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There’s nothing I wouldn’t necessarily wear with respect to color/style, since I could always wash it off if I didn’t like it, but I don’t have the patience to do really avant garde looks – like intricate face masks or the like – but I absolutely love seeing the techniques behind them.
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Strip eyelashes. I absolutely love the look of fake eyelashes but I find them unbearably uncomfortable to wear. I can do individuals once in a while, but never strip lashes and I really wish I could.
Piercings. Ooooooh so painful. Near the brow or on the brow area. Dimple area.
Or anywhere that is “tasteful”. Not talking about piercings in the mouth. Jewel piercings etc. in my profession ink or piercings are frowned upon. I wouldn’t do it anyway. I like to be able to remove the makeup.
The other is false lashes. Some look so fake that it is hideous. No one would take me seriously, even those who would wear them. I think the subtle lashes help enhance the look. False lashes are good for theatre…movies, opera, theatre, concert artist, but not everyday.
Liquid liner and red lipstick. It’s just not me but it looks pretty and effortless on so many others.
Very colorful, peacock-like or sunset looks. I think they’re very beautiful, but I don’t find brights very flattering on my eyes!
Winged eyeliner. I have hooded eyes that have a downward tilt and it is very, very hard to get my wings to show up unless I make it Cleopatra heavy.
Same here, Marie. I even struggle with the “outer V” a bit.
Literally my problem as well.
Many Korean makeup tutorials tackle this by doing downward angled cat eyes (“puppy eyes” I think they are called?) and it hasn’t worked for me either. The best tutorial I have found it Pixiwoo’s!
I’m still not a huge fan of super cool blues, grays or silvers on myself, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love them on others! For instance, that drop-dead gorgeous metallic blue Smashbox lipstick. I am crazy about it, but my coloring seriously clashes with it.
Another one is the nearly nude eye look. The one with usually just mascara, brows and perhaps a smidge of light matte lid color? Well, between me wearing glasses, having relatively light eyes, that look does me no favors!
The “no makeup” look and nude lips . Some people look so fresh and pretty with the nude look. Makes me look washed out and boring when I go nude. Adding color to my complexion and features make them pop.
I try to keep an open mind and not rule out any makeup completely, but the more skills it takes, the less likely it is to look good on me.
Being light skinned with a yellow undertone:
I can’t wear many cool colors without looking ashy, dead, or weird.
I can’t wear colors that are ruddy/very warm as I look jaundiced or clownish.
So I’m stuck with boring neutrals and possibly the occasional wild accent color. Actually even though I’m caucasian my skin color & type is common in east Asia which is probably why I love CdP & other Asian brands so much.
My niece & I do Indian bridal makeup & WOW those brilliant jewel tones and metallics really pop against deep skin tones. I’m totes jelly!
I simply cannot do my waterline and tightline since I flinch like crazy (I am always fearful of hurting my eyes while in the process) but hats off to the Ines who do 🙂
1. A light, (seemingly) simple eye look with a bold or bright lip – when I try to do this, I end up accentuating my hood because I need a transition (and maybe a crease color) to balance it out, but then without the outer v it looks unfinished. Maybe I just need to get used to it looking “lighter”?
2. An everyday eye look with a sheer wash of color that looks balanced instead of making me look like a cro magnon due to my hooded eyes getting accentuated unless I have a transition or crease color.
Someone recently posted a really cool androgynous look on here (I forget the name), but it’s not something I could personally carry off.
Really dramatic/ thick eyeliner. I have smaller eyes that have a bit of “puffiness” to them and it overwhelms my eyes.
Also really dramatic brows. Looks great on ppl that already have lots of hairs and from a distance, but my sparse brows ain’t fooling anybody lol.
1. False eyelashes (I still can’t).
2. Bold smokey eyes with dark under-eye tones (I just come across 10 years older and/or very tired).
3. Full contouring (I end up with un-natural skin tones here & there and I feel it doesn’t even flatter my face shape).
4. Whatever includes bright colours or pastels (I always feel like there is just too much colour on my face).
Any noticeable lipstick colors! I enjoy seeing it on others, but I’ve just never personally felt comfortable in anything other than sheer glosses. Also false lashes – I love the look but I’m not any good at applying them and I don’t like the feel of the ones I’ve tried (too heavy/ stiff).
I lack the patience and desire to do a cut crease, but I can appreciate when other people do it. As far as colors and styles, I’m pretty open to anything too. I would say that if I’m going somewhere, I get a little more conservative (as much as I’d love to try that Rihanna at the MET Gala look, I’m not about to do it if I’m just trying to go to shopping (it’s not so much about people staring as it is that I’m too lazy to try that hard).
