Are there any makeup "don'ts" that you still do?
Are there any makeup “don’ts” that you still do? Share!
I’ll match my makeup to my outfit, not necessarily just coordinated/complementing. I’ll wear bold eyes with bold lips or bold cheeks/bold eyes or bold cheeks/bold lips. Is wearing totally different eyeshadow on each eye a don’t? Because I do that almost every day. 😉
Thanks to reader Mary for today’s question idea Do you have a question idea? Submit yours here.
bold eyes & bold lips. blue or grey or whatever “not normal” color lips. color eyebrows. thick eyeliner (LULZ HOODED EYE PROBLEMS)
BOLD CHEEKS WITH BOLD EVERYTHING
i’m a “rule” breaker
I used to often wear bold lips and smoky eyes. Only to clubs though. I don’t much anymore unless it’s a moody fall winter look for night.
I do bold eye/bold lip together, use my fingers to apply eye shadow (always with freshly washed hands, and I sometimes use brushes), and apply lipstick directly from the tube.
I will pull my eyelid when I apply eyeliner pencil.
I also match my eye make up colour to the outfits I am wearing in a complementary way. I mean, why would you wear a purple eyeshadow if you are wearing brownish-neutral clothes? I also like to wear a bold lipstick (HATE the nude look lipstick) with eyeshadow as well.
Bold eyes with bold lips.
I draw on my eyebrows to look ‘unnatural’. My goal isn’t to look natural, it’s to look what is in my opinion, fierce or cute. 🙂
I don’t do bold eyes and lips, mostly because I feel it doesn’t look good on me.
The words, “There are no rules in make up.” have always kept me interested in make up. I adore seeing new ideas whether I agree with them or not. I’m sure I do loads of things “wrong” or “don’ts,” yet it doesn’t bother me. It’s an opinion.
I wear darker foundation sometimes. I just blend blend blend along with try to lighten it. I mean what am I going to do if I can’t swap it? Throw it away? I don’t follow colors that match my skin tone or eye color. I have light neutral skin with brown eyes so I figure the tradeoff for being pale is a blank canvas right? I don’t know, I mean some don’t look all that great but I don’t like to not wear a color cuz of a rule. I also don’t curl lashes the “number one rule”. Mine curl already and when I curl them it is too curly.
I’ve always been told that you’re supposed to pluck your eyebrows from the bottom and NEVER EVER pluck from the top, but the top of mine grow in a literal “W” shape around small dimples above my eyebrows. So, they look ridiculous if I don’t use the bottom of the brow as the guide instead instead of the top when I’m evening them out!
I wear blue eyeshadow with blue eyes.. And sometimes I use a mono eyeshadow all over lid and blended in the crease without any other eyeshadows. Works well with duochrome colors and a good coat of mascara.
I wear my blush across the middle of my face! 😛 lol! sounds really bad but.. I pop it on the cheeks all the way gradually increasing the intensity from the apple up to the temples and put a bit across the nose.. that makes it look more naturally flushes and blushing! Trust me it looks very pretty! 🙂
I wear bold cheeks with bold eyes too. I don’t quite like myself without blush and the blush must be seen and I wear it with bright lipstick too, so I suppose this is a musn’t.
Let’s see… A lot of people say not to use black eyeliner on your lower water line because it makes eyes look smaller. But I do this pretty much every single day.
Me too!!!
I’m well into the age group where the advice is to avoid frosted eyeshadow! HA to whoever issued THAT decree….I love eyeshadows with a glow, with pearl and with outright “frost” (Humid, Patina, Fiction, Phloof and many more Frosts have an important place in my collection and I use them often). I also tend not to bother “defining” my brows – most days, I just brush them but nothing more.
Don’t worry, Mariella. I saw a You Tube video the other day by a top make-up artist on his ten top tips for making up. One of them was: mix your mattes with your pearlies whatever your age. Mattes can flatten your look. He said use mattes for the crease and pearlies on your eyelid, especially good if you have hooded eyes. There I was thinking I was breaking the rules, so he made me feel heaps better!
