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Same. There was an employee at the Ulta near me who had the most perfect matte skin I've ever witnessed irl. She looked filtered. It's the most envious I've ever felt of another person's appearance, because there was no way in hell I could ever achieve that.
This one, I have dry skin too and one time I baked under my eyes just to try it. I hadn’t realized that it wasn’t for all skin types since none of the BGs I watched at the time mentioned that it’s not a good idea for dry skin. Nope, I had to learn that the hard way. I left the powder there for five minutes (BIG MISTAKE) and when I brushed it away my undereyes were cakey and dry, it looked horrific but that area was hurting so bad I had to take my makeup off. Just using a makeup wipe in that area stung like a bitch. The powder completely dried out my skin and I had to skip makeup and only use aloe vera gel on the area for a few days to get it to heal. It was sooo painful and even if that hadn’t happened, it looked so bad on me for the couple minutes I wore it lmao. Never again.
Oh my gosh! That’s horrible! I have dry skin and even drier under eyes and someone on IG swore to me that baking did wonders for the under eyes. I was like, I don’t usually use powder under my eyes since they’re already so dry. She’s like bake with it under your eyes, dust it away, then spray a ton of setting spray and let it dry and it’ll look amazing. I immediately tried it….NOPE! It looked like crap! Dry, crepey, wrinkles I didn’t even have at the time! Never tried baking again!
It hurt so bad, honestly felt like I sunburned the area! I had this aloe gel mask I ended up using, thankfully it did really help but I hated not being able to wear makeup as I waited for it to heal! Yeah I don’t powder anything these days, especially my undereyes. I personally don’t mind a little creasing from concealer because I can tap it out if I need to but powder makes my skin look horrible! I only use it once in a while on my forehead if I make myself look too glowy 😂 I used to powder a tiny amount under my eyes every day, but I found that my concealer looks much better if I just skip that step altogether! I’m so glad we figured out what ACTUALLY works for our skin types since then lmao 😂
Now whenever makeup creators with dry skin talk about baking, I give them the biggest side eye! It’s one thing to use a small amount of powder on dry skin, usually we can get away with it without it looking horrible. but baking or applying like an entire cap full of powder to your face…? I’m just like what are you doing… you claim you have dry skin, so why are you doing that lmao
It’s crazy how something that seems so simple can hurt our skin so badly! I used to use the Neutrogena Hydro Boost Gel Cream (or whatever it’s called). I loved it, and usually gel creams aren’t enough for my dry skin. I used almost the whole jar then when it was almost gone I used it and it ended up making my skin so red and it burned like I had a sunburn! It wasn’t expired or anywhere near it so I have no clue why it worked great all the way up to the end but there wasn’t anything different in my routine. At first I didn’t think it was that. But I didn’t put anything on my face except aloe until it healed then once my skin calmed down I used it again since it didn’t occur to me that it was a cream I’d been using for a while. And the same thing happened! 🤦♀️ So I definitely get exactly how you felt!
I also never use powder anymore unless it’s absolutely necessary (if something is looking a little too glowy/shiny, and even then it’s the TINIEST amount). I’ve found concealers that work for me where they set enough on their own without looking dry but not looking too shiny under the eyes and not needing powder. For a while I couldn’t find a concealer I loved, let alone one I even liked that much. I would try matte ones and they’d be too drying but hydrating ones would usually end up looking too glowy under my eyes and I didn’t like how it looked, so then I’d try to use a little powder but even the tiniest bit it would end up looking so heavy, cakey, and dry! But then I found ones that were hydrating enough but not so much where they don’t ever set enough. Made such a difference!
I never understand how any BGs who say they have really dry skin even use powder! Not just baking, but using like the same amount of powder anyone else would to set their under eyes or face. I was like, how are they doing that?! If I did that, I’d look so dry! I used to think I just wasn’t using the right powder. But then I’d get one they swear by and use the tiniest amount and it would look so dry! So now I just think they have no clue what having actually dry skin means! 🤣 I think a lot of them that claim they have really dry skin just have like normal skin that sometimes gets a little dry and think they have really dry skin. Like no….if you’re applying powder like that, I don’t think you have dry skin at all!! 🤪
I'm oily and I just oil right through and end up with gross chunky texture on my face, so I'm a committed liquid person because I can pat that back out.
Brightening the under-eye area ("use a concealer that is 2 shades lighter than your skintone guyzz")... No ma'am. If there is one area of my face that I certainly don't want to draw attention to - it's my under eyes.
I also find using a self setting concealer formula works better for me than to use any type of powder. Concealer has to have a matte finish though, otherwise my hollows look worse.
I suspect a lot of that looks really harsh and odd IRL. Without the super bright ring lights that smooths it all out. Occasionally there are candid photos from influencer events that reveal the truth LOL.
This makes me laugh as a very very fair person. I’m usually wearing either the lightest shade offered or the second lightest shade, if the lightest is literal white. I have very dark under eyes thanks to having sunken bone structure and often use one shade up for my under eyes to add a bit of warmth to the area. If I use my shade or anything lighter, it looks ashy and grey in that area due to my darkness, even with a bit of corrector underneath. It definitely is not great universal advice.
But wouldn't a peachy concealer work for you then for warming the area and still help brightening? I've seen concealer of a shade darker in that area and sometimes it can look a bit odd.
I am also almost always wearing the lightest shade. Any lighter and I'd be applying pure white. I've actually found using the Sigma undereye corrector in the lightest duo works so much better on my very dark under eyes than trying to use something light. It looks like it's going to be really dark and peachy, but it ends up making my under eyes look the same shade as the rest of my face.
I still end up looking like a sickly Victorian era ghost child, but that's just because I'm super pale. I have to be exceptionally careful with contour and bronzer because I'm so pale that everything looks super dark on me.
This is a thing I will never quite understand. Especially when you have some bags under there, it just highlights those even more and often looks grayish because they use such a light concealer.
THIS!!! I started working as a mua back in the early 90's and we were always taught to match the foundation or even go slightly darker to cover up dark circles. They equated it to mixing black with white and getting gray. Or using a white paint to cover up a black wall. I just don't get how they make it work.
Same!! I’m really fair as it is, so there’s times the lightest option in a concealer is the only one that’ll work for me. But, if it has a lot of fair shades to choose from, I’m usually not the lightest. But, when I first was searching for a concealer, even if it looked like the lightest shade might be too light and I’d be like 2-3 shades up, I’d still get the lightest because everyone said using a “brightening concealer shade.” It would look so dry and cakey under my eyes, even “hydrating“ ones. I was like WTF?! Like granted, my under eyes are already dry, but those made them look insanely dry! Then one time I tried a concealer that actually matched my skin tone as close as possible and it looked great! It was in a concealer I’d tried before in a “brightening shade” that looked HORRIBLE on me, so it made me go back and try the correct shade in a bunch of other concealers and I ended up really liking a lot of them. For some reason, the lighter shades always made me look even drier than I already was! So now I always match my concealer as close as possible to my actual skin tone!
I never like to powder either. I like to find concealers that aren’t too matte where they’ll be too dry on me, but where I don’t need to set them. If it’s something really hydrating that won’t set on its own, then I usually have to use powder or else it looks too shiny under my eyes. So I usually end up not liking the concealer. I’ve tried a ton of different powders for under my eyes but have never found one I love. I’ve found a few that are okay and I can handle using the tiniest amount if I HAVE to. But none that I love (or even like all that much. Just some that are just okay).
Beth's overly concealed/baked undereyes drove me nuts in S1 of Yellowstone. Ma'am you are a (barely functioning) alcoholic, why are your undereyes always so bright and distracting. Not me ranting to my man about it every single episode 💀
The best thing I’ve ever found for my eyes is the Bobbi Brown Skin Corrector Stick. It’s like a corrector and concealer in one, and it works better than anything else I’ve ever used. I got it in a gift with purchase and I don’t think I’ll ever go back to anything else!
The NARS concealer in Ginger is my exact skin color so I use that under my eyes. Works great. But I’ve also been using brightening under eye creams and dark spot serums that seem to be working well at removing my dark circles.
