Common makeup mistakes

These are independent of each other, so they do not have to be fixed in order.

• Foundation tested on the hand — hand skin is a different shade; test on the jaw
• Skipping preparation — base on unprepared skin moves within two hours
• Powder across the whole face — it is only needed where skin shines
• Brows darker than the hair — the result always reads as drawn on
• Shadow with no eyelid base — it gathers in the crease within two hours
• Two strong accents at once — a strong eye and a strong lip together
• A visible base border at the jaw — the shade does not match the neck

This is the most visible mistake in a photograph and it almost always happens for one reason: the shade was chosen against the face rather than against the neck.

Face and neck are frequently different shades, with the face darker because it gets more sun. The right test is along the jawline, between the two, checked in daylight.

Eyelid skin is thin and naturally produces oil. Shadow applied straight onto it gathers in the crease within two hours, and that has nothing to do with the quality of the shadow.

There is one fix: an eyeshadow base before the shadow. That single step achieves more than buying a more expensive palette ever will.

A strong eye and a strong lip together is a compositional problem rather than a matter of taste. With two strong points, the viewer's eye chooses between them and the face stops reading as a whole.

The rule is simple: one accent strong, the other quiet. Which one is up to you, but both at once is almost always too much.

We are often asked whether it is a mistake that two brows are not identical. It is not — it is normal, and trying to correct it makes the result worse.

Faces are naturally asymmetrical. The right goal is aligning the heads and the tails, leaving the middle of each brow with its own natural shape.