I’d say shimmery, frosty and even glittery eyeshadows are more flattering than mattes on the eyelids, the moving part, as they blur any imperfections.
Of course if anyone likes matte better, they should stick to that. No rules!
I love to wearing bold lip and bold blushes colors, it’s on the ”don’t” list and sheading my brows too dark or too thick depend on my hand and somehow my brows look different everyday 🙁
I still wear blue eyeshadow with red lipstick. It’s not over the top so I don’t look like a clown. I also use disposable makeup sponges. They get the job done and is sometimes better than a brush.
Over the years, I’m sure I’ve pulled more than a few. Right now, I can’t think of any obvious one off the top of my head, but makeup is a learning and evolving process. Please yourself, not others. It’s an art form so everything goes.
I have my own “don’ts” (never really listened to the “don’ts” of others). A big one is turquoise anything on the eyes, but I do own a Dior quint with pale turquoise that bends that rule!
1. White eyeshadow as a brow highlight-I’m pale enough that it doesn’t stand out too much, especially a sheer, pearly white.
2. Black pencil for my brows. I dye my hair black, and it looks natural, so why would my brows be brown pr gray…? That just makes it more obvious my hair is not my natural color. Besides, I have really darkmeyes, so there’s still balance. Speaking of brows, I don’t care for full brows (on *me*), so I keep them thin. Again, being so light, along with very dark eyes, the eye area would just look too “heavy”, especially with eyeshadow.
3. I looove a nude lip, but I also enjoy deep, dark, vampy shades, as well as matte lipstick, which I’ve read is a “no-no” for those with thinner lips…
I love black for my eyebrows. My eyebrows are naturally black anyway, so brown looks unnatural on me. I use the Sleek brow kit in Black, which isn’t jet black but a very very dark grey. I’m stunned when I catch my reflection because it looks so perfect on me.
I always wear bright, bold lipsticks with smokey looks. I can’t help it lol. I just prefer them over nudes
I never understood matching makeup to my outfit. I’m not a huge fashionista so I don’t like, plan my outfits ahead or anything. I have way more fun with makeup than with clothes so I would never compromise my creativity with makeup for an outfit.
I’m the same with the bright lips and dark smokey eyes. Nudes don’t look good on me because my lips are naturally quite pigmented and nudes look really weird on me because I feel like it’s too pale and makes my face look strange.
I habitually pull on my eyelid when I’m applying eyeliner. Every time I do it I can just hear the “tuts” coming from the beauty community!
I didn’t remove my makeup Sunday night before I went to bed.
I’m at an age where all the make-up gurus advise wearing soft neutral pinks on the lips to look younger. Eff that, I’m still wearing my hot pinks lipsticks. I plan to be one of those kick-ass old ladies with bright pink lips/
Yes! I love those wonderful older ladies. Me, I’ll be the one with really red lips. 🙂
Love that attitude! Go girl! I’m right behind you!
I hardly ever use concealer – if an area needs more coverage, I blot a little more foundation over it.
I never use lip pencils, not even with red lipstick.
I’m not good at using multiple different eyeshadow finishes in a look. I love shimmery / frost finishes and use those almost exclusively!
And finally, the only “rule” I break and wish I didn’t… I can’t help but pop my zits… D:
I love how my skin looks all matte. No contouring, no highlighting, no dewy finish. I hear it makes people look flat but it’s quick and I love how I look!
……I’m over 40 ….I still like a pop of glitter!..ugh
Don’t really have any thing I do that would be considered a “no no”. In the past long ago I would draw on my eyebrows. Lol in my defense they were over plucked and just horrible. Now that I have my natural full eyebrows I just groom them a little to keep my natural shape. Now I don’t have to fill than in at all.
I’m sure I do most of the dont’s.
I am, according to the “rules” too old for frost/shimmer/glittery eyeshadows. I wear one or more of these every day. I do bold/smokey eyes with bold lips. I really do whatever I feel like doing.
