Correcting Popular Makeup Myths

Some makeup artists say that you shouldn't be afraid to touch your makeup. The truth is, you should be very careful about touching it. After you've taken time to smoothly apply your foundation and eyeshadows, there's no reason to use your fingers unless it's absolutely necessary. Touching your face during the day will rub off all your nicely applied makeup. Don't spray water or toner on makeup to set or freshen it up. It doesn't work. A mist of water can streak foundation, powder, and mascara. Don't change every part of your makeup with every season. If you want to go softer during the spring and summer, that's fine, but it isn't an absolute must. Don't use makeup to correct the shape of anything on your face, especially the lips. Close up and in person you can tell when lipstick has been applied beyond or inside the natural lip line. If you overcontour, you will look like you have brown stripes all over your face. Don't use foundation or color correctors to change the color of your skin. Foundation must match the underlying skin tone exactly. If you have yellow or olive skin there's nothing you can do to change it. Even if it did look good on your face, any correction would look strange next to your neck and along the hairline. To keep pencil eyeliner in place, many makeup artists recommend going over it with a matching powder eyeshadow. That works, but why do two steps when only one is needed? Forget the pencil and just use a brush to apply your eyeshadow (mixed with water if necessary) to begin with. Glowing skin does look nice, but mostly in pictures. In real life, the same skin looks like it is covered with glitter. That isn't necessarily bad, but any wrinkles will be illuminated. It can be an option for an evening out, but that's about it. No single set of colors is right for all skin or hair colors. Just because you have red hair and fair skin doesn't mean you have to wear corals and avoid blue-red lipstick. Honestly, most women can wear just about any color they want to, as long as they pay attention to color intensity and application and adjust the details accordingly.