7 Common Makeup Mistakes That Make You Look Tired

Commit these beauty sins, and you could be doing more harm than good. It’s hard enough to look awake in the morning, but it’s even harder if your makeup makes you look more tired. The good news: You can avoid looking like you’re running on no sleep. Steer clear of the makeup mistakes below, and you’ll look much more awake:

Mistake 1: You choose monotone colors

Creating definition between each of your facial features helps to make you look more awake. Instead of going for plain, one-dimensional color all over your face, subtly define your brows, eyes, cheeks, and lips.

Mistake 2: You use the wrong under-eye concealer

Concealer that’s too dark or too light for your face will inevitably make you look tired.
The fix: Apply it in a well-lit room to make sure that it looks natural. And whenever you test a new product, use a hand mirror to see how it looks in different rooms with varied lighting.

Mistake 3: You skip eye-makeup primer

This one’s especially dangerous if you use a dark eyeliner underneath your eyes. See, primer prevents dark color from smudging and drooping beneath your eyes so you don’t get that raccoon look. (If you really want to play it safe, only use waterproof eyeliner on your bottom lash line.)

Mistake 4: You use too much powder

Dry, powdered skin tends to look older and more tired than clean, smooth skin. The takeaway: Don’t overdo it! Go with a translucent powder to eliminate shine, and blend it in well.

Mistake 5: You skip moisturizer

Please, please, please never apply your makeup before you put on a moisturizer. (Bonus points if you use one that contains SPF!) Applying any makeup on dry, flaky skin can make you look incredibly tired and dried out.

Mistake 6: You use the wrong eyeliner color

If you’re cool-toned, bronze or gold eyeliner will make you look tired and sickly. If you have warm-toned skin, silvery liner can make you look just as bad. Avoid your trouble colors to look more awake.

Mistake 7: You wear gray makeup

Makeup with gray undertones brings out the gray coloring in all skin tones to make you look incredibly tired and much older. Stick with a warm-colored palette to look more youthful and refreshed.
Source: By Augusta Falletta
Image credits: packoffacts.com

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8 Amazing Beauty Uses for Coconut Oil

When people (well, women anyway) hear I’m a beauty editor, their eyes light up and they want to know what advice I have specifically for them. Many times they ask what my biggest beauty secret is. I have a few, I tell them, but perhaps my best secret is extra virgin coconut oil.

It’s the perfect beauty product because it’s organic (no more putting sketchy ingredients on your skin that could get absorbed into your bloodstream, causing who-knows-what to happen to you a few years down the line), it’s super moisturizing, it can used for a variety of purposes and it smells great.

You can get coconut oil in most grocery stores and any health food store. Look for “extra virgin” on the label. You want the pure stuff. Here are 5 amazing things you can do with it. And trust me, one jar will last a long time.

Use it as a Body Moisturizer

Store-bought moisturizers tend to contain a lot of water. When it goes on, you’ll feel moisturized, but as soon as the water evaporates, your skin feels parched again. Not with natural oils. My all-time favorite use for coconut oil is as a moisturizer for dry, parched skin. I use it in the winter, when my skin gets dried out from furnace heat and I use it in the summer when my skin gets dried out from spending a lot of time in the ocean and basking in the sun.

Coconut oil tends to solidify below 75 degrees and it liquifies above it. In winter, I like to keep a couple tablespoons of coconut oil in a screw-on container in my purse. I dab a bit on my hands when they get dry.

It’s also an amazing massage oil. I love to use it on my newborn son and I’ve used it to give my husband massages. Put your partner on a towel on the bed (again, coconut oil can be MESSY) and massage away. It smells delicious and will feel great on him, too.

Exfoliate Your Face With It

After I turned 35, my skin turned dry and flaky which means I have to exfoliate weekly and moisturize daily. I have pricey moisturizers and a $60 facial scrub in my bathroom cabinet that I love. But lately I find I rarely touch these products because coconut oil and a washcloth works just as well to exfoliate and moisturize.

It’s so much more convenient and much less expensive.

Here’s how I use coconut oil as an exfoliator: I take a dime-sized amount of coconut oil and rub it into my palms and then over my face. I then wet a washcloth and scrub my face in a circular motion starting at my forehead and working clockwise around my face.