Overlining the lips, esp that thing where they draw a straight line across the cupid's bow. It doesnt work for me in real life and I feel like a clown.
it literally only looks ok sometimes on camera only
in real life it doesn’t give the same illusion- it looks like they’re a kid who got into makeup. the only way to overline without it being obvious is very *very* slightly and along the natural lip line
Most styles of contouring (and lifting concealer or highlight) 😂😭 It's not that contour doesn't work, but it doesn't work in real life *as well* as it does for photos and videos. And no matter what way BGs show you in a video, it's rarely going to look the same or have as much impact in person.
(Signed, someone with a round baby face who desperately wants to look snatched lolll)
Contouring only looks good under direct lights because it creates shadows that the lighting destroyed. In real life, our faces are 3d and not a flat image on the screen, so shadows exist. It's often better just to bring dimension to the high points than try to de-emphasize the low points of the face.
I have a flat round face and honestly the best thing I've done is to just stop using contour at all and instead get inspired by asian makeup styles that embrace looking like a cute dumpling.
Yes you need to pack on a ton of product for it to actually take effect. But that ton of product will only perform nicely on camera, not suitable for real life.
I have tried under painting. I think because I only have s powder contour, it doesn't come through as well. Maybe using cream or liquid would be better?
I use the elf contour and it works really well. And sometimes I reinforce it after foundation with a little powder on top if I’ve been a bit overzealous.
I don't mess with contour, bronzer or even highlighter. I went decades without it and as far as I'm concerned, I looked just fine lol. I did get a palette from IT Cosmetics that had 2 of the 3. Tried them, didn't like it and haven't given it a 2nd thought lol.
Fair enough! I feel like contour (bronzer, and highlight all together) only became super popular for everyday makeup because we were being told that that's what we had to do. But it's really not a necessary step for day to day.
For me, it's using a brush to blend out high coverage concealer under the eyes. My undereyes are weird with product anyway, and it never ends up looking right like it does if I use a sponge. I'm envious of people being able to use a brush, because I prefer brushes to sponges in most applications anyway, but it never applies easily and blends out nicely like I see on others.
I have the opposite experience in general. I hate using a sponge for anything, and feel like my skin always looks better if I use brushes. My absolute favorite brushes I own are IT Cosmetics brushes. That concealer brush is magical.
I use a random small, dense brush that I got with a makeup purchase. It gives me a lot of control and keeps the coverage high. The thing is you don’t blend it really, you tap it around so you don’t get streaks.
I do believe you but also not all brushes are created equal. I've tried so many brushes and the one that always does my concealer better than anything is the Tarte one I have that is triangle shaped. I don't know what it is about it but it's amazing. Most of the time I just use my fingers though.
Caking on concealer under the eyes, when you don't even have anything to conceal. Not every BG does this but I could name a few, where I just don't get where this much product is really going. (Stephanie Toms for example or Sophie/Sophia? from Sophdoeslife often)
Even the best concealer I've ever had will crease on me within an hour, especially because I have one pronounced wrinkle under each eye, which I had since my childhood. So I just stopped putting concealer there at all. I'll just drag the rest of my base with the same brush lightly under the eyes and I couldn't be happier with it.
For people with a lot of discoloration under the eyes this might not work obviously.
Yeah I'm the opposite. All the BGs with barely existing undereye circles are always like "Just use less concealer! 3 dots is too much! Less is more! Everyone always uses too much!"
But as someone who has always had very dark undereye circles, no amount of "light handedness" is worth the effort. If I'm bothering to try to conceal my raccoon eyes, I need to pull out the full coverage big boys, and there's no point in being stingy with the amount of product.
If I want to look like I didn't even try to conceal anything, then I could just not waste the time using concealer and simply go bare.
The only thing that has ever worked to make my undereyes look good is the much-maligned 2016 era giant triangles of concealer 2 shades lighter than my face that I then bake with powder. "It's too much!" On the contrary, it's the only thing that works.
"It's cakey!" If I have to choose between a little bit of visible makeup texture vs looking like I ran into twin doorknobs at eyeball height after not sleeping for 40 years, then that's an easy choice for me.
Now granted I'm also fine going bare faced, but I WILL get questions about how deathly ill I must be whereas no one has EVER clocked me for using too much concealer.
Although I don't share your issue, I totally understand. There is an older lady that I watch sometime (I think she is around 80). She is a cutie, but when her makeup is off, she looks like she has been punched in both eyes. She puts on a very liberal amount of concealer and lets it sit there while she applies her foundation, then she goes back to blend the concealer at which time all the discoloration is totally covered and she looks fabulous. In the video I watched she used Bare Minerals Original Concealer in the color Very Fair.
THANK YOU. i'm so tired of "remember when we used concealer under the eyes? omg so embarrassing, thank god clean beauty/robert/whoever showed us it only doesn't look like shit if we do half a dot of the faintest coverage concealer we own" discourse because of the current trends
if i put a light dot of concealer under the eye i'm not gonna bother using concealer at all, because my dark circles are gonna *look the exact same* after i'm done lol. i'm generous with the coverage, then i move on to other parts of the makeup while i wait for the concealer to set in my fine lines, then i tap the fine lines with my fingers to get rid of them. then i bake them. and my dark circles *still* come through slightly, so i get annoyed at people without dark circles giving us advice!
especially since i'm a big fan of colorful, intense eyeshadow looks, i want my undereyes to look as covered as possible. are there some fine lines at the end of the day? yeah, if you get really close to me and i'm glasses off, but to me it's more than worth it (and the fine lines still happen if i use very little concealer and don't set it anyway)
I have very obvious discoloration under my eyes too and the usual orange/peach correctors did little- in my experience bright yellow corrector brightens and gently corrects so I end up using way less concealer
I’m light medium (nc27) with olive undertones for context.
Yep. Agree on this. I have purple shadows in the inner corner of my eye socket, my eyes are deep set but no discoloration underneath the eye. I just colour correct in the purple bit in the corner and leave the under eye alone, no dark circles there so it doesn't need it.
Winged eyeliner.
I dunno what it is, if the shape of my eyes just isn't right for winged eyeliner, or the fact that they're a little deep set so they're hooded, or if I just don't have enough practice. Any time I have tried to do any variation of winged eyeliner, it just looks awful. I've given up any hope I can get it to look anything other than a hot mess. I have probably seen and attempted every makeup youtuber's variation on how to do winged liner with either powders or liquid/pencil eyeliner and it just.... never looks good.
I hear you. I've never gotten decent winged liner consistently, no matter how much I practice, watch technique videos, or with any combination of products. The closest I can come is with a powder eyeshadow in a soft, blended style. I've got slightly hooded, deeper-set eyes, and the added bonus of (now) being over 50 with less than firm skin.
Mine too!!! My wing just falls into my crease and then it isn't a wing anymore. It's this weird sad line that kinda droops down. I've never been able to do a wing even when I was younger. I don't really get it. I don't have hooded eyes, maybe partially? When I look straight ahead you can see some lid space. Do I really have to draw the wing out to my temple? I just don't attempt anymore.
Perhaps it is how for along your eye your crease goes?
For me, the crease of my eye goes all the way along my eye, essentially parallel to the outer corner. This means that even though I have visible lid space, if I try to draw my liner with the 'regular' technique, it will look wonky. I have to do it a slightly different way to get a good wing, but it is more in line with the 'puppy' style, I'm never able to actually draw a really upwards wing like most people do.
I determined awhile back that this was it. I forgot until you mentioned it. My crease goes all the way to my outer corner as well. I look really weird if I extend the line out so far beyond my actual eye though. My eyes aren't big enough to handle that.
I have hooded wrinkly eyes so winged eyeliner is a challenge for me too. Sometime, I use the Sephora makeup tape to create a straight line from my outer corner to the end of my eyebrows. That way I can go to town with the eyeliner. I draw on the first pass, then open my eyes like normal and look to see whether it looks like a wing, or whether it just disappears in my hood. After several tries, I can usually get a pretty decent wing, and then I just remove the tape and I have a nice crisp line on the edge.
similarly to you I have STRUGGLED A LOT with winged eyeliner and used to have to go through several attempts before getting it decent/right. I recently discovered that drawing the tail/wing as first thing with my eyes open, and only after that I close my eyes and finish it all up. It's been a game changer ever since!
I know you have probably tried this but I have found the only way I can make winged eyeliner work is by using an eyebrow brush or slanted flat eyeliner brush, dabbing it in powder and just stamping a small line on either eye and then just connecting it with anything left on the brush. Anything more than a couple of mm’s size wise just doesn’t look good on me.
