These Eye Makeup Fails Really Age You

Makeup can enhance your natural features, but what if you're accidentally aging yourself along the way? These mistakes might be adding years to your life. I want to be 30. Well, you will be, honey. Right now you're my beautiful 13 year old. When we first experimented with makeup, many of us wanted to look older, and the easiest way to do so was by applying loads and loads of eyeliner. Apply that same principle to maintaining a youthful appearance, just reverse the technique. Instead of wearing as much eyeliner as you did when you first discovered the product, scale it back. As Andrea Ali shows us, it's best to keep the product on your top lid and choose a shape that best suits your eyes. Apply it sparingly, and if it has a different thickness throughout, such as with a classic cat eye, make sure the thickest part is on the outer corner. You can also try a no eyeliner look. It's quick and easy and instantly adds youthfulness to your eyes. If you feel your eyes get lost in your face without eyeliner, try tight lining your eyes. It'll help to find them without being too harsh. You can also use liquid eyeliner to draw a super thin line across the upper lash line. It'll be barely noticeable, but it'll keep some emphasis on your eyes without adding ears. Another common culprit for aging our faces is wearing eyeliner that's too dark. We've been conditioned to believe black eyeliner is the superior color, but that's not always the case. Yes, it certainly has its place, but some looks don't call for black eyeliner, and it can inadvertently add age to your face. For example, if you give yourself a pastel eyeshadow look with a bright shimmer, finishing with a black wing will add a harshness to it that takes away from a youthful glow. Instead of finishing with black liner, try a color that's closer to the pigment of the shadow you used, or finish with a Navy, brown, or Gray if you still want contrast. Those same colors can be of great use when wearing liner. Sand shadow. If you've got a bold lip or you've sculpted your face with contour, keep the eyes lighter by wearing a lighter liner. It'll help you keep your youthful appearance, but you'll still be able to rock a wing or define your eyes. The water line is another tricky area for many of us when we're applying makeup, and a couple of wrong practices may be aging you. One such practice is lining your waterline. Now this doesn't need to be completely removed from your makeup routine, it just needs to be refined. 1 error is lining your waterline with a black pencil. Black pencil liners are notoriously harsh, and having such a bold waterline adds age to your face. It also smears incredibly easily, and that smearing results in raccoon eyes, which in turn ages your face. We get the appeal of lining your waterline. That extra pigment can create a sultry look, but there are softer ways to do it that don't make you look older than you are. If you want to line your waterline, use a different product instead. Reserve your pencil liner for your upper lid and use eyeshadow instead to line your waterline. Eyeshadow is a softer product that adds a subtle, sultry pigment that doesn't age you. You can also apply it to make your eyes look bigger. For an even softer look, opt for brown or Gray shadow instead of black. They don't match. As we've learned over the past decade, brows can make or break a makeup look. Plenty of makeup wearers realized they choose to fix their brows over completing several other steps in their routine if pressed for time. And it's because brows make a tremendous difference in the faces overall appearance. But that difference can also backfire. If you're not careful with your brows, they can easily age you. One of the most common culprits is overdrawing the brows. An overdrawn brow is easy to spot. It's apparent there's pigment outside the natural hairs, and the shape is chosen instead of being worked with. Luckily, these are easy to fix. Instead of choosing a new shape for your brow, use what's there as a stencil. Using your natural shape will help you look younger, and it'll be easier to apply. We understand that sometimes it's necessary to add pigment outside of your natural brow, but to avoid aging yourself, you need to do it correctly. Use products that yield a more natural look, such as brow pens and gels instead of pencils and pomades. Those products are great for filling, but they can easily create a harsh look when used for drawing. Another common bra mistake that easily ages the face is filling the brows with too dark of shades. Too dark of a brow can cause a jump scare, so make sure you're selecting shades and products that suit your face. A good jumping off point is your natural brow color. Use a product that's either the same or just a shade or two darker than your natural brow color. If you prefer a darker brow, don't go any darker than your