The other day I was feeling nostalgic, started browsing through my photos from quite some time ago. Some of them showed my red lipstick faze when I was wearing it day & night, every single day. I have to admit that it looked really nice on me, just the red lips part though. Can’t say anything positive about the rest of my makeup.
At that time I was in my early 20s, experimenting with my looks left and right, and ended up with having too much eye makeup most of the time. Hard to remember now where I got the idea of combining heavy black smoky eye with the bright red lipstick, and some pink blush in between. Probably, with the blush I was trying to avoid looking washed out in that area.
My first impulse was to destroy the ugly pictures and keep only the ones I can look at. But then I thought that preserving them would remind me of the long way I came from that to where I am now. And today I have my own list of what not to do to look good with makeup on.
1. I’ll start with a too thick foundation, which always looks cakey and adds years to you. The best foundation has a sheer texture or you can just use a tinted moisturizer, which has almost the same effect. The idea here is NOT to apply foundation all over your face, go for strategic areas like on and around your nose, chin or forehead. And blend really well, so it looks natural.
2. Too much lip gloss. I’ve seen thousands of times when lips look like they have a thick layer of goop on them. Let me just say this: two or three coats = too much.
3. Shimmery eye shadow (or glitter) with a shiny lip gloss. Something has to be matte here, choose only one thing to sparkle on your face.
4. Applying powder all over the face. Usually it ends up settling in wrinkles (if you have any), making them more pronounced. Who wants that? Usually a swipe on the forehead, nose and chin is plenty.
5. My personal pet peeve – brown lipstick. I’m just yet to meet a woman it looks good on, and it makes everybody look older.
6. Not taking off makeup at night. This one explains itself. Just do it, you’ll appreciate the effort in the morning.