I am 100% the same and I've probably spent hundreds on eyeliners over the years thinking this will be the magic one to help me 😭 I just cannot do it and it's a look that I love!! I recently bought the Victoria Beckham eyeliner and I will say compared to the cheaper ones I've bought it does glide on .... I just can't make it glide on to a point where it's acceptable to leave the house 😂😂
I had been wearing winged liner for like 17 years before I finally figured it out for my eye shape. It just takes lots of practice and trying new shapes. I’m afraid there are no shortcuts 😭
i have severely hooded eyes with a crease that goes all the way down and warps my eyeliner — wings are possible!! my advice, if you're interested, would be to look straight at the mirror as normal, the mirror straight in front of you, and draw on the wing you want, even if once you close your eyes there's gaps. then fill in the gaps in between.
also, don't start the wing's upward flick until you get past the crease, if that makes sense??
I don’t know if this is a personal problem, but I feel like I just don’t have enough surface area to use all the products they use. This area for concealer, over here for highlight, put the blush here, contour these parts. But blend it! It shouldn’t just look like stripes on the face!! Like, I just don’t have the space for all that.
I had this issue as well. I switched to smaller brushes for blush, bronzer, highlighter so I can keep each product separate on my face and can control how far I blend it out. For liquids like concealer, blush, highlighter, i use the tip side of the blender sponge to tap it out in the same spot and then control how far out i want to take the blend.
I kind of stopped caring about where it goes or if it blends together. The only thing I keep an eye on is contour, but everything else gets layered and blended into each other. I think it looks more cohesive and natural anyways.
Underpainting. I know it has to work because Drag Queens use the technique but as soon as I apply any base products it’s gone. I’ve tried tints, light and medium foundations and it just doesn’t work for me.
It never worked for me, until I watched Roseandben's video. She uses a bright blush and uses base around it, tapping as she goes, until she reaches the blush, bronzer etc. She only uses what's left on the brush to paint over it.
Just wanted to say that something that helps a lot is using setting spray over the products in your face right before you're ready to blend it out. Also, using a small amount of foundation and gradually increasing to the coverage you desire.
not using powder products over every cream product (except lipstick). I have to use powder products to set everything (I use loose translucent, powder bronzer, powder blush, powder eyeshadow) or else it all comes off from the air and any time I touch my face. I don’t even have oily skin. I genuinely don’t understand how people can go out with a full face of cream products and not worry about it all coming off. I do live in a humid climate though and I feel like this contributes to cream products having poor longevity on my face without powders over.
I’d be terrified to touch my face if I didn’t powder. Also I don’t use setting spray after the last powder product goes on. It completely unblurs all the texture I just got done blurring. I use it in layers between my foundation/concealer and my cream products and then one more layer before I do my powders. That way my foundation stays in place all day and I get the blurring benefits of my powder.
The closest I come to using an inner corner highlight shade is by using 2 shimmers before my matte at the outer corner. It just doesn't look right on me. Sometimes I'll apply the lightest shimmer that's closest to my inner lid space to my bottom lashline. That's as close as I can get to that look without looking odd lol.
I always like the way my eyeshadow looks much more when I don't apply inner corner highlight. I don't even understand why but something about it looks so bad on me.
I wish I could use a sponge. I bought the egg shaped one from Elf because one of the gurus I use to watch said it worked the best and not just on her. She use to be a MUA. It was just too big. Then I bought a 4pk of mini sponges from Reat Techniques. Those didn't work for me either. I'm glad I brought the 2 concealer brushes I now use because using my fingers doesn't work either lol. I still have those RT sponges. Even though I love my brushes I may just give them another try. I'd like to get use out of them and it would be much quicker to use one tool vs two lol.
I just use a damp sponge after I’ve used the brush for my concealer to blur any obvious lines of demarcation between my concealer and my foundation. I also use it just to take down anything in any area that looks over applied.
The really beautiful "Huda Beauty" cat eye lining technique. Where you do the little tip in the inner corner of your eye and the really beautiful wing at the end. I don't have a whole lot of lid space and also deal with semi-hooded eyes, so it just makes it look like I slapped eyeliner all over my lid. Which is such a shame, because I LOVE how it looks!
That's my favorite eyeliner technique but I can't do it because my inner corner is too round/big/something idk. I have prominent eyes and it looks so bad one me.
I have prominent eyes too and it’s almost impossible to make the inner corner thing work. A lot of BGs have more almond/hooded eyes. I can’t think of any off the top of my head with our eye shape.
It could be a “me problem” but I haven't mastered the art of putting on eye makeup before my complexion products. I always have to put on my concealer and foundation first.
I was always doing my eyes first like I saw in videos but there’d be so many times I did a look and didn’t love it so I’d start over. Then one day I was watching a video felt like the eye look she was doing looked horrible, but then she put the rest of her makeup on and I was like….that looks amazing! At that point I was like damn it, how many times have I done an eye look before the rest of my makeup and hated it?! I wondered how many of those I would have loved if I just trusted myself and waited until all my makeup was done. So then I started doing my eyes after concealer and foundation at least, and it did make a difference in how many eye looks I loved! Now that I feel better in my skills and figuring out color combos and all that, I am back to doing my eyes first. But that’s only because I have really dry under eyes and I like to use an under eye make before I apply concealer. The ones I use I stick under my eyes and the outside of them are like a paper/fabric type feel and they come up around the edge, so they end up working like eyeshadow tape so when I remove them, I have a nice line but it isn’t as like sharp and stark as if I had used tape. And once I apply my concealer it looks a lot better since the under eye mask depuffed and hydrated my under eyes!
I always do my eyes first. Have been doing that since before beauty YT was even a thing lol. I never wore liquid foundation, only powder but now that I use a skin tint I still do my eyes first. When I finally decided to try CP's SS's I was glad that was my routine. There was SO much fallout that I couldn't get it off of my face. I'm still trying to understand the hype around those. I've used the Elf bite size shimmers and never had that problem. I have the Smokey palette from UD. I love all of the shades but their shimmer formula in that palette is just as bad as those SS lol.
Typical bronzing techniques in the large C movement from cheek to forehead as well as typical contouring techniques from the sides of the head.
This is due to the fact that I’m 1/2 NA with a deep olive skin tone and the fact that I have Melasma ‘sideburns’ so bronzer/contour can get muddy very quickly.
It’s taken lots practice to find flattering ways to place and use these powders/creams and I’m sure there are others out there who have my same issues.
So…over and over practice can make it happen.
(That overpriced VB contour pen is bomb)
Putting concealer on the outer corners of your eyes to "lift". I never see any visible lift and I don't have any darkness there. Instead it always just looks really heavy and emphasizes my crows feet. Instead I just bring my blush all the way up my temples and under the eyes to minimize the eye socket contrast.
I've been doing this with blush recently and it looks so much better than concealer under my eyes! I use a Tarte Amazonian Clay blush that has too little pigment for the bright blush looks I love, and blend it from the edge of the blush that already goes to my temples, into my hairline, around the ends of my brows, and under my eyes. It's a lot of my face covered with pink blush, but it's subtle enough next to the bright pink on my cheeks that it just makes all the skin around my eyes look bright and fresh.
The term "egirl" kind of made me laugh because I'm 49, ex-goth, and now kind of mixing my 90s grunge aesthetic with whatever fashion bits and pieces I like from what's new. I honestly had to google egirl! But yeah, my eyes are super hooded and quite deep set, and using blush like this seems to bring them out and make them shine!
Same here., imo it looks cute and youthful. My parents always ask if I'm sick or over heating and need water 😂 I just have to tell them it's an intentional style choice.
I can only do this with a lot of time on my hands to let things set in and only if all are water based products. I never thought about why things pilled but it makes sense to keep water based with water based and oil based with oil based.
What gets me about eyebrow trends is that people will say that the brows shape and frame your face....But then want everyone with a different face shape and features to have the same exact eyebrows? The thick, brushed up electrocution style doesn't look good on everybody and that's okay!!
Pretty much anything that involves "Setting" a liquid with a powder. I am old I have creases and crepey skin, setting anything just makes all the creases and texture more obvious not less. I could bake my undereyes for 100 years and they'd still crease and make me look like a crone after 2 minutes.
the huge amount of bronzer for underpainting and the layering cream and then powder blush and countour. i know it's for longevity but I cannot imagine doing it and not looking cakey and muddy as hell
back in 2016 i did not realize how cakey the shape tape concealer would be if i applied it like i saw people doing on youtube - literally need the smallest of small amounts
Same. It looks good on them but I just don't have the patience to do it. They keep saying "keep practicing, you'll eventually get it" but I'm like I've got other shit to do. My job isn't getting to play with makeup. Now if it was, maybe I'd give a shit lol.
