Fix Your Beauty F#*K UPS

Fix Your Beauty F#*k Ups

When you’re a makeup artist one thing is certain, you need to fix makeup mistakes QUICKLY. No one wants to wait for you to redo an eye when the light is just right and they need to get the picture, and no one is going to give you more time when your client is supposed to be walking out the door to get to her red carpet event. The pressure is always on. This makes us makeup artists really resourceful. It trains us to think fast, and move quickly. Here are some of my best tricks for getting you out the door in minimal time when you've made an unexpected makeup blunder.

SCENARIO #1 — Wonky Eyeliner

Your eyeliner is crooked, skipped or looks patchy. The fastest way to fix it is to blur it out. Take a little eyeshadow that's the same color and smudge it over the liner with a small eyeshadow brush buffing all of the edges out. You'll even out that line in seconds. Even your plan was to have a cute sharp little line, just softly smoked it out instead of stressing out about it.

Pro Tip: If you're using liquid liner, a good preemptive move is to draw the line on softly with pencil first to make sure you have the shape, then draw over it with the liquid liner. And if you mess up royally, see above tip for smudging it out.

SCENARIO #2 — Cartoon Blush

Bad light, being in a hurry, heavily pigmented powders - they can all lead to the occasional overload in the blush department. If you look too “dolly”, swipe a little foundation onto a synthetic foundation brush the brush and sweep the brush over your cheeks, blending out some of the color. If it’s really bad, pat a latex wedge or beauty sponge in a touch of moisturizer, so it's just a little damp, and lightly pat/sweep the wedge across your cheek. This will reduce the intensity of the pigment without removing all of your blush and foundation.

SCENARIO #3 — Too Pale

It’s suddenly summer and your foundation is too light. Even if we wear sunscreen daily, we still end up a bit darker that our winter face. This means that at some point in the season, your foundation may feel too light.


Using a large, soft fluffy brush, sweep bronzer along the perimeter of your face; forehead, cheekbones, along the jawline. This wash of color instantly warms the skin with the added benefit of a gentle contour. Gently brush a little over the bridge of the nose for a sun kissed look and don’t forget to add a bit to your neck so you don’t have “floating face”. Just make sure you use a bronzer that doesn’t have shimmer in it so it blends seamlessly into the skin.

SCENARIO #4 — Botched Foundation

When you find you've applied too much foundation you have a few options. You can take a damp latex wedge or beauty sponge and blend the foundation out toward the edge of your face, or you can do the same with a synthetic foundation brush. Another option is to only apply a little powder and go with the dewy look. If you end up applying too much powder, spray your face with an Evian Spray to bring life back into the skin.

SCENARIO #5 — Messy Mascara

It can be so frustrating to have your eyes made up perfectly and then you smudge your mascara at the last second, undoing all your hard work. If it's smudged on your eyelid and you're wearing shadow, take a small cotton swab (I find them in Japanese markets) or a pointed cotton swab (MyKitCo makes some very tiny ones) and dip it in a little moisturizer, cleaning up the just the smudge, being mindful not to go into the eyeshadow. You'll have to reapply the shadow, but we're trying to keep the clean up to a minimum.


When reapplying the shadow, here’s tip to help you blend it back out seamlessly: take a dome shaped eyeshadow brush and get just the tiniest bit of foundation or liquid concealer on it - make sure you don’t have too much. Use that to buff the spot where you removed the mascara - this will soften the edges of the area. Apply just a touch of loose or presses powder to the lid and then go over the area again with the shadow. It should be seamless.


If you smudge the mascara under your lower lashes you can use the same technique, or a small eyeliner brush dipped in foundation to clean up the mess.

SCENARIO #6 — Mushed Nail Polish

For really quick fixes to a minimally botched manicure, a coat of clear topcoat can hide a multitude of minor sins (sheet marks disappear). And if you’ve painted outside the lines, a nail polish remover pen is your best friend for precise color removal.