Tuesday, October 26, 2010

TOP MISTAKES IN "MAKING UP"

My first stint with makeup consisted of Lakme lipsticks, nail polishes from TipsNToes and the occasional Yardley or Charlie perfumes that adorned my mom's dresser. Since childhood I was curious about makeup and the moment I started getting my pocket money all I did was splurge on experimenting with various types of cosmetics. I wasn’t happy with only lipsticks and nail polishes, I wanted more! I wanted blush, I wanted mascara, I wanted foundation, I wanted kajal… Yes... You do get the drift right? So I experimented to my heart’s content.

Now when I look back to my experimenting days, I cringe. I keep counting these faux passes that I committed and want to now share with you all the top mistakes that we are bound to commit while starting to make-up for the first time! So here I go…

While applying Foundation
Who doesn’t want a flawless complexion, radiance and glow on one’s face? And the shortest way to achieve it (if not naturally) is by applying foundations. Applying foundation is exactly what it sounds to be. It is preparing the foundation to your makeup. You screw up your foundation, you screw up your makeup. Direct proportion you see :D

The most common mistakes we make while applying foundation is as follows:

1. Using a foundation shades lighter or darker to your skin tone: Buy/apply foundation that
matches your skin tone! If not well versed with this process, do ask the SAs for help!
2. Choosing a wrong formulation for your skin type: Oily skinned people should opt for light,
oil free foundations. Likewise, dry skinned people should opt for base makeup with added
moisturizers and light reflectors.
3. Applying base makeup too heavily: One must apply foundation with a light touch.
4. Not setting your foundation: Once the foundation has been applied, one must apply a compact of a shade similar to one’s skin tone.

While doing up the lips
Makeup they say can virtually change the way you look. It can highlight one’s salient features and can be also be used to hide one’s flaws. Changing the shape of your lips, altering its width is all possible by using lipstick.

The most common mistakes we make while applying lipsticks is as follows:

1. Using a lip liner of a shade much darker than the lipstick shade: The lip liner used to define
your lips must be a shade matching your lip color or the lipstick color.
2. Applying lipstick directly on chapped lips: One must exfoliate one’s lips and make it smooth
before applying lipstick.
3. Applying dark lipstick on thin lips: One must avoid using dark shades of lipsticks on thinner
lips as darker shades give an effect of thinning your lips.

While doing up the eyes
Eyes are windows to one’s soul and hence it is important to make our eyes up in order to ensure that our soles are perceived as beautiful ;)

The most common mistakes we make while applying eyeliner are as follows:

1. Crooked lines: One must ensure that our hands are stable enough to draw “uncrooked” lines
before venturing into liquid liner territory.
2. Clumping your mascara: Ensure non-clumping of mascara by adding a second coat on your
lashes before the first coat dries!
3. Matching your eye shadow exactly with your clothes: It is always advisable to complement your clothes with an eye shadow that complements the color of your clothes rather than matching them directly.
4. Applying a cream based eye shadow without a primer.

While applying blush
The way base makeup provides foundation for your makeup, in the same way blushers provide the finishing touches to one’s makeup. It could make or break the overall effect of the makeup one might have very painstakingly applied.

The most common mistakes we make while applying blushers are as follows:

1. Applying a little too much: In order to avoid looking like a clown one must first practice by
using a minimal amount of blush and swirling it on one’s cheeks with a fluffy blush brush.
2. Not matching the blush to your skin tone: Important rules to follow here are using light
shades in the daytime, colors like pink, rose and coral for fair skin and tawny brown for tan
skin tones.