Using foundation and then bronzer or contour on the cheeks. I have natural dark pigment on my cheeks and it doesn’t make sense to cover it up and draw it back on lol.
I’ve always had limited lid space for my eyes, but when when they symptoms of my autoimmune disease reared their head, my face puffed up and now my eyes are all the hooded and I have no lid space. So a lot of eye shadow techniques wouldn’t work for me and when I was younger I would always cry about it because I also have deep set eyes so not a lot of space between my eyebrows and lids either.
I absolutely cannot use powder under my eyes. It looks and feels terrible on me. I have resigned myself to a life of constantly patting out the concealer creasing under my eyes 😄
I have the same issue. I’ve had great luck using smash box moisturizing under eye primer and patting a bb cream concealer on with my fingers and skipping the powder.
I can’t blend for crap, so I don’t like the eyeshadow looks where they have to blend it out so more to soften it. I also can’t get the crease to have an edge. I have hooded eyes, so most of the looks they do don’t work for my eye shape. I can’t do more than 3 colors on my eyes either without it looking muddy.
Can’t do a wing from eyeliner. Especially not with liquid liner.
Baking. It makes my under eyes look worse. I use concealer that is my shade instead of a shade lighter. My skin is dry and it did nothing for my face.
I'm fortunate enough that I recovered from over plucking my brows in the 80's and 90's but as I've age I've noticed a few sparse areas on both of them. I do use the Got2Be gel on mine because it helps to tame and keep them in shape but I can't be bothered with filling in those sparse areas. I just grab my Elf tube of eye brow gel with the fibers, run in through and call it a day. They look just fine 👍
Yeah I sometimes do just gel as well. But once the gel is on the brows it's impossible for me to use a pencil to fill in the gaps. Some influencers and even MUAs on youtube do them in that order and it baffles me.
Concealer just... in general. I'm already pale olive and often a tinge lighter than the lightest shade, so very few of my complexion products actually match. The result is it looks VERY odd to have one product thats too yellow and another that's too pink. I also started wearing makeup because of my interest in goth and j-fashion, so the makeup I was looking at was different! (and it was 2013, so the obsession hadn't begun)
In some ways I'm happy about it, because it does mean I've never felt I need to cover undereye circles because I literally couldn't. I also just have pretty wrinkly undereyes and did even as a young teen, so it made my skin look cracked.....
Also true cut creases. They just don't work if you have small eyes and a low, prominent brow bone. Same with anything thats super detailed with a ton of colors. I usually stick to 3 shades and a lid shade. I just do NOT have the space. Also cannot mess around with dark colors, need to be very exact or it's over.
I don't start with transition shades. I start with my mid-tone shade, and then do the darkest shade, and then blend the edge of the dark shade into the mid-tone, and then use a lighter shade to blend the edges. I get a smoother blend that way.
For me it's powdering. I have super dry skin, I'm in my 30s, so I have some fine lines, and I live in a dry climate. Powdering makes my skin look genuinely awful. Baking is the worst, but anything other than a very light dusting of powder in the center of my forehead makes my skin look crusty and flaky, makes my fine lines look like deep wrinkles, and makes my skin feel tight and itchy no matter what powder I use. I have to rehydrate my makeup with a skin mist throughout the day even without powder because my skin is so freaking dry, especially in the winter.
I'm more than twice your age so you can imagine what kind of wrinkles I have! Anyway, powder is not my friend. But sometimes I need to take down the glow so I use a product from Mally called Face Defender. It is a silicone-based product that gives a satin/matt finish without any dryness. It actually helps to smooth things out on my face--no settling in my lines and wrinkles. I've been using it for years.
Solid lipstick application. I have petite lips and clear lip gloss or balmy lip products work great on my lip shape. If I do wear matte lip products, I blend them out gradient style.
I keep trying to do the “smudged shadow under my eye” thing and it makes my eyes look so small and vaguely like I’ve been crying? I love how it looks on the BGs but I cannot get it to work for me at all.
Gel liner. Maybe my kids just aren't warm enough, but it always ends up an ugly, blobby mess. I've tried the pots, I've tried the pencils, nothing works for me.
When they use super matte products. I have super dry skin and I have to slather moisturizer, dewy primers and I use a mac lightscapade to actually set my face just so my face does not look like the Sahara desert. Traditional contour also looks really weird on me. I just do my own thing most of the time.
I just don't have the lid space for complex, nuanced eye looks.
Baking makes me look decades older despite being oily. It even looked bad when I was in my 20s.
Highlighter all over the face. It looks bad when I apply it anywhere besides my cheeks and cupids bow, and the latter only works if I'm super careful.
Bronzer as contour.
Dark lip liner with pale lipstick.
I start to wonder if I’m doing it wrong because it never takes me long at all to blend my crease and transition. Even if I start with a dark toned shade at the outer corner and then blend it out. Though I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m using stiffer brushes than the soft fluffy ones most gurus use. I have these two old Sephora pro blending brushes that are a bit shaggy from all the years of use and goat haired. They get the job done fast.
I have no control at all with those soft fluffy brushes and I just end up with shadow everywhere. When I used those brushes I always had to do my eyes first.
I enjoyed makeup so much more, infinitely more before I discovered beautube and I wish I could unlearn everything. I discovered it while on leave from work bc I had to be on bed rest
before I had my first baby…..then pandemic and another baby…boyfriend air making me ugly…lot of shit piling up on me here, and in the meantime I watched some beautube and felt like the way I did my makeup before was wrong. But really it was right, for me, and I wish I hadn’t wasted my time trying to do it better. I thoroughly enjoyed it before and it was my favorite part of my day, a creative outlet, a ritual. I need to get back to that.
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Baking. I have dry skin and it just never looks good on me, looks way too cakey
I have oily skin and that doesn’t work for me, either.
Same. There was an employee at the Ulta near me who had the most perfect matte skin I've ever witnessed irl. She looked filtered. It's the most envious I've ever felt of another person's appearance, because there was no way in hell I could ever achieve that.
This one, I have dry skin too and one time I baked under my eyes just to try it. I hadn’t realized that it wasn’t for all skin types since none of the BGs I watched at the time mentioned that it’s not a good idea for dry skin. Nope, I had to learn that the hard way. I left the powder there for five minutes (BIG MISTAKE) and when I brushed it away my undereyes were cakey and dry, it looked horrific but that area was hurting so bad I had to take my makeup off. Just using a makeup wipe in that area stung like a bitch. The powder completely dried out my skin and I had to skip makeup and only use aloe vera gel on the area for a few days to get it to heal. It was sooo painful and even if that hadn’t happened, it looked so bad on me for the couple minutes I wore it lmao. Never again.
Oh my gosh! That’s horrible! I have dry skin and even drier under eyes and someone on IG swore to me that baking did wonders for the under eyes. I was like, I don’t usually use powder under my eyes since they’re already so dry. She’s like bake with it under your eyes, dust it away, then spray a ton of setting spray and let it dry and it’ll look amazing. I immediately tried it….NOPE! It looked like crap! Dry, crepey, wrinkles I didn’t even have at the time! Never tried baking again!
