Few makeup moments are as awkward as smiling in a photo and spotting a streak of colour on your front teeth. It happens to beginners and professionals alike, and it has less to do with the shade you choose than with where the product sits on your lips. To keep lipstick off your teeth, stop…
Lipstick that starts crisp and ends up in tiny coloured lines around your mouth is frustrating, and it becomes more common with age. The movement is called bleeding or feathering, and it happens when colour travels into the fine lines at the edge of the lips. To keep lipstick from bleeding, create a barrier at…
You buy a lipstick that looks like a perfect fire-engine red in the tube, then it goes on your mouth and suddenly reads as bright pink or raspberry. It is a common complaint, and it is rarely because the lipstick is faulty. Red is one of the most sensitive shades to undertone, formula and lighting….
Standing in front of a wall of lipsticks, it is easy to pick a shade that looked lovely in the tube and then looks wrong on your mouth. The good news is that choosing a shade is not guesswork. A few simple checks narrow the options quickly and save you from a drawer of lipsticks…
You apply concealer, it looks perfect in the mirror, and an hour later there are fine lines of product settled under your eyes. Creasing is one of the most common makeup frustrations, and it happens to almost everyone at some point, whatever their age or skin type. To prevent creasing under your eyes, hydrate the…
You can pick a foundation that is the right depth and still end up looking slightly off: a little pink, a little orange, a little grey. Nine times out of ten, the undertone is the problem. The same goes for blush that looks muddy or lipstick that makes your teeth look yellow. To match makeup…
A foundation that is even slightly the wrong shade is hard to miss. It can leave a line at the jaw, make your face look grey, orange or pink next to your neck, or look fine in the shop and completely different at home. Most shade mistakes come from checking the wrong thing in the…
You check your makeup at lunchtime and everything looks fine except one spot: the area above your lip, where foundation has faded, gathered in lines or disappeared entirely. It is one of the most common trouble zones on the face, and it is not your imagination. Makeup does not stay on the upper lip because…
You spend twenty minutes on your makeup in the morning, and by lunch your foundation has faded, your concealer has creased and your nose is shiny. It is one of the most common makeup complaints, and the fix is rarely a single miracle product. To make your makeup stay on all day, use a combination…
Walk down any makeup aisle and you will see fixers, setting sprays, finishing sprays and makeup mists, all promising to keep your face in place. The names overlap so much that many people buy one when they actually wanted the other, then wonder why their makeup still slides off by lunch. The difference between a…
Most of us have a drawer of makeup we cannot quite remember buying. A mascara from last year, a foundation from the year before, a lipstick that has travelled through three handbags. It all still looks usable, so it is easy to keep going. But makeup does not last forever, and some products go off…
Primer and sunscreen both sit underneath foundation, both come in similar tubes and both promise a smoother base. So it is no surprise that many people are unsure which one should go on first, or whether they need both at all. In a makeup base routine, sunscreen goes on before primer. The usual order is…
Makeup primer is one of those products many people buy, use for a while and then wonder whether it actually does anything. Others swear their foundation falls apart without it. The truth sits in between: primer can make a real difference for some skin types and makeup looks, and very little for others. The purpose…
You looked flawless in the mirror, but in the flash photos your face looks white, grey or patchy, especially under the eyes and along the cheekbones. This is called flashback, and it is one of the most common makeup disappointments at weddings, parties and any event with flash photography. Flashback happens when ingredients in makeup…
You start wearing a new foundation, and a few weeks later small bumps appear across your cheeks, forehead or jawline. Or you have always worn makeup and your skin has never been clear, and you wonder whether the products are part of the problem. Makeup can contribute to breakouts, but it is rarely the only…
Small eyes can look beautiful with eyeshadow, but some of the most popular looks work against them. A dark shadow packed across the whole lid, heavy liner all the way around the eye or a deep smoky lower lash line can make the eyes look smaller and more closed. On the other hand, a few…
Mascara often starts drying out long before the tube is empty. The formula gets thick and tacky, clumps on the lashes and flakes onto the cheeks during the day. Online tips suggest everything from adding water or eye drops to pumping the wand or even adding saliva, and it is hard to know which of…
You apply blush in the morning, look healthy and bright, and by lunchtime your cheeks look bare. It is one of the most common makeup complaints, especially for people with oily skin, warm skin tones or long days. Many people respond by applying more and more blush in the morning, only to find it looks…
Uneven skin tone can mean many things: red cheeks, a darker area around the mouth, brown spots left by old breakouts, patches of sun damage or simply skin that looks dull in some places and brighter in others. The instinct is often to cover everything with a thick layer of full-coverage foundation, but that usually…
Droopy lids change how eyeliner looks. A wing that points neatly upwards on a straight lid can sit flat, bend or even point downwards when the lid folds over it, and a thick line along the whole lash line can make the eyes look smaller and heavier. Liner that looked sharp when you applied it…
Enlarged pores are one of the most common reasons people reach for more foundation, and one of the most common reasons makeup ends up looking worse. Thick layers sink into pores, collect around the nose and cheeks and make them look more obvious by midday. Oil then breaks the base down further, leaving small dots…