Getting a smudge on your eyelids or drawing a crooked cat-eye wing happens to the best of us – even if many of us have been doing our makeup before the TikTok and YouTube beauty gurus took over.
Most of us are familiar with the basics – things like don’t over pluck your eyebrows and never apply foundation without moisturizing your skin first. But there are some next-level makeup hacks that will help you step out of your comfort zone and make your life easier.
Get foxy eyes with tape
The foxy eye makeup look has taken over the world – and by world, we mean TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, of course. This viral makeup trend involves reshaping your brows, using winged eye eye shadow, and blending your concealer towards the temple to give the illusion of elongated fox-like eyes.
Dying to jump on the foxy-eye look bandwagon but you’re working with hooded eyes? Try this easy TikTok trick that involves tape, white eyeliner, eye shadow, and false lashes.
Look in the mirror and draw a dot where your crease ends. Make sure your eye is relaxed. Place the tape outside that dot in an upward-facing position. Use brown liner or eye shadow to create an outline that follows the cat-eye shape. Use a brush to blend thoroughly. Use eyeliner to extend the inner and outer corners of your eyes and apply false lashes on the outside edge of your crease as shown in the video. Make your eyes pop even more by swiping nude or white eyeliner in the waterline and voila!
Buy mini travel mascaras to save money
Since most drugstore mascaras turn into a clumpy dry mess after three months, there’s no point in buying full-size mascaras. Generally speaking, mascaras tend to go bad pretty quickly and can accumulate bacteria, oil, and dirt, which is why the makeup pros recommend discarding them after three to six months. Just get the travel-size version of your favorite mascara and save money while you’re at it. Plus, the mini versions come with a wand that’s smaller and easier to maneuver.
Apply eyeliner in dashes to get perfect cat eyes
The simplest way to master winged eyeliner? Draw the outline of your cat eye in dashes instead of swiping on a continuous line. Once you’re done tracing the dashes, connect them to your wing and fill out the open spaces in between. In essence, it’s like playing connect the dots but with dashes.
Prevent eye shadow fallout
There’s nothing more frustrating than nailing a flawless smokey eye look only to look down and realize there are dark specks of eye shadow all over your eyes and cheeks.
While eye shadow fallout is inevitable, you can avoid making a huge, fallout-y mess by trying these 4 hacks:
- Always do your eye makeup first before applying concealer and foundation. Why? Because you’ll get to be as messy as you want with your eye makeup and if any eye shadow falls on your cheeks, you can easily wipe it off with a cotton pad dipped in micellar water or a face wipe without ruining your concealer or base.
- Try slathering a thick layer of moisturizer all over your under eyes and cheeks before you start working on your eyes. If there’s any fallout when you’re done, just use a damp cotton pad and gently remove the eye shadow fallout and excess moisturizer.
- If you want a quick solution, put on a moisturizing eye mask while you do your eye shadow. That way, any pigment fallout will land on the eye patches without ruining your makeup.
- Whether you’re going for a subtle look or playing with strong pigmented shadows, use this old drag queen trick. Do your concealer first and when you’re done, apply a generous amount of loose powder (colorless works best) all over your eyes and cheeks. Then do your eye shadow. If there’s any fallout, you can easily sweep it away with a brush.
Keep lipstick off your teeth with translucent powder
Lipstick can be a total pain to master. You stepped out of the house wearing a bold lip color that added some spark to your face. But once you got home, you realized that the “spark” had smeared everywhere, particularly your teeth and chin.
Avoid making this mistake ever again and try the age-old trick of sticking your index finger in between your pursed lips and then pulling it out. This will wipe away any excess lipstick on the inside of your mouth, allowing the lipstick to stick to your fingers before it ever gets on your smile. Next, grab some tissue paper and place it over your lips. Dust some translucent powder over it. A small portion of the powder will transfer onto your lips, setting the lipstick in place.
Use a spoon as a mascara shield
Let’s face it. Applying mascara is not as easy as just swiping on lipstick. If you want to avoid messing up your eye shadow, try applying mascara with a spoon. Find the portion of the spoon that curves and place it along your lash line. In essence, this will “hug” your lashes and shield your eyelids from any smudges and flakes. Then, apply mascara like you always do. Any messy stains will end up on the spoon instead of your lids.
Apply loose powder for thicker-looking lashes
Start with a coat of mascara, then delicately dust a little translucent powder on your lashes to make them thicker and more voluminous. Follow up by applying another coat of mascara and get fuller and seriously long lashes every time – no falsies involved.
