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Top Makeup Crimes and How to Avoid Them

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Mass Amherst chapter.

We always have good intentions when it comes to applying makeup. Whether that actually transcends into the final product is another story. We’ve all been there: staring in the mirror ready to rip your hair out because your makeup didn’t come out as planned. A swipe there, a dab here, and suddenly we start to resemble that freaky clown at your friend’s sixth birthday party that still gives you nightmares. Luckily, there are a few cardinal rules of makeup that, if followed, will never leave you with only the option of scaring little children at birthday parties.

The Mismatched Face and Neck

It literally pains me to see a girl walking around with mismatched foundation. Your neck and face should be the same color, at all times. Shopping for foundation is challenging in a drugstore, I get that. How am I supposed to know if my skin color is “summer sands” or “warm tan” without being able to try them on?

I recommend going to a department store or makeup store such as Sephora, Macy’s, or MAC, and have a professional help you choose the correct color for your face. Sometimes this entails mixing two different colors for your perfect hue, who knew?

When you apply foundation, don’t stop at your jaw line. Buff the foundation into your neck and even your ears. You do not want to be left with a visual line between your face and neck. The goal is to look as if you have perfect, flawless skin, not a mask on. Leave those for Halloween. 

The Clown Look

Sometimes when we are trying to look our best, we think that more makeup is better. This may end up drawing the wrong attention to your beautiful faces (queue the freaky clown). If you are preparing to go out, choose one feature to play up: eyes, lips, or cheeks. The other features should be fairly muted compared to the main feature on display. For example, if you are rocking a smokey eye, avoid bold lips. You don’t want the makeup to wear you; you want to wear the makeup. 

The Burnt Toast Look

Bronzer is your friend, up to a point. Everyone loves a sun kissed glow, but too much bronzer will lead you to look as if you just popped out of a toaster. To avoid looking overly muddy, apply bronzer to the hollows of your cheekbones and sweep it up to your temples and lightly around the hairline on your forehead. To find the hollows, suck your cheeks in as if you are making a fishy face (don’t act like you’ve never done it).  You do not want to apply bronzer as if it is another layer of foundation, because guess what, it’s not!

And there they are, the top makeup crimes that will surely earn you a spot in a prison cell; in girl world, that is. Luckily, you can part ways with your old criminal self and be on your way to looking as fabulous as ever.

Photo Source

http://www.vogue.com/

www.freedigitalphotos.net

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Rachel Annese

U Mass Amherst

A junior at UMass Amherst who enjoys all things Beyonce, singing in the shower, and spending endless nights watching The Office.
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Julie Tran

U Mass Amherst

Julie Tran is a current senior majoring in Psychology at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and Campus Correspondent of the Her Campus UMass Amherst chapter. She is a Boston native and has lived in the town of Brighton for the majority of her life.Julie works part-time as an administrative assistant at the Student Legal Services Office on campus. She is also the Co-Founder and Vice-President of Ed2010 at UMass Amherst and a certified Rape Crisis Counselor. Julie doesn't have any solid plans for the future yet but wants to pursue a career in marketing. Her life goal is to travel the world, live in New York City at some point, and have her own business.