So you look like Alice Cooper and you have ten minutes to get out the door to go to church. Nice-now what? Never fear. As long as you aren't in your car, you should be fine. If you ARE in your car, you may have to channel your inner-Macguyver and improvise some of these helpful tips. Otherwise, we'll have you singing "How Great Thou Art" in no time. So, either hand over the keys and pull down your visor mirror or pop a squat in front of the looking glass at home and let's get to fixin' that there mess you made of yourself.
The biggest oopsie people ask about is mascara. "I was putting it on and if a gnat didn't just come and land right in my eye!" or "My cataracts are so bad I can't see if I'm comin' or goin' with that thing!" or my favorite, "I just can't stop blinkin'!" Either way, mascara is everywhere-looks like you got socked in the eye by a mechanic. If you aren't in a big hurry, and have the rest of your face to do, leave it, and let it dry. Once you are done with your face, take a dry cotton swab and just pick it /wipe it away. It will usually just come right off. If you are one of those people who puts mascara on last and you just can't wait for it to dry, then dip your cotton swab in eye makeup remover and wipe it away. The only problem with this is that you'll also be wiping all of the surrounding makeup away as well, so be prepared to re-apply.
I also get a lot of complaints about clumpy mascara. Well, quit buying that kind! ;) Seriously, if you're at the end of a tube and it starts to dry out and get clumpy, a really good tool to have in your collection anyway, is an eyelash comb. You can get these at your local drugstore (they will be plastic), or you can spring for a nicer one in metal at a place like Sephora or Ulta. These are great to help comb out the clumps. But if you're a serious penny-pincher, you can go somewhere like Sally's and buy disposable mascara wands and use them to separate your lashes, but they aren't NEARLY as good, but they are really cheap.
Next in the list of complaints is foundation. I wrote an entire blog about picking the right foundation, so I won't talk about that too much, but I'll just touch on it if you happen to have the wrong color...
If you've been in the sun and realize your foundation is too light, you should have been wearing sunscreen and a big, floppy hat to protect your face from sun damage and wrinkles. There's my jab at you, and my sunscreen plug- I'm done. Seriously, you can just deepen your shade by applying bronzer. Now, when you do this, don't apply it onto your entire face and make yourself look like someone just colored your face with a brown crayon. Think dimension-where would the sun hit your face naturally? Where are the higher planes of your face? That's where the bronzer needs to go.
If your foundation is too dark-yikes. That is not good. Your foundation should never be too dark. You can try lightening it by mixing some of it with your moisturizer, but then you're sacrificing the amount of coverage you'll get out of it on your face. I say it's best to go without foundation and maybe just powder or bronzer than to go with a foundation that's too dark. I know some of you will want to shoot me over that one!
Now if you have accidentally put on too much foundation, here's where you can use: those silly little sponges that everyone wants to use so badly! Since all they're good for is absorbing product... ta-da! The perfect use is to just dampen the sponge a teensy-weensy bit and then in a downward motion, take the sponge and wipe away the excess foundation!
Do you look like Raggedy Ann? Do you look like you have scarlet fever? Do you have two perfect circles on either side of your nose? Then you totally messed up your blush, honey. Hurry up and grab yourself a cotton ball and GENTLY rub some of that powdered blush off. And when I say "gently" that's exactly what I mean. Think about it-if you rub too hard, what's going to happen? Your cheek will turn red. Is that blush or the beating you just gave yourself trying to get it off? Once you have gently rubbed, take a little bit of powder with a brush and gently wipe it onto your cheeks and start over.
Did you decide to try something new for eyeshadow today and now you look more "freak" than "fresh"? OK-we've all done it. I wish y'all could see my first try at a smokey eye-I looked like the lead singer of The Cure.
If you've put on too much eyeshadow, I know you're probably freaking out, but don't! Just blend, blend, blend! It will eventually just start to fade, unless you used a super dark color like black . In that case, why did you decide to try something like that right before you had to go somewhere?! If you did use black, I hate to tell you, your best bet is just to start over, so take some eye makeup remover and get to it!
If you used the wrong color, or you just don't like the color, you can take a neutral matte color and use it over the color you don't like to fade it even faster and use a darker color than the original one to cover it, as well.
Eyeliner will be the death of me! I am OCD about my eyeliner, and if you've ever seen me do makeup (especially my own) you know this. I am a big fan of cream-gel liner that is applied with a brush because it is so precise and gives such a sharp crisp line. Just thinking about it gave me the chills! Lame, I know. Don't even get me started about how much a love a good winged-out cat eye-oh snap! Anywhooo...messing up on eyeliner can send me into a major, full-out, fist-pounding, head-thrashing, knee-knocking, on the ground tantrum if I can't fix it. So needless to say, in this department, I feel your pain.
Once I have the eyeliner on, and it isn't quite to my standard, cotton swabs and MAC's Gently Off Makeup Remover or Clinique's Take the Day Off Makeup Remover become my BFFs. I just dip and wipe until I get it right-hey, that could totally become my motto! And of course, I have to re-apply my shadow as needed afterwards. But what's good is that these products will remove even waterproof stuff without being oily, so it's great for my obsession.
And lastly, lips...honestly, prevention is key with lips! You really have to be careful, first of all. Just remember you have on lipstick/gloss, so don't wipe your lips all over stuff (kids, dogs, phones, fire hydrants). And then use liner to keep lip products from bleeding. DuWop (found at Sephora) makes a great "reverse lip liner". It's clear and basically seals your lips to keep your lip color in its "boundaries". Otherwise, you can still use your regular lip liner. If you didn't take preventive measures and your lipstick has feathered, dip your lip brush in makeup remover and start removing the stray lipstick. Then re-dip your brush, clean it, and then use your brush in your concealer and brush concealer around your mouth to hide any traces of leftover lipstick stain. Then use your liner and lipstick, and voila!
