Beauty Mistakes You Didn’t Know You Were Making

Every woman wants to be beautiful! And some of us will spend countless hours trying to look our best, but most of us are making beauty mistakes that we had no idea were all wrong! I’m certainly guilty of a few of these.

Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder, and I truly believe that we look our best when we are confident and feel like our best self, so don’t change a thing if you love the way you look, as some of these are my personal preferences and own opinions on beauty.

1. Knowing How To Use Your Concealer

Which do you apply first, your concealer or foundation? It seems like this questions is somewhat of a debate because I’ve read a little of both on some of the most popular beauty blogs. I’ve always applied my foundation first, otherwise it seems redundant to apply concealer only to have the coverage wiped away with the application of your foundation, so in this case, as long as your concealer is blending in well and giving you the coverage you want, do whichever works for you! On that note, here are a few things you may be doing wrong with your concealer:

•Too much in a targeted area.

Instead, layer! Apply a small amount over your blemish, give it a chance to dry, then apply another layer. Continue layering if needed. For the best results, use a setting powder in between layers to prevent it from wearing off.

•Using the same concealer for every job.

Guilty! Every color has a different job. A peach-toned concealer is best for under-eye circles because it cancels out blue shadows. A green-toned concealer cancels out red (pimples and blemishes). Use it for your first layer and then finish with a concealer that matches your skin tone. Yellow-toned concealers are best for evening out your skin tone (larger areas).

•Not taking advantage of its many benefits.

It’s not just for covering blemishes and under-eye circles! I’ve made this handy pictorial to show you how to truly take advantage of your concealer. Hope this helps!

2. Using The Wrong Color Eyeliner

Unless you have a darker skin tone, I feel that black eyeliner can be a little harsh, and perhaps best saved for a night out. A light to dark brown looks best on light to medium skin tones, especially if you have blonde hair, and green or blue eyes.

Whichever color you choose, take this advice from an expert and select a lighter, more subtle color for your bottom lids (if any at all). Keep the liner off of your water line and use a nude pencil there instead to open up your eyes. Also, most women look best with eyeliner only applied to the outer 3/4 of their eyes. There’s no reason to trace the entire eye! It doesn’t look natural.

 3. Sleeping On Your Side

This is from personal experience, and let me tell you, my husband has had some good laughs at my attempt to prevent sleep lines in the last few months. I’ve always been a side/stomach sleeper (so cozy!), and one day last month woke up to see wrinkles on my chest that took hours to go away. I came to the realization that these would someday be permanent. Nooooooo!!

My first thought was, “There’s no way I’m sleeping on my back”, so instead, I used my handy Google Search Bar to see if there were any other alternatives. The first thing I found was a simple little pillow called the Bosom Buddy. Easy enough! I immediately ordered one, confident that I would never have to worry about chest wrinkles ever again.

The thing about this little pillow is that it doesn’t stay in place unless you wear a tight tank top to bed to keep it in its place. Not a problem for me because that’s usually what I wear anyway. But, unfortunately it didn’t work 100%. It helped a little, but I still noticed lines in the morning (probably from it falling out of place), so I went on another hunt for something that would solve this dilemma of mine.

Found it! A Silicone Pad you can slap on your chest and wear to bed every night. This is going to be great! It actually worked pretty well the first few nights, but after only a few days it loses its stickiness, causing it to fall off in the middle of the night. I then decided it was probably best to wear the Bosom Buddy combined with the silicone pad for extra wrinkle protection– this is when my husband stopped laughing (What, is this NOT attractive?!). It may have also been when I started wearing anti-wrinkle pads all over my face that he decided I had taken it too far.

Ok, fine, I’ll give this sleeping on my back thing a try. I can’t live with all of these added nightly routines for the rest of my life. The first night I didn’t sleep much and kept finding myself rolling over onto my side, but I quickly found a simple solution for that, and have been sleeping comfortably on my back for the last few weeks. In fact, I now prefer my back!

Here are a few tips if you want to make the switch: Put a pillow under your knees to support your back and keep you from rolling over. I found this to be very comforting for some reason. You may also need to switch out for another pillow (you can actually buy a pillow made especially for back sleepers), but I think the idea here is that you don’t want a pillow that is too hard. I have a down pillow that seems to kind of cradle my head, so the sides of the pillow rest up next to both sides of my face.

Keep in mind that it may take a few weeks or more to get comfortable on your back, but if for whatever reason you’re not sleeping well on your back, it may not be worth it. Lack of sleep causes wrinkles, too! They’re inevitable, but if I can delay them by even just a few years, I will obviously go the lengths to do so.