One important thing to know if you’re just getting into makeup for the first time is that at some point in time, if you’re doing anything beyond putting on lipgloss and using coverup, your makeup is going to look like shit. This is particularly true with eyeliner and eyeshadow, but can also extend to lipstick. The important thing to remember is that it will not look like shit forever, keep going.

People who are actually visual artists might be really able to relate to this because when you’re drawing a picture, you will always hit a point where you think; this is a fucking disaster, but if you keep going, if you don’t judge but believe in your vision, it will usually turn out fine. It’s just the messiness of the creative process and you have to remember that all you are doing is drawing on your face. Just keep going. You can always wash it off if it’s beyond redemption but spend a few minutes beyond your self judgement and keep blending, keep trying.

There is this false idea with makeup that as soon as you put it on you will just gradually become more and more beautiful with every swipe of your brush. No. At one point, one eye will be done but not the other or you can’t get your eyeliner even or you haven’t blended your eyeshadow yet and you look like an 8 year old playing with makeup or you’ve got just the top lip lined and it looks like you’re wearing a John Waters mustache.  Makeup is about the finished product, not the process. So if you give up because you don’t have a perfect smokey eye, or whatever, in the first two minutes of putting your eyeliner on, then you’re always going to be disappointed by your makeup.

And you have to develop skill, just like art, remember this is just art on your face, and that takes time and trial and error. So don’t give up, keep going, keep playing around. You’ll find what works for you and you’ll remember when you’re half way through your routine not to judge yourself but keep having fun. If makeup isn’t fun, it’s not worth it. 

Here are pictures of several people within the makeup world, who are professional makeup artists or stylist, and I’ve taken unflattering YouTube shots of them with their makeup half done so you can know, in your heart, that it happens to everyone.

Kate Young is amazing but right now this eyeliner/eyeshadow situation just looks like a weird, messy, eye smudge on top of her eyeball. Guess what? By the end of the video it looks super modern and sharp.

This is the editor of Into the Gloss and you can see her eyeliner is clearly crooked but she fixes it in mere moments. She doesn’t throw the eyeliner in the sink and start crying.

This is one of the Pixiwoo sisters in the midsts of a weird lipliner moment. She soon transforms it into a beautiful dark lip.

Hang in there.

-el