Anything involving the bottom lash line. I have very few lashes on the bottom lid, not enough to wear mascara. My outer corners are oily and watery, so anytime I try to wear makeup near the bottom outside corner, from eyeliner to just a sweep of eyeshadow under my eye, an hour later the outer portion of it is either smudged or gone. I’ve tried every type of waterproof, budge-proof makeup and nothing works. So I am a bit envious of people who can wear makeup on the bottom lash line. There are looks I wish I could wear that don’t work on hooded downturned (aging) eyes like mine, such as winged eyeliner.
But I do love watching people do these looks, even if they don’t work on me.
So many! I’ve played around a lot over the years and upped my technical game significantly as a result, but I keep coming back to two very basic looks. (Sam at Pixiwoo did a really great video recently on 5 very basic looks.. this is my speed of makeup) While I can very much admire others skills and creativity and watch their videos, look at their photos, I know I am not going to try and recreate because in many cases it’s all too too much for my tastes, my face, etc..
Avant Garde looks here too, I admire the artists who do them, but I have little patience to do it on myself. I’d love to try it out on someone else tho. I love these types of looks as well as those super intricate eye looks I’ve seen around on Instagram. The ones where people draw pictures on their lids – I don’t have the patience to do that on myself either.
The I can’ts, meaning I’m not skillfully able to replicate:
1. The couture makeup look on the runways of the major design houses in Paris, Milan, etc. I love to see what makeup the designer has chosen to showcase his/her new collection for the season.
2. The makeup of an Indian bride. Some of these are so beautiful, they’re a work of art.
3. Many of the fashion magazine’s artistry makeup looks for the models on the cover pages.
4. Same as #1 except worn by models to advertise the house’s latest parfum fragrance or cosmetic line. Guerlain’s gold chain adorned model this spring comes to mind.
5. Couture eye looks — the razzle-dazzle sequins, glitters, etc. works of art by famous MUAs.
The I won’ts, meaning I wouldn’t do it justice:
1. My all-time favorite ‘look’ is the very dark or very blond hair, pale complexion, dramatic evening tuxedo look; black-shadowed, mysterious eyes and bold crimson lips. I can’t stop staring, it’s so gorgeous. Too much drama for me now — heavy sigh.
2. A strikingly beautiful brown eyeshadow palette, perfectly applied and blended, and worn with warm-toned clothing in cashmere or tweed — think Chanel daytime couture or an actress wearing expensive casual clothes in a movie. (Browns and tans look like mud on me, aka a dirty, wallflower look. But I love seeing it done right on other people. Just so classy and chic looking –)
3. Dramatic black clothing ensembles worn with dark, dark red lips and nails; the Givenchy look for this fall is just plain elegant to me. Love it! (Really dark red lips is a look I adore on those who can pull it off. Sadly, it’s a won’t for me. Maybe ten years ago.)
That’s easy: red lips. Looks great on others, Dragon Lady on me.
For starters, I can’t ever wear brown eye shadow, bronzers, and contour, nor copper, rust, orange, or peach eye shadows all of which fight with my pale olive skin tone. In general, nearly all warm tones, and therefore summer products look awful on me. It’s really great for my wallet. Despite lathering on sunscreen, I do get a little more color and can therefore go with brighter eye looks in cool tones: the Tenant Palette– all those shades, brighter greens, turquoise, blue etc. I just wear spring for half the year– no problem. Also smokey eyes and smudged eye looks make me look like someone punched me. Clean narrow black (navy, purple, or plum) upper lash line on a light neutral lid and done. Very boring. Red lipstick? Almost never.
Chrome nails. I would wear them if I were younger but it would look ridiculous on someone my age.
False lashes never have irxwill attempt but I think mostly look beautiful on young pretty girls of course, on older women if not right they look like drag queens. Heavy eyeliners don’t suit many either on bulging eyes it looks like a toad popping out of water. Those dark lip liners ouchy! Too much highliter the disco ball type ewww can’t stand on regular folks unless a runway model or fashion magazine or something of that sort. ??♀️?
I have very deep-set round eyes so there’s no way I’m going to put shadow in my eye crease and look like anything other than a skull. It’s a beautiful look and I definitely can admire artistic eye makeup of many colors and styles on other people, but it’s just not something I can pull off and still look alive. I do use eye shadows on my lids but those creases are too deep to have me ever putting any shadows in there.
Yellow hair.
