Makeup Tips for the Ordinary Girl! Final Part!

So I'm finally getting round to finishing up this series, and I've a few goodies to go out with! This part is going back to makeup mistakes and disasters, things that either make me cringe or ruin my night! Let's get on with it!

Black Eyeliner on lower lashline/waterline only - This is literally when black eyeliner is only applied to the lower lash or waterline, usually quite heavily and the rest of the face may be kept quite bare or blank, which makes it worse.

I know it doesn't look so bad in this picture but I couldn't find a really bad one!

How To Correct

The problem with this is, if you only put something on the bottom lashline and nothing on the top, it just drags the eye down. It looks ok close up in the mirror when you're doing your makeup, but from a bit more of a distance, it doesn't look quite right. The scary Marys on the Jeremy Kyle Show take it to the extreme but loads of us are guilty of it (me included)! So the obvious thing to do is to balance it by putting something on the upper lashline! This can be adding a thin or thick line of gel or pencil eyeliner along the upper lashline, or adding pencil and smudging it in, or even adding a darker-coloured eye shadow over the lashline and blending it. Or, if you're keeping your makeup look very minimal, tightline (this is adding eyeliner, be it pencil or gel, to your upper water line which is underneath your upper lashes); it's so subtle but make such a difference - I do it no matter what makeup look I'm doing. The point of makeup is enhancing your features, so we don't want them to be pulled down, we want them to be lifted up!

Overdrawn Lipliner - Again, this is exactly what it says it is, lipliner drawn too far over the natural lipline to the point that it just looks ridick - we all know one celeb guilty of this, not naming names ;)

Did anyone guess who I was talking about?!

How To Correct

Easy - just don't overdraw your lipliner! In saying that, I realise that there are times when overdrawing the lips is necessary, and if done very subtly it can look good. If you have thin lips, lightly lining your lips slightly outside the natural lipline can make a big difference without being noticeable, but there are other tricks you can use too. Lipgloss is an obvious one, the shine just adds fullness to the lips instantly and is a no-brainer really. Light, neutral lipstick colours will add a certain amount of fullness to the lips while darker, matte colours will diminish them. Adding a shimmery or pearly highlighter to the cupid's bow and in the centre of the bottom lip will help plump them up - the highlighter can just be a light-coloured eyeshadow that you'd normally use on the brow bone. Another nifty trick is to begin lining the lips at the outer corners rather than the centre of the lip - don't ask me why this works, all I know is, it does! So with these tips you can trick people into thinking you have bigger lips without looking like a clown!

Makeup melting away/down face - This is similar to the shiny/oiliness problem, but is not just limited to the skin. Eye-makeup can also fall victim to this, and it can be hard to fix once it starts.

How To Correct

The key to this issue is prevention really. It tends to happen when we experience very hot, humid weather or if we're in a place that isn't very well ventilated and is full of people and bright lights, such as a nightclub. We've talked about the skin problem before, but what about your eye makeup? How do you prevent your eyeliner from ending up on your cheek?! Again, you're going to have to stock up and rely on good basic products. Waterproof makeup is a good choice, and Makeup Forever is a good place to start as it does an excellent range of water-resistant products. I would say to avoid using any creamy products, such as cream eyeshadows and cream blusher or bronzer - stick with your powders if you can. It is possible to get products for the eyes that are creamy but set matte, such as MAC Paint Pots, and they are also a good base for eyeshadows to stick to. Lots of brands do eyeshadow primers; Urban Decay Primer Potion is probably the most well-known at the minute, and they are a must for helping to deal with this problem. Apply them all around the eyes, not just on the eyelid, and don't apply too much. One eyeliner I can't recommend enough is Avon Supershock Gel Eyeliner - it has the consistency and staying power of a potted gel eyeliner but is in a pencil form, and it literally doesn't budge. If you can't get your hands on it, use a potted gel eyeliner instead - they are pretty much guaranteed to last better than a kohl pencil. Liquid eyeliner is also a good option as it is usually quite inky and can even be hard to remove when taking your makeup off. As for the lips, using a good lipliner all over the lips as your base colour is a sure-fire way to keep them looking good, and all you'll have to to is top up with gloss, balm or lipstick. Using a makeup setting spray will also help your makeup last and as I said before, carry oil-absorbing paper sheets in your bag to help nip the problem in the bud!

So that's about it for my makeup tips for the ordinary girl, I hope anyone reading this can have a laugh, relate to it and maybe learn a thing or two! If you want to share your experiences of makeup disasters and how you fixed them, please share in the comments section below!

Thanks for reading!

Suzie

xx