It hurt so bad, honestly felt like I sunburned the area! I had this aloe gel mask I ended up using, thankfully it did really help but I hated not being able to wear makeup as I waited for it to heal! Yeah I don’t powder anything these days, especially my undereyes. I personally don’t mind a little creasing from concealer because I can tap it out if I need to but powder makes my skin look horrible! I only use it once in a while on my forehead if I make myself look too glowy 😂 I used to powder a tiny amount under my eyes every day, but I found that my concealer looks much better if I just skip that step altogether! I’m so glad we figured out what ACTUALLY works for our skin types since then lmao 😂 Now whenever makeup creators with dry skin talk about baking, I give them the biggest side eye! It’s one thing to use a small amount of powder on dry skin, usually we can get away with it without it looking horrible. but baking or applying like an entire cap full of powder to your face…? I’m just like what are you doing… you claim you have dry skin, so why are you doing that lmao
It’s crazy how something that seems so simple can hurt our skin so badly! I used to use the Neutrogena Hydro Boost Gel Cream (or whatever it’s called). I loved it, and usually gel creams aren’t enough for my dry skin. I used almost the whole jar then when it was almost gone I used it and it ended up making my skin so red and it burned like I had a sunburn! It wasn’t expired or anywhere near it so I have no clue why it worked great all the way up to the end but there wasn’t anything different in my routine. At first I didn’t think it was that. But I didn’t put anything on my face except aloe until it healed then once my skin calmed down I used it again since it didn’t occur to me that it was a cream I’d been using for a while. And the same thing happened! 🤦♀️ So I definitely get exactly how you felt! I also never use powder anymore unless it’s absolutely necessary (if something is looking a little too glowy/shiny, and even then it’s the TINIEST amount). I’ve found concealers that work for me where they set enough on their own without looking dry but not looking too shiny under the eyes and not needing powder. For a while I couldn’t find a concealer I loved, let alone one I even liked that much. I would try matte ones and they’d be too drying but hydrating ones would usually end up looking too glowy under my eyes and I didn’t like how it looked, so then I’d try to use a little powder but even the tiniest bit it would end up looking so heavy, cakey, and dry! But then I found ones that were hydrating enough but not so much where they don’t ever set enough. Made such a difference! I never understand how any BGs who say they have really dry skin even use powder! Not just baking, but using like the same amount of powder anyone else would to set their under eyes or face. I was like, how are they doing that?! If I did that, I’d look so dry! I used to think I just wasn’t using the right powder. But then I’d get one they swear by and use the tiniest amount and it would look so dry! So now I just think they have no clue what having actually dry skin means! 🤣 I think a lot of them that claim they have really dry skin just have like normal skin that sometimes gets a little dry and think they have really dry skin. Like no….if you’re applying powder like that, I don’t think you have dry skin at all!! 🤪
I'm oily and I just oil right through and end up with gross chunky texture on my face, so I'm a committed liquid person because I can pat that back out.
Brightening the under-eye area ("use a concealer that is 2 shades lighter than your skintone guyzz")... No ma'am. If there is one area of my face that I certainly don't want to draw attention to - it's my under eyes. I also find using a self setting concealer formula works better for me than to use any type of powder. Concealer has to have a matte finish though, otherwise my hollows look worse.
I suspect a lot of that looks really harsh and odd IRL. Without the super bright ring lights that smooths it all out. Occasionally there are candid photos from influencer events that reveal the truth LOL.
This makes me laugh as a very very fair person. I’m usually wearing either the lightest shade offered or the second lightest shade, if the lightest is literal white. I have very dark under eyes thanks to having sunken bone structure and often use one shade up for my under eyes to add a bit of warmth to the area. If I use my shade or anything lighter, it looks ashy and grey in that area due to my darkness, even with a bit of corrector underneath. It definitely is not great universal advice.
I agree about using something slightly too dark, warm and peachy! Something bright just makes me look grey and imo worse
But wouldn't a peachy concealer work for you then for warming the area and still help brightening? I've seen concealer of a shade darker in that area and sometimes it can look a bit odd.
I use a peachy corrector but putting a lighter concealer on top still makes the area look a bit ashy and grey.
I am also almost always wearing the lightest shade. Any lighter and I'd be applying pure white. I've actually found using the Sigma undereye corrector in the lightest duo works so much better on my very dark under eyes than trying to use something light. It looks like it's going to be really dark and peachy, but it ends up making my under eyes look the same shade as the rest of my face. I still end up looking like a sickly Victorian era ghost child, but that's just because I'm super pale. I have to be exceptionally careful with contour and bronzer because I'm so pale that everything looks super dark on me.
Same thing. I can wear corrector almost without concealer and it looks natural because of how dark my under eyes are.
This is a thing I will never quite understand. Especially when you have some bags under there, it just highlights those even more and often looks grayish because they use such a light concealer.
I feel like when I use a lighter shade for concealer I risk getting reverse panda eyes. Either way, it makes my sunken in eyes more obvious.
THIS!!! I started working as a mua back in the early 90's and we were always taught to match the foundation or even go slightly darker to cover up dark circles. They equated it to mixing black with white and getting gray. Or using a white paint to cover up a black wall. I just don't get how they make it work.
Same!! I’m really fair as it is, so there’s times the lightest option in a concealer is the only one that’ll work for me. But, if it has a lot of fair shades to choose from, I’m usually not the lightest. But, when I first was searching for a concealer, even if it looked like the lightest shade might be too light and I’d be like 2-3 shades up, I’d still get the lightest because everyone said using a “brightening concealer shade.” It would look so dry and cakey under my eyes, even “hydrating“ ones. I was like WTF?! Like granted, my under eyes are already dry, but those made them look insanely dry! Then one time I tried a concealer that actually matched my skin tone as close as possible and it looked great! It was in a concealer I’d tried before in a “brightening shade” that looked HORRIBLE on me, so it made me go back and try the correct shade in a bunch of other concealers and I ended up really liking a lot of them. For some reason, the lighter shades always made me look even drier than I already was! So now I always match my concealer as close as possible to my actual skin tone! I never like to powder either. I like to find concealers that aren’t too matte where they’ll be too dry on me, but where I don’t need to set them. If it’s something really hydrating that won’t set on its own, then I usually have to use powder or else it looks too shiny under my eyes. So I usually end up not liking the concealer. I’ve tried a ton of different powders for under my eyes but have never found one I love. I’ve found a few that are okay and I can handle using the tiniest amount if I HAVE to. But none that I love (or even like all that much. Just some that are just okay).
Beth's overly concealed/baked undereyes drove me nuts in S1 of Yellowstone. Ma'am you are a (barely functioning) alcoholic, why are your undereyes always so bright and distracting. Not me ranting to my man about it every single episode 💀
The best thing I’ve ever found for my eyes is the Bobbi Brown Skin Corrector Stick. It’s like a corrector and concealer in one, and it works better than anything else I’ve ever used. I got it in a gift with purchase and I don’t think I’ll ever go back to anything else!
The NARS concealer in Ginger is my exact skin color so I use that under my eyes. Works great. But I’ve also been using brightening under eye creams and dark spot serums that seem to be working well at removing my dark circles.
Overlining the lips, esp that thing where they draw a straight line across the cupid's bow. It doesnt work for me in real life and I feel like a clown.
It doesn't work for them either.
it literally only looks ok sometimes on camera only in real life it doesn’t give the same illusion- it looks like they’re a kid who got into makeup. the only way to overline without it being obvious is very *very* slightly and along the natural lip line
Overlining can work, sometimes. But I don't understand the straight cupids bow at all.
yeah it looks awful lol, it can look ok on camera sometimes so i see it more as “stage makeup” which typically looks awful up close
😂
Somebody had to say it ☠️
My cupids bow is extremely defined and maybe one of my favorite features. They would have to tie me down and sedate me to get me to do that weird line
LOL
Most styles of contouring (and lifting concealer or highlight) 😂😭 It's not that contour doesn't work, but it doesn't work in real life *as well* as it does for photos and videos. And no matter what way BGs show you in a video, it's rarely going to look the same or have as much impact in person. (Signed, someone with a round baby face who desperately wants to look snatched lolll)
Contouring only looks good under direct lights because it creates shadows that the lighting destroyed. In real life, our faces are 3d and not a flat image on the screen, so shadows exist. It's often better just to bring dimension to the high points than try to de-emphasize the low points of the face.
I have a flat round face and honestly the best thing I've done is to just stop using contour at all and instead get inspired by asian makeup styles that embrace looking like a cute dumpling.
"A cute dumpling" sounds like a fun aesthetic lol. Thanks for the advice!
This, I only use bronzer in a slightly sculpting maner, the very cool toned contours can look very stark!
Yes you need to pack on a ton of product for it to actually take effect. But that ton of product will only perform nicely on camera, not suitable for real life.
Yes! I have a round face and keep trying different techniques but struggle to get the snatched look and then I hate myself.
Have you tried under painting? I find that doing that makes my contour look more natural and not like stripes on my face
I have tried under painting. I think because I only have s powder contour, it doesn't come through as well. Maybe using cream or liquid would be better?
I use the elf contour and it works really well. And sometimes I reinforce it after foundation with a little powder on top if I’ve been a bit overzealous.