I’m left with baby soft, fully moisturized skin. No questionable man-made ingredients soak into my skin and I’ve spent pennies for amazing skin, instead of dollars.

Coconut Oil is a Great Hair Conditioner

I have fine hair that tends to get oily quickly so I keep my jar of coconut oil far away from my hair. But for women with dry, coarse hair, coconut oil can be an inexpensive, natural way to condition your hair.

Women in Southeast Asia and India have used coconut oil for years. It’s that brilliant. Simply rub a dime-sized amount (a little goes a long way with this stuff) into your hands and then palm the coconut oil onto your dry ends. You can run your palms down your hair to tame frizzy flyaways as well.

se Coconut Oil to Treat Acne and Heal Wounds

I had no idea that coconut oil can treat acne until I did research for this article. According to dermatologist Jeannette Graf in Allure Magazine, coconut oil contains lauric acid which naturally fights the bacteria that causes acne. Graf says it “has potential” for treating acne, which says to me it’s not exactly proven. I figure if you have acne it wouldn’t hurt to try it.

Graf says coconut oil also contains anti-inflammatory fatty acids which is great for wound healing. I use it instead of Desitin on my son’s diaper rashes and it clears them right up.

Use it as a Makeup Remover

For years I used Vaseline as an eye makeup remover. Turns out it’s not such a great idea to use Vaseline near the eye. Still, I never had any problems and still use Vaseline in a pinch.

Coconut oil, however, is a great eye makeup remover. It even removes waterproof mascara. Simply apply a bit to a cotton ball or tissue paper and press on your eyelid. Wipe away the makeup once the oil soaks in.

Wipe up excess oil with a fresh tissue.

Use it as a Foundation Primer

If you use a foundation or tinted moisturizer you may notice how much better it goes on when you’ve applied a primer beforehand or moisturizer. Coconut oil works as the perfect primer for foundation.

Simply put a pea-sized amount on face, let it soak in and then apply your tinted moisturizer or foundation.

You’ll notice how much smoother your makeup goes on.

Use it to Fight Dandruff

Coconut oil can help keep dandruff at bay. Simply massage coconut oil into scalp, shampoo, then rinse.

Keep this up until the dandruff clears up. My instinct says this will cause really greasy hair, but some people swear by coconut oil. I suggest avoiding this if you have oily hair and trying something else. It might be great for people with dry hair.

Coconut Oil as a Body Scrub

I like to exfoliate my body with special exfoliating gloves that I wear in the shower. You can get them in any drugstore or health food store. They work like magic to get rid of the dead skin that tends to collect year-round. I’m always left with soft and supple skin. They work even better when used with a body scrub.

You can buy a body scrub from a store or make your own using coconut oil and sugar or salt. I prefer sugar because I find it is easier on the skin that salt which can tear.

To make your own body scrub, use 1 part coconut oil to 2 parts brown sugar or table salt. Put the coconut oil in a pot on low heat. Once it’s warmed, pour in the brown sugar or table salt into the pot, stirring it in. I like to add a few drops of vanilla extract so it smells really yummy. You don’t want all the sugar or salt to melt or you’ll lose the exfoliating benefits, so take your mixture off the heat after a couple minutes of stirring.

Source:
beauty.about.com

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Breaking bad…beauty habits! Why you shouldn’t hang on to that old lipstick

It's time to let go.During my 12 years as a Makeup Artist, clients have told me some crazy stories about their makeup and skincare routines. From home remedies gone awry to bad makeup habits, I have heard it all (and cringed!). Here are the worst offenders.

Client: "I've been using this same tube of lipstick for 15 years".
Me: "I am afraid for you".
This was my actual response when a woman admitted to me that the reason she didn't need to buy the lipstick I recommended for her was because she had had "Old Trusty" for over a decade. Makeup does indeed go bad. I recently had to recycle six, practically full MAC Lipglass tubes because they became rancid. One of my bad beauty habits is product hoarding, and I have more lipsticks and glosses than I would ever be able to use in a lifetime. As a result, my barely used lip glosses simply went bad because they were old and I couldn't finish them. Here are some basic tips on how to know when to end your relationship with your lipstick:
-Most experts recommend keeping lipsticks and glosses for one year. Personally, I have had some lipsticks last much longer without incident.
-Keep an eye (or nose) on the smell, texture and appearance of your lip products. If your lipstick used to smell like vanilla and now it smells like old Crayons, it has gone bad. If your lip gloss is separated in the tube and there's a weird oily film floating around, it's bad.
-Basically if anything about it changes or has you questioning it's quality, toss it.
Clone your favorite discontinued lipstick at Three Custom Color Specialists!
So your favorite lip color is discontinued and you can't bear to part with the remnants you have been storing for fifteen years? Check out Three Custom Color Specialists. They can recreate any discontinued shade and have it in your hands within 2-3 weeks.

