try! I usually shy away from most colors because I prefer toned down eyeshadow looks for daytime, and also because I’m not sure what would look good on me, but I’m looking forward to experimenting with some of the colors you’ve mentioned. Thanks! 😀
(Btw, I once tried a gorgeous light blue eyeshadow from Dior because I loved the color and it looked absolutely awful on me! And same with pastel greens.)
i love how positive this question is! I feel more comfortable with myself than I have in the past few years and part of that has been because of cosmetics. My interest in cosmetics and skincare has led me to take better care of my skin, but also, I don’t like to wear a lot of heavy make up, so when I’m applying it I am always thinking about what I want to highlight or emphasize about my face. This has led me to appreciate my features more from my cheekbones because of highlighter, my cheeks because of blush, and when I wear lipstick my mom always comments on how full and beautiful my lips are. Using make up to enhance my appearance has helped me appreciate my natural beauty. 🙂
oddly enough, yes it has. i adore my big eyes that change from green to blue to grey, and i love that i can change the way they look with makeup. i am not shy about bright colors or going a little bowie or cirque de soleil for a day or a week. now that ive learned to contour, im not as self conscious about my nose or what i think is a weak jawline (ive got body image issues, so i know that a lot of this is all in my head, but makeup makes me feel liuke i can control how i look). i also have full lips, and i love being able to play up one feature OR being able to just go all out and rock colors or drama just because it’s fun.
i wish we could post pics on here – im new to posting on the boards but ive been reading your reviews for years now. i’d love to see other’s looks and be inspired on here, as i am by you and your looks! <3
I always disliked how thin my lips are until I discovered red lipstick looks amazing on them!
Hell no. Just makes me depressed. Since I have to use a magnifying mirror to apply make-up, you see an awful lot you wish you couldn’t see! Nope. I see my thinning eyebrows, my wrinkles, my pores. Aaaaaargh. I like it when my make-up’s done. I sigh with relief and say, aaah, that’s better.
My cheeks and/or face shape. I used to hate my face shape! I thought my cheekbones were too small and that my face looked awkwardly oblong because of that. After contour got so popular and I paid more attention to my bone structure, I realized my cheekbones are fine and I have no idea what was so awful.
Unfortunately, lipstick helped me learn to dislike my lips because I think my lip line is uneven, but I try not to listen to myself.
I’m not sure if this counts but I appreciate my lashes more. They are very fair and you can barely see them but when I wear mascara you can see just how long they are. I get a lot of compliments on my lashes and eye makeup and that makes me feel a bit more confident about my appearance. I also appreciate my skin tone now that I’ve found foundation light enough. I definitely go for the pale and interesting look. 😛
I didn’t realize how nice my bone structure was until I discovered how easy it was to contour!
Absolutely! I have a very strong jaw–handsome and ‘manly’ on my doppleganger brother, but not so flattering on me. I also have a nose with ‘character,’ as a mother might lovingly say, plus large eyes, thick brows, and full lips with a very defined bow. Altogether, it’s a bit overwhelming/dramatic; I’ve always envied the girls with sweet, delicate, feminine features. When I started using makeup, I found that wearing blush brings out my strong cheekbones–perfectly balancing the rest of my assertive features. It all works! Without blush, my cheekbones fade into the background. My bone structure may be dramatic, but my coloring can best be described as “corpse bride.” C’est la vie.