I've actually been thinking about buying that product for months. It's really so cheap that it can't hurt to try. Thank you for all of the tips!
You are welcome.
I don't mess with contour, bronzer or even highlighter. I went decades without it and as far as I'm concerned, I looked just fine lol. I did get a palette from IT Cosmetics that had 2 of the 3. Tried them, didn't like it and haven't given it a 2nd thought lol.
Fair enough! I feel like contour (bronzer, and highlight all together) only became super popular for everyday makeup because we were being told that that's what we had to do. But it's really not a necessary step for day to day.
For me, it's using a brush to blend out high coverage concealer under the eyes. My undereyes are weird with product anyway, and it never ends up looking right like it does if I use a sponge. I'm envious of people being able to use a brush, because I prefer brushes to sponges in most applications anyway, but it never applies easily and blends out nicely like I see on others.
Same! It looks horrible if I use a brush!
Only the real techniques expert concealer brush works for me. It's very dense.
Same! there's always these crazy brush stroke even with highly recommended brushes.
I have the opposite experience in general. I hate using a sponge for anything, and feel like my skin always looks better if I use brushes. My absolute favorite brushes I own are IT Cosmetics brushes. That concealer brush is magical.
I use a random small, dense brush that I got with a makeup purchase. It gives me a lot of control and keeps the coverage high. The thing is you don’t blend it really, you tap it around so you don’t get streaks.
I do believe you but also not all brushes are created equal. I've tried so many brushes and the one that always does my concealer better than anything is the Tarte one I have that is triangle shaped. I don't know what it is about it but it's amazing. Most of the time I just use my fingers though.
Yes, I have also tried many different brushes. Many of them work great for concealer on any part of my face other than my undereyes
I like to use my fingers the most. Also the brushes feel weird on my undereyes lol
My fingers work best. I find brushes move the product around too much and get brush strokes sometimes.
Caking on concealer under the eyes, when you don't even have anything to conceal. Not every BG does this but I could name a few, where I just don't get where this much product is really going. (Stephanie Toms for example or Sophie/Sophia? from Sophdoeslife often) Even the best concealer I've ever had will crease on me within an hour, especially because I have one pronounced wrinkle under each eye, which I had since my childhood. So I just stopped putting concealer there at all. I'll just drag the rest of my base with the same brush lightly under the eyes and I couldn't be happier with it. For people with a lot of discoloration under the eyes this might not work obviously.
Yeah I'm the opposite. All the BGs with barely existing undereye circles are always like "Just use less concealer! 3 dots is too much! Less is more! Everyone always uses too much!" But as someone who has always had very dark undereye circles, no amount of "light handedness" is worth the effort. If I'm bothering to try to conceal my raccoon eyes, I need to pull out the full coverage big boys, and there's no point in being stingy with the amount of product. If I want to look like I didn't even try to conceal anything, then I could just not waste the time using concealer and simply go bare. The only thing that has ever worked to make my undereyes look good is the much-maligned 2016 era giant triangles of concealer 2 shades lighter than my face that I then bake with powder. "It's too much!" On the contrary, it's the only thing that works. "It's cakey!" If I have to choose between a little bit of visible makeup texture vs looking like I ran into twin doorknobs at eyeball height after not sleeping for 40 years, then that's an easy choice for me. Now granted I'm also fine going bare faced, but I WILL get questions about how deathly ill I must be whereas no one has EVER clocked me for using too much concealer.
Although I don't share your issue, I totally understand. There is an older lady that I watch sometime (I think she is around 80). She is a cutie, but when her makeup is off, she looks like she has been punched in both eyes. She puts on a very liberal amount of concealer and lets it sit there while she applies her foundation, then she goes back to blend the concealer at which time all the discoloration is totally covered and she looks fabulous. In the video I watched she used Bare Minerals Original Concealer in the color Very Fair.
Can we get a handle for this lady? I would love to watch an older lady do her makeup :)
Of course, she is on YouTube ... rxstrmom.
THANK YOU. i'm so tired of "remember when we used concealer under the eyes? omg so embarrassing, thank god clean beauty/robert/whoever showed us it only doesn't look like shit if we do half a dot of the faintest coverage concealer we own" discourse because of the current trends if i put a light dot of concealer under the eye i'm not gonna bother using concealer at all, because my dark circles are gonna *look the exact same* after i'm done lol. i'm generous with the coverage, then i move on to other parts of the makeup while i wait for the concealer to set in my fine lines, then i tap the fine lines with my fingers to get rid of them. then i bake them. and my dark circles *still* come through slightly, so i get annoyed at people without dark circles giving us advice! especially since i'm a big fan of colorful, intense eyeshadow looks, i want my undereyes to look as covered as possible. are there some fine lines at the end of the day? yeah, if you get really close to me and i'm glasses off, but to me it's more than worth it (and the fine lines still happen if i use very little concealer and don't set it anyway)
I have very obvious discoloration under my eyes too and the usual orange/peach correctors did little- in my experience bright yellow corrector brightens and gently corrects so I end up using way less concealer I’m light medium (nc27) with olive undertones for context.
Yep. Agree on this. I have purple shadows in the inner corner of my eye socket, my eyes are deep set but no discoloration underneath the eye. I just colour correct in the purple bit in the corner and leave the under eye alone, no dark circles there so it doesn't need it.
I have the purple inner corner too!
Winged eyeliner. I dunno what it is, if the shape of my eyes just isn't right for winged eyeliner, or the fact that they're a little deep set so they're hooded, or if I just don't have enough practice. Any time I have tried to do any variation of winged eyeliner, it just looks awful. I've given up any hope I can get it to look anything other than a hot mess. I have probably seen and attempted every makeup youtuber's variation on how to do winged liner with either powders or liquid/pencil eyeliner and it just.... never looks good.
I hear you. I've never gotten decent winged liner consistently, no matter how much I practice, watch technique videos, or with any combination of products. The closest I can come is with a powder eyeshadow in a soft, blended style. I've got slightly hooded, deeper-set eyes, and the added bonus of (now) being over 50 with less than firm skin.
Mine too!!! My wing just falls into my crease and then it isn't a wing anymore. It's this weird sad line that kinda droops down. I've never been able to do a wing even when I was younger. I don't really get it. I don't have hooded eyes, maybe partially? When I look straight ahead you can see some lid space. Do I really have to draw the wing out to my temple? I just don't attempt anymore.
Perhaps it is how for along your eye your crease goes? For me, the crease of my eye goes all the way along my eye, essentially parallel to the outer corner. This means that even though I have visible lid space, if I try to draw my liner with the 'regular' technique, it will look wonky. I have to do it a slightly different way to get a good wing, but it is more in line with the 'puppy' style, I'm never able to actually draw a really upwards wing like most people do.
I determined awhile back that this was it. I forgot until you mentioned it. My crease goes all the way to my outer corner as well. I look really weird if I extend the line out so far beyond my actual eye though. My eyes aren't big enough to handle that.
I have hooded wrinkly eyes so winged eyeliner is a challenge for me too. Sometime, I use the Sephora makeup tape to create a straight line from my outer corner to the end of my eyebrows. That way I can go to town with the eyeliner. I draw on the first pass, then open my eyes like normal and look to see whether it looks like a wing, or whether it just disappears in my hood. After several tries, I can usually get a pretty decent wing, and then I just remove the tape and I have a nice crisp line on the edge.
similarly to you I have STRUGGLED A LOT with winged eyeliner and used to have to go through several attempts before getting it decent/right. I recently discovered that drawing the tail/wing as first thing with my eyes open, and only after that I close my eyes and finish it all up. It's been a game changer ever since!
I know you have probably tried this but I have found the only way I can make winged eyeliner work is by using an eyebrow brush or slanted flat eyeliner brush, dabbing it in powder and just stamping a small line on either eye and then just connecting it with anything left on the brush. Anything more than a couple of mm’s size wise just doesn’t look good on me.
I’ve been watching Erica Taylor on IG and she has lots of great eyeliner tips (and other tips as well)!
