Learn From My Fail: Things about makeup we learned the hard way

[katred]

OK, we've all done this kind of thing- realising just a little too late that we made a horrible cosmetic mistake, or finding out why certain steps are really important. I don't know exactly when I figured it out, but when I was younger, I thought there was some kind of law against using more than one colour eye shadow at a time. So on those occasions where I did apply shadow, I looked consistently like I'd run away from the beautician's chair a little bit before she was finished. I remember that one of my first shadows was a really dark green that I used to apply, messily and with no liner, all over my lids. And I wondered why it never looked right.

I was also in my thirties before I figured out that blush was not the enemy. Since I've always liked dark lips, I have a number of "Corpsey McDopeFiend" pictures of me in my twenties.

More recently (read "today"), I realised that while Mac Fluidline and Mac Paint Pots may feel similar, they have different properties. I used Siahi fluidline as a base for a pigment, which looked awesome, however I just washed my face and my eye lids are still noticeably blue. Awesome. I'll be rocking the heavy, smoky eye look for a few days...

So I can't be the only one who's screwed things up. What advice do we have to pass onto others?

 

[mayflower]

Oh, I love this! I have kind of the same story that you had with eyeshadows, I thought you could only use one cheek product at a time. So basically, I wanted my blushes to be blush, highlighter and contour at the same time. So I was looking for pretty shades, that had some sparkle or shimmer in it, but were also dark enough to give some definition. All of that paired with the thought that the apples of my cheeks were actually under my eyes - I looked like a discoball/clown.

I also used a gel eyeliner as a base once. I got it kind of even at first, but as soon as I only looked at my brush to apply the pigment with, it went all over the place. I had purple splotchy eyelids with fallout on my cheeks and eventually gave in and washed my face again. I kind of like the idea of a semi-permanent smoky eye, though!

The only other thing I can think of right now is actually with my group of friends a couple of years ago.. Number 1: We all shared our make up. Mascaras, lipsticks, powder including brushes/sponges... thinking back, I'm surprised my face didn't fall off from all the germs going around. Especially since no one bothered to get a black lipstick so we passed around eyeliners and people would use them on their lips too :/ Number 2: I remember sharing my liquid eyeliner with a girl and she asked me if it hurt when I applied it. Of course I said no, and pointed at my awesomely crooked upper lash liner anyway, she shrugged, went ahead and put the liquid liner on her waterline. Needless to say it didn't stay in place for even a second.

I'm really looking forward to what new ways I can find to fail at makeup.. I think it's fun to look back and see what you've learned, especially if you have pictures to prove it. Who knows, maybe in a year I'll be like "Oh my... what was I thinking?!"

 

[katred]

I remembered (I assume that I repressed it) that when I first started trying on makeup, I once tried to achieve a "tanned golden" look by applying an orange-gold eye shadow all over my face. I managed to convince myself and my father that it looked fine in the soft light of the home bathroom, but under the light of day, I realised that it was not at all the look I'd been going for.

 

[shadowaddict]

Kate--I'm in the same boat with the blush and e/s. I used to use only one e/s. When I first started wearing e/s (mid 70's) silver seemed to be the thing or at least the girls in my school. I wore it from lash line to brows. I shutter at the thought of that now. I now understand why my mother kept telling me that was too much and it didn't look good. But of course I knew better I finally moved slowly to two and then three and I can't keep count of the number of eye products I have on sometimes use now. I didn't use eye liner until my mid 20's.

Blush came very late to me, probably my late 30's. I think I was so scared of how people would do that dark stripe around the 80's or early 90's. It frightened me. I guess I thought that was what blush was suppose to look like and I didn't want any part of it.

I am very pale and knew nothing about matching my skin. I was convinced I was darker than I was. But back the 70's we all baked ourselves so in the summer I was quite dark. Now I can't seem to find foundations pale enough and I always use sunscreen and hide from the sun.

When my daughter starting showing interest in makeup I took her to the MAC counter. I wanted a ma to help her choose color and help with application. She rarely wears makeup now. She'll throw on some MUFE duo matte foundation and some mascara when she's going out and maybe some liner and still that's rare. I did show her the WW colored mascara and she liked those so I got her the blue and green ones.

 

[sayah]

I love this thread!

I'm very pale and growing up I got told that I should use lots of bronzer and dark foundation to get some colour. Otherwise I would look like a pinkish ghost.

Needless to say I walked around looking like a dirty Ooompa-loompa.

I also love purple eyeshadows, and it took a while to learn that I can't just use a red-based purple on my eyes with nothing more. One order of the bruised look, coming right up!

 

[shadowaddict]

^^^Haha! When I read that I read it as Pinkish Goat and I was thinking...ahhh wait what? Well not too sure if pinkish ghost is a whole lot better.

I'm sure there were a lot of us ooompa-loompas out there.

I lived in a small town so all we had was drug store brands, not that I could have afforded higher priced brands as I had to use my own money. When I was in my early 20's there was a group of us that one of us would make a Clinque run here to Nashville and haul for all of us which is about an hour and a half from where I grew up. But I still wasn't very good at application or know-how. I just had better makeup.