Beauty "Tricks" that Do/Don't Work

[cno64]

I'm 43 years old, so I've read or heard or even come up with quite a few beauty "tricks" over the years, and found that, while some work almost like magic, others are not so great.
What tricks do you all know of that do or don't work?
Keep in mind, my list is based purely on my own personal NW15, brunette, green-eyed, oily-skinned experience.

Works:
Use a big fluffy brush to apply blush-Yes! This makes it almost impossible to end up with the dreaded "clown spots."
Invest in the best brushes you can possibly afford- Good brushes make a tremendous difference in the ease with which your makeup goes on, and the way it looks after you're done.
Don't "pop" pimples-I had quite a bit of acne in my youth, but I kept my hands off my face, and today I have almost no scarring.
Use a diffuser on curly hair- This enhances the curl, while helping to avoid frizziness.

Now, for the Don't Column:

To make full lips look thinner(Really!), line just inside your natural lipline with a brown pencil, then apply your lipstick- Nope! In general, any attempt to "correct" your natural lip shape with liner just looks like you "missed."
For lush lashes, apply baby powder before mascara- I have tried this, and I've found that a good primer(like UD's) works much better, without the mess.
Match your eyeshadow to your eye color- If I want my green eyes to really pop, I wear plums or taupes, never green.
To elongate a round face, apply a brownish blush under the cheekbones-Maybe I just wasn't doing this right, but it always looked like I had a dirty face.


I'm sure you all can come up with more!

 

[Kuuipo]

Don't try to "correct" your skin color-it will just look bizarre.

 

[jenii]

One that I found to be a "don't" in "do"'s clothing was "match your lipstick to your shirt."

I don't even remember WHERE I heard that, but I guess it's a common "tip."

Most of the time, it just looks weird. I've seen like, soap opera stars in the 80's matching salmon-colored lipstick to a salmon-colored top and-- honey, no, the salmon-colored top was BAD ENOUGH.

Sorry, I've only seen that color look good in ONE situation. I think Juliette Binoche wore a salmon-colored v-neck sweater in Chocolat, and I remember remarking to my mother "wow, that's the first time that color's worked on ANYONE."

 

[SparklingWaves]

I got my fingers a moving now. Whew, plenty of experience here.

1. The most important tools you can have - a good mirror and good light! If you apply makeup with poor lighting, you will pile on the makeup to fit the light. Don't do what I did. You get that sudden jump look from people.

2. Work with your own coloring and features. Say your friend is olive and you are extremely fair. She has very strong bone structure and you have tiny tapered features. Do not presume, you can wear her same makeup. She may look like a goddess with her makeup. You will get the hint this isn't working for you, because men will come up to you and ask, "How much?"

3. Well applied concealer looks better than the liquid paper look under the eyes. Your eyes are not naturally white where the dark circles are. Don't put too light of concealer there.

4. A little bit of shimmer looks better than disco sister city all over the face. Don’t put shimmer into the foundation, on the eyes, on the lips and on the cheeks. People will ask, "Do you have a sunburn or allergic reaction to something?"

5. Don't use a vivid colors all over the face. Don't put electric bright aqua and shocking bright purple on the eyes, vivid pink on the cheeks, and blood red on your lips. Someone will ask, "Do you work on the stage? or they will say "I can always find you in mass of people with no problem".

6. Foundation tip -- less is more. Foundation is not airbrushing or photoshop. You may think you have hid everything. In actual daylight, everyone can see you are wear 2- 3 layers of it and you haven't hidden a darn thing. In fact, you check later and realize that your face has cracks resembling and Earthquake of 7.0 or you have wrinkles in areas that aren’t possible.

7. Use concealer to hide pimples and use a brush to apply the concealer. Don't put 7 layers of foundation and concealers to hide a pimple or even a bandaide. People will ask if you had a mole removed.

These are from personal experience. ;(

 

[ruqayya33]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jenii One that I found to be a "don't" in "do"'s clothing was "match your lipstick to your shirt." I don't even remember WHERE I heard that, but I guess it's a common "tip." Most of the time, it just looks weird. I've seen like, soap opera stars in the 80's matching salmon-colored lipstick to a salmon-colored top and-- honey, no, the salmon-colored top was BAD ENOUGH. Sorry, I've only seen that color look good in ONE situation. I think Juliette Binoche wore a salmon-colored v-neck sweater in Chocolat, and I remember remarking to my mother "wow, that's the first time that color's worked on ANYONE."

Well.... that's not exactly right.

I think, what the "experts" meant by that was that you should keep outfits and lippies (as well as blushes) in the same color family. Ex: warm toned outfit with warm toned lippie & blush - cool toned outfit with cool toned lippie & blush.

Let's say you're wearing a soft cool pink top. Your best bet for a good lippie is something in the pink "family." A peach or red lippie - for example - will probabably look "off."