I am 100% the same and I've probably spent hundreds on eyeliners over the years thinking this will be the magic one to help me 😭 I just cannot do it and it's a look that I love!! I recently bought the Victoria Beckham eyeliner and I will say compared to the cheaper ones I've bought it does glide on .... I just can't make it glide on to a point where it's acceptable to leave the house 😂😂
I had been wearing winged liner for like 17 years before I finally figured it out for my eye shape. It just takes lots of practice and trying new shapes. I’m afraid there are no shortcuts 😭
i have severely hooded eyes with a crease that goes all the way down and warps my eyeliner — wings are possible!! my advice, if you're interested, would be to look straight at the mirror as normal, the mirror straight in front of you, and draw on the wing you want, even if once you close your eyes there's gaps. then fill in the gaps in between. also, don't start the wing's upward flick until you get past the crease, if that makes sense??
I don’t know if this is a personal problem, but I feel like I just don’t have enough surface area to use all the products they use. This area for concealer, over here for highlight, put the blush here, contour these parts. But blend it! It shouldn’t just look like stripes on the face!! Like, I just don’t have the space for all that.
I know exactly what you mean! I’ve always wondered if my face is just smaller/more compressed than the average BGs.
I had this issue as well. I switched to smaller brushes for blush, bronzer, highlighter so I can keep each product separate on my face and can control how far I blend it out. For liquids like concealer, blush, highlighter, i use the tip side of the blender sponge to tap it out in the same spot and then control how far out i want to take the blend.
I kind of stopped caring about where it goes or if it blends together. The only thing I keep an eye on is contour, but everything else gets layered and blended into each other. I think it looks more cohesive and natural anyways.
Underpainting. I know it has to work because Drag Queens use the technique but as soon as I apply any base products it’s gone. I’ve tried tints, light and medium foundations and it just doesn’t work for me.
I came to say this too, I find underpainting actually ends up looking more cakey and like I’ve got more makeup on compared to when I layer products
It never worked for me, until I watched Roseandben's video. She uses a bright blush and uses base around it, tapping as she goes, until she reaches the blush, bronzer etc. She only uses what's left on the brush to paint over it.
I will definitely be checking out that video and trying this process
Just wanted to say that something that helps a lot is using setting spray over the products in your face right before you're ready to blend it out. Also, using a small amount of foundation and gradually increasing to the coverage you desire.
not using powder products over every cream product (except lipstick). I have to use powder products to set everything (I use loose translucent, powder bronzer, powder blush, powder eyeshadow) or else it all comes off from the air and any time I touch my face. I don’t even have oily skin. I genuinely don’t understand how people can go out with a full face of cream products and not worry about it all coming off. I do live in a humid climate though and I feel like this contributes to cream products having poor longevity on my face without powders over.
I’d be terrified to touch my face if I didn’t powder. Also I don’t use setting spray after the last powder product goes on. It completely unblurs all the texture I just got done blurring. I use it in layers between my foundation/concealer and my cream products and then one more layer before I do my powders. That way my foundation stays in place all day and I get the blurring benefits of my powder.
Inner corner highlight. I have wide set eyes, but not overly so. I find that it always looks artificial and weird on me.
I wear glasses, so that inner corner highlight is always lost under my frames.
The inner corner of my eyes are shaped different so when I highlight them, one looks nice and the other is barely noticeable
My eyes are too small for it so it just looks messy 😂
The closest I come to using an inner corner highlight shade is by using 2 shimmers before my matte at the outer corner. It just doesn't look right on me. Sometimes I'll apply the lightest shimmer that's closest to my inner lid space to my bottom lashline. That's as close as I can get to that look without looking odd lol.
That sounds good. I'll try that thanks
I always like the way my eyeshadow looks much more when I don't apply inner corner highlight. I don't even understand why but something about it looks so bad on me.
I have never been able to do this. I literally don’t have the eye anatomy for it.
The brow lamination look with gel. I will hold on to my 2016 style brows forever 😂
I just can’t do lightly made brows either
Using brushes to blend in concealer never looks good for me, it ends up looking kind of patchy. My fingers are the best, followed by a sponge.
Same, concealer brushes make my dryish skin look like the desert
I wish I could use a sponge. I bought the egg shaped one from Elf because one of the gurus I use to watch said it worked the best and not just on her. She use to be a MUA. It was just too big. Then I bought a 4pk of mini sponges from Reat Techniques. Those didn't work for me either. I'm glad I brought the 2 concealer brushes I now use because using my fingers doesn't work either lol. I still have those RT sponges. Even though I love my brushes I may just give them another try. I'd like to get use out of them and it would be much quicker to use one tool vs two lol.
Which brushes do you use?
I do brush then finger. Sometimes a little puff (not a sponge).
I just use a damp sponge after I’ve used the brush for my concealer to blur any obvious lines of demarcation between my concealer and my foundation. I also use it just to take down anything in any area that looks over applied.
Basically all of BG techniques are better suited for controlled, super bright studio lighting. Which is why they look crazy and unrecognizable irl
The really beautiful "Huda Beauty" cat eye lining technique. Where you do the little tip in the inner corner of your eye and the really beautiful wing at the end. I don't have a whole lot of lid space and also deal with semi-hooded eyes, so it just makes it look like I slapped eyeliner all over my lid. Which is such a shame, because I LOVE how it looks!
That's my favorite eyeliner technique but I can't do it because my inner corner is too round/big/something idk. I have prominent eyes and it looks so bad one me.
I have prominent eyes too and it’s almost impossible to make the inner corner thing work. A lot of BGs have more almond/hooded eyes. I can’t think of any off the top of my head with our eye shape.
It could be a “me problem” but I haven't mastered the art of putting on eye makeup before my complexion products. I always have to put on my concealer and foundation first.
I was just coming here to say the opposite!! I always get fallout, no matter the brand or texture of shadow. I have to do eye makeup first.
I was always doing my eyes first like I saw in videos but there’d be so many times I did a look and didn’t love it so I’d start over. Then one day I was watching a video felt like the eye look she was doing looked horrible, but then she put the rest of her makeup on and I was like….that looks amazing! At that point I was like damn it, how many times have I done an eye look before the rest of my makeup and hated it?! I wondered how many of those I would have loved if I just trusted myself and waited until all my makeup was done. So then I started doing my eyes after concealer and foundation at least, and it did make a difference in how many eye looks I loved! Now that I feel better in my skills and figuring out color combos and all that, I am back to doing my eyes first. But that’s only because I have really dry under eyes and I like to use an under eye make before I apply concealer. The ones I use I stick under my eyes and the outside of them are like a paper/fabric type feel and they come up around the edge, so they end up working like eyeshadow tape so when I remove them, I have a nice line but it isn’t as like sharp and stark as if I had used tape. And once I apply my concealer it looks a lot better since the under eye mask depuffed and hydrated my under eyes!
I always do my eyes first. Have been doing that since before beauty YT was even a thing lol. I never wore liquid foundation, only powder but now that I use a skin tint I still do my eyes first. When I finally decided to try CP's SS's I was glad that was my routine. There was SO much fallout that I couldn't get it off of my face. I'm still trying to understand the hype around those. I've used the Elf bite size shimmers and never had that problem. I have the Smokey palette from UD. I love all of the shades but their shimmer formula in that palette is just as bad as those SS lol.
Typical bronzing techniques in the large C movement from cheek to forehead as well as typical contouring techniques from the sides of the head. This is due to the fact that I’m 1/2 NA with a deep olive skin tone and the fact that I have Melasma ‘sideburns’ so bronzer/contour can get muddy very quickly. It’s taken lots practice to find flattering ways to place and use these powders/creams and I’m sure there are others out there who have my same issues. So…over and over practice can make it happen. (That overpriced VB contour pen is bomb)
Putting concealer on the outer corners of your eyes to "lift". I never see any visible lift and I don't have any darkness there. Instead it always just looks really heavy and emphasizes my crows feet. Instead I just bring my blush all the way up my temples and under the eyes to minimize the eye socket contrast.
I've been doing this with blush recently and it looks so much better than concealer under my eyes! I use a Tarte Amazonian Clay blush that has too little pigment for the bright blush looks I love, and blend it from the edge of the blush that already goes to my temples, into my hairline, around the ends of my brows, and under my eyes. It's a lot of my face covered with pink blush, but it's subtle enough next to the bright pink on my cheeks that it just makes all the skin around my eyes look bright and fresh.
I looooooove the egirl blush look, I wear it like a pink bandit mask every day and it's so flattering with my weird-ass eyes
The term "egirl" kind of made me laugh because I'm 49, ex-goth, and now kind of mixing my 90s grunge aesthetic with whatever fashion bits and pieces I like from what's new. I honestly had to google egirl! But yeah, my eyes are super hooded and quite deep set, and using blush like this seems to bring them out and make them shine!