The only don’t I know I don’t do is dark lipliner as a frame to whatever lipstick I might use.
For me, make up is for fun and as a creative outlet.
It’s so refreshing to read all these comments. I always feel so bogged down by what I should or shouldn’t be doing, especially as a maturer woman. But I love make-up…I’m an -olic!! I’m sure I’m doing everything wrong! One thing I keep doing wrong is putting on foundation before my eye make-up. Result is having to mop up all the eye-shadow fall-out having beautifully blended my foundation. The advice is to put it on afterwards to prevent this, but it just goes against years and years of routine. I’m a bit guilty of the bold eye shadow/lip colour thing, too. I’m too old for nudes!
I am not great experimenting and that is a big “no” “no”: playing it too safe. Only when I have gone a bit outside my comfort zone is when I have actually found new great things like when I started making my already dark eyebrows more prominent or when I incorporated highlighters, etc.
Other than that I don’t curl eyelashes thoroughly enough and I don’t clean ( squeak clean I mean) my brushes often enough. Both out of laziness I am afraid. Another no-no!
I sometimes match my eye shadow to my outfit. At the very least, I choose complementary colors. I wouldn’t wear red lipstick with a purple top or green eyeshadow with a red dress. I also wear brown eyeshadow with my brown eyes. I think it’s silly to exclude the brown family from my color palette when brown goes with everything and is appropriate for ANY event.
I curl my lashes AFTER applying mascara. Bad girl I know.
Don’t worry. I bought a pair of Kevyn Aucoin eyelash curlers and the instructions on the back said quite clearly: curl AFTER mascara! All is good!
I pretty much do whatever I want. I have fun. After all it’s not rocket science. It’s makeup. If it doesn’t turn out I can wash it off.
Bold or dark lips with bold or dark eyes, blush on my nose (at least, I don’t see many people do this lately), matching makeup to outfit sometimes, and keeping products for longer than I probably should.
I love your look in your picture Brittany.
Thanks! 🙂
I definitely do bold lips with bold eyes because nude lips just make me look pale and colorless and I don’t like pale lipsticks.
Wear “night-time” colours – bold lips etc – during the day time. I don’t normally go out at night so when am I going to wear so called “night-time” colours, which I love?
Black lipliner. When I am in a daring mood.
Dark lippie even though I have really thin lips. Also I shave off my eyebrows because I hate them so I just don’t have any because I think it looks better. Everyone always has to tell me how they hate it because freakin’ brows are so in right now but look at all the fucks I give. 😛
— Eyeliner without mascara, all the time. I won’t stop!
— Don’t conceal my under eye circles except upon very rare occasion … maybe four times a year. (I like looking natural and sometimes moody. If I’m tired, I want to outwardly express that!)
— Matching to my outfit. It’s not that I mean to… just sometimes when I put on a blue or purple shirt, I just really want to put on purple lipstick…
I still sometimes just wear eyeliner on the bottom waterline only. Nothing but a nude upper eye and mascara.
While there are beauty rules we should follow there are also some that do not apply to everyone across the board.
– ill use “not eye safe” products on my eyes. all the time.
– if im in a rush, not near water or wetting products, ive stuck my brush in my mouth for moisture then used it on my eyes. yes i realize this is disgusting.
– i dont sanitize my eyeshadows nearly enough.
– i end up “cleaning” my brushes by wiping them vigorously on a towel or napkin. luckily i have doubles of most of my brushes and i only do this to one of the sets, it does put excess wear and tear on them.
i guess other than that im not too bad.
now for “stylistically incorrect” i dont really follow many rules. ill do a super dramatic eye during the day. ill wear black lipstick during the day. ill copy david bowie pics from ziggy stardust. ill let it smear like 1994 courtney love. ill do an asymetrical look. ill wear heavy or bright eye colors with an equally heavy or bright lip. im a bartender in manhattan, so i dont have “office rules” or the need to “tone it down for the office”. sometimes it looks great, sometimes ill see my pics of the day and decide to not repeat that look. but i do take a few makeup related selfies every day that i work. if i dont have work that day, i likely dont wear makeup or i do something minimal for errands or whatever.