natural hair color. Another way to avoid filling your brows too darkly is by ignoring trends and products. Make up trends are going to change, but you don't need to purchase a new brow product every time one is released just to have trendy brows. Many brow products come in a limited shade range, and if a new product is released that doesn't match your brows, don't buy it. If something comes out in your shade, purchase it if you'd like and update your brow routine. Just be sure to use products in your shade to avoid aging yourself. Concealer can be tricky to master. It requires expert shade matching and loads of blending to get good results, and just a little too much can make you look older. Concealer is supposed to be a finishing touch that brightens the under eye area and covers any blemishes or insecurities your foundation missed when too much is applied. As shown by Andrea Ali, concealer looks heavy and creases throughout the day and we all know what creases do to our faces. To avoid wearing too much concealer, apply a light layer and blend it out before adding more. A little goes a long way, especially with a full coverage concealer, and you can always add more if necessary. Another good practice is to apply concealer with a brush instead of the accompanying wand, as this will help you use less product. You can still use a beauty sponge to blend if that's your preference. A final option is to avoid using concealer at all. Try using an under eye brightener instead of a concealer. It'll still cover dark circles, but it'll look more natural than concealer. It's not great for covering super dark circles, but it's a good option if those aren't a concern. It's important to apply the right amount of concealer, but it's also important to apply the right shade. The wrong shade of concealer can dull your face, and a dull face looks older than a bright one. Luckily, we're in an era of makeup where more and more brands are offering more and more shades of concealer all the time, so it's easier to find a shade match than ever before. Brands such as Fenty Beauty, Rare Beauty, and Tart all have tons of shade options. Concealer, like foundation, should be chosen according to your undertones. If you have a foundation that matches, read the product description to see if it mentions the undertones. If it does, use that to guide what concealer you choose. If it doesn't, look at the veins on your wrist to determine whether you have natural, warm, or cool undertones and use that to guide your choice of concealer. Beyond your undertones. Your concealer should be a shade or two lighter than your foundation. If you're using a shade that's the same as your foundation, it's not brightening your under eyes as well as it could be and thus aging you unnecessarily. What's wrong with your eyes? A girl can never wear enough eyeshadow. We all have different eye shapes, and years of experimenting with eyeshadow looks have led us to discover which eyeshadow applications and techniques look best with particular shapes. Once you've determined your specific eye shape, learn what techniques best suit it. Remember that other eyeshadow faux paws, including placement, can lead to an aged look too, like how Dima Uma shows us. While we love a smoky eye, one that's too dark can age your face, as can a super glitter eye. For a more youthful look, opt for neutral shades and soft shimmers. Be light handed with your application and use brushes instead of your fingers so the pigments a little subtler. There's a time and place for a great eyeshadow look, but if the goal is to look more youthful, less is more. Using a simple eyeshadow can still look beautiful, and it'll keep you from looking older than you are. Another way to retain a youthful look is by curling your eyelashes. Curled lashes help open your eye and maintain a brighter appearance. Break out your eyelash curler and give your lashes a little lift prior to applying your mascara to get that youthful look. If you're wary of standard eyelash curlers, make sure you examine the tool before each use to ensure the pads are properly placed and secured to avoid clipping your lashes. If you're totally against the tool, consider using a heated lash curler instead. You can also get lifted lashes other ways. Simply applying your mascara properly can help a tremendous amount, so make sure you're applying from the base of your lashes and moving your wand up instead of straight. Outlook for curling mascara too, and try using a lash primer. If those techniques don't help, you can get a lash lift. Lash lifts are a semi permanent procedure that leaves your lashes curled and lifted without the use of an at home curler. This procedure does need to be completed by a professional though, and it may not be accessible to everyone. If you don't want to mess with that, a quick trick to more youthful looking lashes is simply swapping out black mascara for brown.