My brushes get a bath every Monday.Me: "So, you'll want to wash this brush weekly".
Client: "Wait...I'm supposed to wash my makeup brushes?".
This is another bad beauty habit that I hear far too often. Call me crazy, but I deep clean my makeup brushes every Monday. In addition to the Monday cleanse, I use makeup brush spray cleanser/disinfectant a few times a week. Why am I so obsessed with clean brushes? The answer is simple: dirty brushes make my skin break out. Not only do dirty brushes make my skin cry, they also "muddy up" up the colors of my products.
For example, if I use a bronzer on Tuesday, a peach blush on Wednesday and a plum colored blush on Friday what color do you think my blush brush will be dusting on my cheeks by Saturday? The answer is a weird muddy blend of all those colors. Yuck.
I deep clean my makeup brushes with Ivory unscented dishwashing liquid. I first wet my brushes with water, then I lather up my brushes, and continue rinsing them until the water that runs off of them is clear. I line them up and let them dry flat.
Photo courtesy of "dia de beauty" blog
Me: It looks like your makeup is smearing a little bit. Let me fix this for you.
Client: Oh, thats just yesterday's makeup.
Me: (awkward silence) Hmm.
Ladies! I implore you, remove every trace of makeup from your face every single night. If you are taking on the sacred ritual of makeup application you must absolutely commit to the proper removal of it. The two tasks go hand in hand, never one without the other.
Why am I so passionate about nightly cleansing?
-Leaving makeup on clogs your pores...duh! Clogged pores equal breakouts and blackheads.
-The proper and thorough removal of mascara and eyeliner is key to lash health. Mascara, especially long-wear formulas, dry out and damage your eyelashes. If you do not break-down and remove mascara every night you will experience lash loss. I strongly encourage taking a mascara break at least once a week.
-Your pillowcase is sad.
With so many quick and easy cleansers, there is just no excuse to sleep in makeup. When I was in my early twenties I was guilty of this bad habit. I would go out fully smokey eye-ified, dance and sweat all night and then fall into bed. My skin suffered and now at age 32, even if I indulge in red wine, I never ever neglect my routine. I drag myself to the sink and do the whole sha-bang. I know that when I wake up in the morning I will be happy that I did.
Exactly.
Client: "Help! My eyebrows need rehab, I can't stop tweezing".
Me: "Hand over the tweezers and step away from the 100x magnifying mirror".
Magnifying mirrors are a danger that no one talks about. Get me in a room with one and I will emerge hours later with pencil-thin eyebrows and "picked at" skin. No one needs to see their face that close, it only results in disaster.
Here's the thing, it is really difficult to tweeze your eyebrows yourself. Creating symmetry is challenging and one rogue tweeze can result in holes in your eyebrows. Eyebrows are very temperamental. More often than not, your mistake will be permanent. I fully encourage tweezing strays that are FAR away from the actual shape of your eyebrow, but be very conservative. Leave the care and beauty of your eyebrows in the hands of someone you trust. Find an aesthetician that understands your needs and then stick with them. Trust me, you do not want to live the rest of your life with sparse eyebrows and you do not want to be a slave to an eyebrow pencil.
Some of my Chanel Glossimers....sigh.
My worst beauty habit is (like I mentioned above) makeup hoarding. I am so fearful that my favorite products will be discontinued that I tend to stockpile them. These stockpiles have led me to have to dispose of twenty-plus Chanel Glossimer lipgloss tubes ($26 each!) because they went bad before I could use them up. All of them were almost full. What a waste of money!
Going forward, every time I buy a new product I commit to throwing away (or giving away) something that is old or that I am not using.
We are all guilty of bad beauty habits every now and again. But, not breaking those habits can lead to some nasty side effects. I challenge you all to divulge your worst beauty habit and tell us how you hope to break it!

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