 

[ruqayya33]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SparklingWaves I got my fingers a moving now. Whew, plenty of experience here. 1. The most important tools you can have - a good mirror and good light! If you apply makeup with poor lighting, you will pile on the makeup to fit the light. Don't do what I did. You get that sudden jump look from people. AMEN!!! I totally agree. I own a lighted makeup mirror and next to great brushes and application tools it's an essential for me. 2. Work with your own coloring and features. Say your friend is olive and you are extremely fair. She has very strong bone structure and you have tiny tapered features. Do not presume, you can wear her same makeup. She may look like a goddess with her makeup. You will get the hint this isn't working for you, because men will come up to you and ask, "How much?" 3. Well applied concealer looks better than the liquid paper look under the eyes. Your eyes are not naturally white where the dark circles are. Don't put too light of concealer there. 4. A little bit of shimmer looks better than disco sister city all over the face. Don’t put shimmer into the foundation, on the eyes, on the lips and on the cheeks. People will ask, "Do you have a sunburn or allergic reaction to something?" Agree again.I prefer to keep my daytime makeup MATTE - except for maybe a little sparkle in my lippie. At night time, I may go a bit more sparkly with e/s. I never use blush with sparkle. I feel that it gives too much of a "glow" allover. 5. Don't use a vivid colors all over the face. Don't put electric bright aqua and shocking bright purple on the eyes, vivid pink on the cheeks, and blood red on your lips. Someone will ask, "Do you work on the stage? or they will say "I can always find you in mass of people with no problem". Agree again.... Same goes for a bold eye during the day. It looks too painted on.... A bold lip might be more easily to pull off if the eye is muted. 6. Foundation tip -- less is more. Foundation is not airbrushing or photoshop. You may think you have hid everything. In actual daylight, everyone can see you are wear 2- 3 layers of it and you haven't hidden a darn thing. In fact, you check later and realize that your face has cracks resembling and Earthquake of 7.0 or you have wrinkles in areas that aren’t possible. True!!! Same goes for the wrong shade or texture. Foundation should not look too shiny, too dewy or too matte. Also, don't try to add a tan or pale-down your skin tone, by using a much lighter or darker shade. 7. Use concealer to hide pimples and use a brush to apply the concealer. Don't put 7 layers of foundation and concealers to hide a pimple or even a bandaide. People will ask if you had a mole removed. These are from personal experience. ;(

I've replied ot some of the quoted text above.... in the actual quote.

Now to my tips that do/don't work:

1) Match your blush with your your lip product. The 2 should be in the same color family. A WARM toned blush should be matched with a WARM toned lippie......... EX: Peachy lippie + peachy blush

- peach lippie + cool pink blush

2) You can tone down minor redness with a slightly yellow foundation or powder. The key word here is SLIGHTLY..... and don't expect miracles. The redness may not get totally covered.

3) If you have minor redness on your cheeks.... see my #2. After applying foundation or powder, you may be able to omit any blush - for daytime. At night, you may add a light coating of a light colered blush. (Peach or nude looks great on many warm toned complexions. Light rosy pink or a light plum/mauve is nice on cool complexions.)

4) Don't let yourself or a SA/MA confuse any (minor) surface redness with a pink undertones. Go with the overall undertone of your skin. Check your chin, forhead and neck.... if they are not pink, don't get pinkish foundation or powders.

 

[Shadow]

I'm 44 and this is my take on do's and don'ts over the years ...
(1) Don't wear lip liner that is ten shades darker than your lipstick ...

(2) Don't draw on thick harsh eyebrows ... keep them as natural as possible
(3) Do invest in the best brushes you can afford
(4) Use a lip exfoliator/scrub before putting l/s or l/g on chapped lips
(5) Don't pump mascara wand in the tube
(6) Don't put your makeup on while driving

 

[ruqayya33]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow I'm 44 and this is my take on do's and don'ts over the years ... (1) Don't wear lip liner that is ten shades darker than your lipstick ... (2) Don't draw on thick harsh eyebrows ... keep them as natural as possible (3) Do invest in the best brushes you can afford (4) Use a lip exfoliator/scrub before putting l/s or l/g on chapped lips (5) Don't pump mascara wand in the tube (6) Don't put your makeup on while driving

Your abolutely right on all counts....

 

[Kuuipo]

For the matte look, use corn starch. Don't laugh, that is what Mineral Veil is made of! Cornstarch can be mixed in loose powder to cut the shine on skin, its great for photoshoots.

 

[dollbabybex]

good...

obv the transluscent powder trick to catch any fallen es...

my fave is after applying lipstick putting a finger in your mouth, and pulling it out (im not describing it well but you know what i mean) as i have had embarrasing lipstick on teeth occasions before!

also blue toned lip products make teeth look whiter

where as yellow toned enhance off coloured teeth.

 

[ruqayya33]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kuuipo For the matte look, use corn starch. Don't laugh, that is what Mineral Veil is made of! Cornstarch can be mixed in loose powder to cut the shine on skin, its great for photoshoots.

Warning! If you're acne-prone or suffer from rosacea, cornstarch may not be a good choice for long term use. It's an ingredient that bacteria can "feed" on. I found out the hard way........

 

[xiahe]

something that doesn't work...trying to make yourself look more tan by choosing a darker colored foundation! then you just look like you're wearing a mask, and the whole point of makeup (most of the time lol) is to make it look like you aren't wearing any.

something that does work...putting bronzer in between your boobs for smaller-chested girls gives the illusion of more cleavage and a bigger chest haha

 

[MiCHiE]

Not sure if this is a trick----or if it'll work for everyone, but....when applying false lashes, using your fingers instead of tweezers works much better. After applying the glue and letting it set, use your forefingers and thumbs to hold the lashes at both ends, glue facing you (ofcourse). You can also straighten the curve of them to better position them over your own lashes and place them at the lashline.

I applied my lashes perfectly after ditching the tweezers and doing this. Hope it helps someone else.

 

[aziajs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kuuipo Don't try to "correct" your skin color-it will just look bizarre.

I have to piggyback on this. Accent your complexion but don't try to change it. I hate seeing white girls with super dark foundation which is obviously too dark or black girls with foundation shades that are too light and make them look ashy.