I curl my lashes after applying mascara. People say it pulls put your lashes and it does occasionally.
The answers to this question have been so much fun to read. Thank you, Mary for asking it, and thank you all for really brightening my morning with all rule breaking answers.
I forgot when I hastely answered yesterday, I sometime let colours clash. I can wear an orange-ish lipstick with purple clothes, oh and even with purple eyeshadow, just because I think it’s fun. And some days I do the opposite and wear complimentary colours because I want to, that day.
I’m kind of a hoarder so I keep mascaras past the three months it’s recommended! I have so many that it’s not like I’m dipping into each one every day!
Cool idea, Christine!
I wear blue eyeshadow (I’m not sure if that’s even a don’t anymore), I match my makeup to my outfit or my eye color, I line my eyes all the way from one corner to the other on my lower lash line, I touch my face, I don’t always wear blush when I wear foundation (my redness shows through most of the time anyway though), I wear night time looks in the day time.
I pretty much do whatever I want with makeup (oops). I’m useless with eyeliner so I never wear it, less of a don’t and more of a statement of my ineptitude. Lipstick, though…I don’t really believe in seasonal colours (berries in summer and corals in winter), love a weird colour (black and silver and blue are go to colours, even just for going to the grocery shop), take hard to wear as a challenge (that’s how they sold me viva glam nicki 2) and I’m even prone to using eye products on my lips (but I’ll only use the natural stuff, just in case). I wear lipstick even if I’m not leaving the house that day. I’m prone to a one colour eye because multiple shadows take so much time. I stress-pick at my eyebrows, often with embarrassing results. I keep on buying lipsticks and I’m not even a blogger I just keep buying them (in the past two years I’ve amassed well over 100).
Thank you for this! You are the first person that I have actually seen admit to stress-picking their eyebrows, and I thought I was alone in this. It is a habit that I can’t seem to break, I don’t even realize I am doing it. And yes, sometimes the results and extremely disastrous.
LOL, probably tons. I’ve never really looked into what the ‘don’ts’ are, mostly because I think so long as you’re happy with it, it’s a ‘do’ 🙂 Most of it comes down to either logic (blend your contour, etc) or pettiness (blue eyed people should never wear green eyeshadow, etc), so I prefer to embrace the logic and ignore the rest!
I wear gloss on my big lips all the time.. and it makes them look bigger 😛 But I just can’t stop because I love lip glosses!
Bold eyes and lips…. usually this results in me wiping off some blush because I accidentally added too much of that. I like bold eye colors and my family isn’t a makeup family, so when I used some lovely pink eyeshadow I had to explain that it was the look I was going for. Lashes! Lots of mascara, never clumpy but layered to make my lashes long and thick. I don’t know if that is a don’t per say, but I take quite some time making sure my top and bottom lashes are dramatic. Oh and crazy bold lips of many colors.
The minute you start obeying rules, creativity starts to die. Know who you are, and like what you like.
I love that, Gina. I’m going to print that out and frame it.
At the end of the day, it’s what you feel comfortable with. I keep reading that a woman of my age should be following the ‘rule’ that less is more. But I just don’t feel right with ‘less’. My attitude to make-up is young. I still buy loads, I still like to experiment with colours and looks. I like to copy new trends. Most are for younger people, but I’m of the attitude that you’re a long time dead, you don’t get other opportunities to express yourself!
I will wear pastels all year long and match my makeup to my clothes sometimes. I also wear bold “night” eye makeup most days. I’m happy that I can get away with these things for the most part since I don’t work in an office setting. Although I can imagine still sneaking some of these things even if I did :p
My lips are naturally very red and I look horrible with nude lips, I need color to look good, so I’ll often wear bold lips and bold eyes at the same time, while keeping the rest of my face toned down (very little base, muted blush).