Outdated Make-Up Habits

Cosmetics have been around since ancient Egypt. The make-up habits of the Pharaohs, with their heavily lined eyes, have been considered beautiful ever since. Unfortunately, not every make-up technique has survived like the Sphinx. Many fashions have come and gone. Some of them are gone for a reason.

Below is a list of make-up techniques that should never be recycled. Everyone falls victim to them and some practice bad make-up habits without realizing its detracting from their natural looks.

Over Plucked Eyebrows

Greta Garbo looked great with them back in the day, but alot has changed. Plucking your natural eyebrows into oblivion is a bad thing because no eyebrow you draw can look natural.

If you want a new eyebrow shape, get it done professionally first and, when necessary, follow the line the stylist made with your own tweezers. If you have sparse eyebrows, simply darken them with an eyebrow pencil. Let the tone of your skin be your guide: fair-skinned women should use a brown pencil. Darker women can use black. Just make sure your eyebrows match your hair.

Circles of Blush

Why do people think the clown look is in? Blush should be invisible while it does its job-adding color and dimension to your face. Blush is not there just for its own sake.

Make sure the color matches and apply it properly: look in the mirror and smile, and then apply a swipe of blush on the 'apples' of your cheeks.

Funny Lipstick

Over the years, magazines and mothers have come up with a lot of strange rules about lipstick. Always wear black liner, only apply on the top lip, don't cover your whole lip, overlap your lips to make them look fuller.

All of these are wrong: just put the stuff on. Make sure you have a good color. You should use a liner, because you don't want your lipstick to bleed, but make sure the liner matches the lipstick.

General rule of thumb: any make-up tip that promises to alter the structure of your face (makes your cheekbones look higher!) is not going to work.

Bad Color Choices

Years ago, in the twentieth century, make-up for women of color didn't exist. Everyone, even olive skinned European women, had to settle for red and pink. These colors looked great on Marilyn Monroe but every woman isn't a platinum blond. In fact, Marilyn herself wasn't even a platinum blond.

Today we have more choices. Still, you see women with mahogany skin tones wearing pink lipstick and looking atrocious. On the flip side, women with delicate peaches and cream skin should avoid dark plum and near black lip color.

In the store, compare lipstick samples to the inside of your wrist, since it's the closest to your natural lip color. If you really need help, talk to a professional make-up artist.

Good make-up endures. Bad make-up dies. The point of it all is not to cover up your face or alter who you are. The point of make-up is to enhance what you already have. Before you put on a single drop of liner or blush, you have to believe that you are beautiful enough to walk out of the house without it- just like clothes.