Whether you’ve always had trouble applying your makeup with skill or you feel like your face has changed with age and your makeup technique hasn’t caught up, avoiding common makeup mistakes and learning how to apply concealer, blush, eye makeup, and lipstick can make you feel younger and fresher. On the contrary, making mistakes that fail to honor your facial features and bone structure, especially when you age, can add years to your look.
Makeup Artist Dominique Sachse gave it to us straight in a video and revealed some common beginner’s makeup mistakes that can mess up your look.
Sachse shows us a great everyday look for daytime — and the biggest mistakes to overcome.
Choosing the Wrong Foundation
As we age, our skin can get ashier in tone, Sachse explains. A way to combat this is by choosing a foundation that is one shade warmer than our complexion. Instead of matching your foundation exactly to your face or neck, she also encourages us to match it to our chest. You chest actually receives more sun exposure than your face and neck, which you may be faithfully covering up with sunscreen.
Another important foundation tip: choose the right formulation. If your skin gets oily quickly, for example, it’s okay to use a matte foundation (no matter what you’ve been told about mattes over 50). If you have dry skin, find a foundation that contains hydrating ingredients like hyaluronic acid.
Drawing in Eyebrows With a Thin Pencil
Eyebrows frame the face and can really change your look, but one mistake you could be making is drawing in eyebrows with a pencil in a thin line. But what makes a brow youthful is fullness. To recreate a thicker, bushier brow, Sachse suggest filling in your brow vertically (not horizontally). Brush your brows up and create upward strokes with your makeup to mimic real hair.
Apply Too-Light Eyeshadow Too High on the Eyelid
Many of us assume that applying a very light eyeshadow on the lower lid and applying it too high because we think it will brighten the eye. Sachse suggests that this can accentuate any droop in the lid. Instead, she takes a medium taupe shade and applied it lower on the lid and then creates a contrast between the upper and lower lid.
Another mistake is applying your darker contour shadow too low on the lid. The solution is usually to start higher on your upper lid with your contour shade and then blend very well.
Placing Eyeliner the Wrong Way
This mistake has two parts. The first: being afraid of black eyeliner because you’ve been told you should go lighter when you get older. The second: using your lighter brown eyeliner to rim the entire upper and lower eyelid, which can actually close off your eyes.
Instead: top-line a black eyeliner to the top lid. This adds a border to lashes and makes them look thicker without messing with your eyeshadow. Add a little flick at the corner of the eye to open it up.
The Wrong Blush Placement
Getting your blush just right is all about its placement. If you’re using a shade that’s too dark for you (or too warm or cool) and placing it too low and too forward on the face, you could be unknowingly making your face appear as if it is drooping.
It may not feel natural at first, but try using a lighter blush (even a creamy formulation) and apply it way up high on the cheekbones and out to the sides of your face. This creates a beautiful lift in the skin.
Don’t give up on makeup if your current look isn’t working. Just change up your technique and play around with new colors and a different placement of your makeup. You may be happily shocked at the difference it makes.