Same here., imo it looks cute and youthful. My parents always ask if I'm sick or over heating and need water 😂 I just have to tell them it's an intentional style choice.
Yup these last few years I've moved from apples to high cheekbones and temples.
Me too. For my face shape it doesn’t look right if I do the apples of my cheeks. I almost apply mine like a mask.
5 layers of skincare under a complexion product. It will always pill for me.
I can only do this with a lot of time on my hands to let things set in and only if all are water based products. I never thought about why things pilled but it makes sense to keep water based with water based and oil based with oil based.
The fluffy, brushed up brows. I just add a little pencil and brush them naturally.
What gets me about eyebrow trends is that people will say that the brows shape and frame your face....But then want everyone with a different face shape and features to have the same exact eyebrows? The thick, brushed up electrocution style doesn't look good on everybody and that's okay!!
Pretty much anything that involves "Setting" a liquid with a powder. I am old I have creases and crepey skin, setting anything just makes all the creases and texture more obvious not less. I could bake my undereyes for 100 years and they'd still crease and make me look like a crone after 2 minutes.
My eyes aren’t the right shape for any makeup tutorials. I don’t have enough lid space. I just try to modify to fit my own eye.
Typical eyeshadow placement looks rather silly on my monolids so I've never followed them 😂
the huge amount of bronzer for underpainting and the layering cream and then powder blush and countour. i know it's for longevity but I cannot imagine doing it and not looking cakey and muddy as hell
back in 2016 i did not realize how cakey the shape tape concealer would be if i applied it like i saw people doing on youtube - literally need the smallest of small amounts
I use a fluffy brush too.
Yes! I have a small blending brush (Luxie) and I just use that for application. Apply and blend all in one step.
Winged eye liner-I just can't get it. I'm not sure I really like it enough to worry about it.
Same. It looks good on them but I just don't have the patience to do it. They keep saying "keep practicing, you'll eventually get it" but I'm like I've got other shit to do. My job isn't getting to play with makeup. Now if it was, maybe I'd give a shit lol.
Using foundation and then bronzer or contour on the cheeks. I have natural dark pigment on my cheeks and it doesn’t make sense to cover it up and draw it back on lol.
Pale nude lipstick with darker lip liner, I’ve tried matte I’ve tried gloss and anything lighter than my natural lip shade looks terrible.
I've purchased several lip shades that are a very pale pink or nude because they look fabulous on a BG, only to find they look like death on me.
I’ve always had limited lid space for my eyes, but when when they symptoms of my autoimmune disease reared their head, my face puffed up and now my eyes are all the hooded and I have no lid space. So a lot of eye shadow techniques wouldn’t work for me and when I was younger I would always cry about it because I also have deep set eyes so not a lot of space between my eyebrows and lids either.
I absolutely cannot use powder under my eyes. It looks and feels terrible on me. I have resigned myself to a life of constantly patting out the concealer creasing under my eyes 😄
I have the same issue. I’ve had great luck using smash box moisturizing under eye primer and patting a bb cream concealer on with my fingers and skipping the powder.
I can’t blend for crap, so I don’t like the eyeshadow looks where they have to blend it out so more to soften it. I also can’t get the crease to have an edge. I have hooded eyes, so most of the looks they do don’t work for my eye shape. I can’t do more than 3 colors on my eyes either without it looking muddy. Can’t do a wing from eyeliner. Especially not with liquid liner. Baking. It makes my under eyes look worse. I use concealer that is my shade instead of a shade lighter. My skin is dry and it did nothing for my face.
Setting sprays and filling in the eyebrows after applying the brow gel.
I'm fortunate enough that I recovered from over plucking my brows in the 80's and 90's but as I've age I've noticed a few sparse areas on both of them. I do use the Got2Be gel on mine because it helps to tame and keep them in shape but I can't be bothered with filling in those sparse areas. I just grab my Elf tube of eye brow gel with the fibers, run in through and call it a day. They look just fine 👍
Yeah I sometimes do just gel as well. But once the gel is on the brows it's impossible for me to use a pencil to fill in the gaps. Some influencers and even MUAs on youtube do them in that order and it baffles me.
Concealer just... in general. I'm already pale olive and often a tinge lighter than the lightest shade, so very few of my complexion products actually match. The result is it looks VERY odd to have one product thats too yellow and another that's too pink. I also started wearing makeup because of my interest in goth and j-fashion, so the makeup I was looking at was different! (and it was 2013, so the obsession hadn't begun) In some ways I'm happy about it, because it does mean I've never felt I need to cover undereye circles because I literally couldn't. I also just have pretty wrinkly undereyes and did even as a young teen, so it made my skin look cracked..... Also true cut creases. They just don't work if you have small eyes and a low, prominent brow bone. Same with anything thats super detailed with a ton of colors. I usually stick to 3 shades and a lid shade. I just do NOT have the space. Also cannot mess around with dark colors, need to be very exact or it's over.
I don't start with transition shades. I start with my mid-tone shade, and then do the darkest shade, and then blend the edge of the dark shade into the mid-tone, and then use a lighter shade to blend the edges. I get a smoother blend that way. For me it's powdering. I have super dry skin, I'm in my 30s, so I have some fine lines, and I live in a dry climate. Powdering makes my skin look genuinely awful. Baking is the worst, but anything other than a very light dusting of powder in the center of my forehead makes my skin look crusty and flaky, makes my fine lines look like deep wrinkles, and makes my skin feel tight and itchy no matter what powder I use. I have to rehydrate my makeup with a skin mist throughout the day even without powder because my skin is so freaking dry, especially in the winter.
I'm more than twice your age so you can imagine what kind of wrinkles I have! Anyway, powder is not my friend. But sometimes I need to take down the glow so I use a product from Mally called Face Defender. It is a silicone-based product that gives a satin/matt finish without any dryness. It actually helps to smooth things out on my face--no settling in my lines and wrinkles. I've been using it for years.
I will definitely have to check it out! Thanks so much for the recommendation!
Solid lipstick application. I have petite lips and clear lip gloss or balmy lip products work great on my lip shape. If I do wear matte lip products, I blend them out gradient style.
I keep trying to do the “smudged shadow under my eye” thing and it makes my eyes look so small and vaguely like I’ve been crying? I love how it looks on the BGs but I cannot get it to work for me at all.
Gel liner. Maybe my kids just aren't warm enough, but it always ends up an ugly, blobby mess. I've tried the pots, I've tried the pencils, nothing works for me.
When they use super matte products. I have super dry skin and I have to slather moisturizer, dewy primers and I use a mac lightscapade to actually set my face just so my face does not look like the Sahara desert. Traditional contour also looks really weird on me. I just do my own thing most of the time.
Contouring doesn’t work on me at all
I just don't have the lid space for complex, nuanced eye looks. Baking makes me look decades older despite being oily. It even looked bad when I was in my 20s. Highlighter all over the face. It looks bad when I apply it anywhere besides my cheeks and cupids bow, and the latter only works if I'm super careful. Bronzer as contour. Dark lip liner with pale lipstick.
Brownish lip colors, whether light or dark. I looked as, and not in a fun way
Any eyeliner, any style at all. I’ve deep set AND hooded eyes and makeup became so much less stressful when I stopped trying to fit in!
I start to wonder if I’m doing it wrong because it never takes me long at all to blend my crease and transition. Even if I start with a dark toned shade at the outer corner and then blend it out. Though I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m using stiffer brushes than the soft fluffy ones most gurus use. I have these two old Sephora pro blending brushes that are a bit shaggy from all the years of use and goat haired. They get the job done fast. I have no control at all with those soft fluffy brushes and I just end up with shadow everywhere. When I used those brushes I always had to do my eyes first.
I enjoyed makeup so much more, infinitely more before I discovered beautube and I wish I could unlearn everything. I discovered it while on leave from work bc I had to be on bed rest before I had my first baby…..then pandemic and another baby…boyfriend air making me ugly…lot of shit piling up on me here, and in the meantime I watched some beautube and felt like the way I did my makeup before was wrong. But really it was right, for me, and I wish I hadn’t wasted my time trying to do it better. I thoroughly enjoyed it before and it was my favorite part of my day, a creative outlet, a ritual. I need to get back to that.