I love yellow hair, but first I think it would not look good on me and second I do not want to bleach my hair which would be nessasary to get a really good result.
Lipstick – so frustrating
I cannot master the cat eye. At best, one eye looks good but the other a hot mess. False lashes. I don’t mess with lash glue/adhesive period. Smokey grey/black/silver eye looks make my dark circles pop in a bad way. Matte lip products dry the beejeesus out of my already dry lips. I cannot figure out my undertones and what colors look good on my skin 97% of the time unless I can swatch em. Extreme highlights on the face makes me look like an oil slick. Tightlining my eyes makes them water like crazy. Overlining the lip line looks comical on me. Hehehee I could go on but i’ll stop now!
I have a hard time making cool tones work on my skin (very fair, somewhere between yellow and olive undertones) without making me look sick! (Olive tones are the exception; MAC Sumptuous Olive is a huge fave.)
If I’m not careful to do a full coverage base and concealer, I will look dead. I’ve been playing more with cooler eyeshadows lately, but it’s still a struggle. Cool-ish or beigy or gray-undertone nude lips are a huge no-no on me. I tried MAC Blankety once and I felt like I looked like Laura Palmer (wrapped in plastic!).
Winged eyeliner is hard because I have close-set, round eyes with not a ton of lid space (I don’t have hooded eyes, though). If I do the full “Instagram Wing,” it makes my eyes look super close together, as well as taking up all my lid space. I find the best way for me to wear it is to do the little flick at the end and then barely bring the liner onto my lid at all. It’s such a hassle I barely do it (plus, I think winged liner on top of eyeshadow other than a matte neutral in the crease looks really strange, but I know that’s a super unpopular opinion).
False Lashes I have tried doing them so many times and get so frustrated that I gave up, love how they look on others. I won’t wear the very smokey eye look where the under lower lash area so so smudged and dark-would look ridiculous at my age, but admire it on others when done right.
*There are so many gorgeous eye looks that I can’t pull off because my eyes are very deep-set, slightly hooded eys, and there’s not a lot of space between my eyes and my brows. It’s continually frustrating, because I love complex, colorful looks. Unfotunately, you can see my crease, so I have to “fake” one higher up, and then it’s nearly to my eyebrows.
*Goth looks with white foundation. I’ve always loved them and thought that they look so cool, but since I’m not
a Goth (I consider myself more “alternative with Goth tendencies”), I’d feel like a poser disrespecting the culture. So I’ve never done them.
*I can admire the natural look on others. However, I have no desire to wear it myself. It suits neither my face, my style, nor my personality.
*On the other end of the spectrum, perfect “Instagram” face. Some ladies can really rock sculpted brows, super-contoured and concealed faces, and nude lips. I admire the mad makeup skills it takes to do such looks. I just look ridiculous in them, though.
*Rainbow hair colors. I love them, but I’m too scared of ruining my hair with all the bleaching it would take before I could use the colors. Which is one of the reasons I’ve always stuck with auburns, plums, and reds. They’re more doable with my naturally brunette hair. The color I’ve had the last two years is as unnatural as I’ve gotten. On me, it’s bright red, and turns neon magenta in the sun. (L’oreal Excellence HiColor HiLights for Dark Hair Only in Magenta.)
I have finally mastered a wing with the help of the vamp stamp. False eyelashes never stay on me they are so frustrating, so I just went and had a Lash Lift and tint and I am so tickled, now my lashes are curled and when I put mascara on them – vavoom! It cost $95 CAD and will last 3 months, No messing with eyelash extensions every few weeks, you just have to keep your lashes dry for 24 hours after you have them done and that’s it. It took 45 minutes to have it done so it’s shorter than the time to get extensions. They basically perm your lashes and dye them darker, anyhow I’m sold.
I ‘d like to be able to wear under eye crayons, eye pencils with those beautiful shades that Christine favours – but when I try it, it makes my eyes look really small.
Bright colors like others have described. Winged liner.. my partial hoods and wrinkles don’t help, heavy,thick brows and false eyelashes.
Wish I could pull off all of it!
i love the smokey eye look but try as i might i simply cannot re-create it.
Can’t do red lipstick, I have tried and it always looks hideous.
I always envy those who can wear warm-tone bronzy shades on their eyes! I have green eyes, with pale skin, and it always seems to make my eyes look so red! I hate it! But the shades are always so pretty!
Winged eyeliner. I have suuuuuuuuuuuper hooded eyes and i have yet to find an eyeliner to stay there. The best one is inglot 77.