I have a few things. The first one is my right eyebrow. It kinda stops halfway, so I have to — well, I fill in both of my brows, but my right one is shorter than my left, so I use brow pencils or other sorts of brow fillers to make it look longer.
So that’s one.
Oh, and my left brow is also thinner than my right, so I try to fatten that one up.
Another thing that I like to do is play up my eyes. I have really big eyes, but my crease isn’t very deep. You could call it a “hooded eye,” which is not my favorite term, because I think it makes some people feel bad, but let’s not even go there.
My crease isn’t very deep, so I like to create the illusion of a deeper-set eye with matte shadows, usually matte browns in the crease. Normally cool matte browns — those are my favorites — but I wear warm matte browns too. Matte browns all the way!
Oh! My nose. So, I have a little button nose, which El Hub says is adorable, but in pictures I like for it to look a little bit more, I guess, more — what’s the word? — sharp? So I usually take bronzer, and I just kind of shade the sides so it looks a bit sharper.
I don’t have any issues with my nose. I love my nose. It’s just that in pictures, and I don’t always do this, but in pictures, I do feel like when I shade the sides of my nose, my face looks a little more symmetrical.
One last thing: symmetry. See…and the only reason I notice these things is because I’ve taken pictures of myself over and over for eight years, but the left side of my lips is slightly thinner than the right, so I slightly overdraw that side in order to match with my right.
I mean, this is all just face paint, and it’s unnecessary. I don’t ever want to feel bad about myself without makeup, and I don’t want any other person to feel bad. I think that if you have the ability to sort of play and experiment and do what you want with your makeup, that’s a good thing for your self-esteem. At the same time, I’m perfectly happy with a bare face.
Just remember that you’re beautiful the way you are. I know that sounds cheesy, but it’s true.
Which of your features do you regularly try to emphasize, enhance or otherwise alter the appearance of with makeup, and in what way?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
I wear glasses, so I try to play up my eyes. Cuz no one notices their color till I take off my glasses, then they’re like ‘oh, your eyes are blue.’ Frustrating. Also, getting older, so trying to get the right primer so make-up doesn’t settle into the fine lines around my mouth. 😉
Emphasize: I like to play up my eyes, which I think are my best feature. I go for dramatic looks with lots of mascara. I also think I have nice pouty lips, so I like to play them up as well, with lipliner and bold or unique colors. I like to use highlighter on my high cheekbones to emphasize them, even if I’m not doing any other highlighting that day.
Alter: My eyes are somewhat hooded. I put my crease color up high because my real crease is partially hidden, and I use makeup techniques to lift to visually lift the eye.
I use a little contour to tweak my face just a bit; nothing too heavy. I’m plus-sized, so I contour lightly under my cheekbones and around my chin to make my face look less round and play up my bone structure.
I also have a very wide nose with a fairly flat bridge, thanks to my German and Polish heritage. So I use a little contour down the sides of my nose and highlight down the center to give it a bit of dimension. I’m never gonna be able to make that baby look any smaller, though. lol
My left eyebrow is a little sparser than my right thanks to aging. (I might be the only one who notices, though.) I fill in my brows most of the time now so they look the same.
You look stunning in this pic!
My eyes for sure. They are my best feature, and same as you, they are big which compromises a crease. Not complaining though! I wear tons of mascara, and black liner of course!
I buy wayyyyy too much eye makeup. My eyes are a green-gold-brown hazel with a dark grey ring around the outer edge of the irises, and I love to play up the color. I love making them look more piercing and noticeable.
I also like to contour with bronzer, to give my face a more defined look. I really just get the hollows of my cheeks, define my nose a little more, and make my forehead area look more sunkissed. It takes less than 5 minutes and makes a difference.
You are stunning and I love the different ways that you use makeup to enhance your features! You are beautiful with or without makeup.
I usually emphasize my eyes. I’m lucky to have big eyes and long lashes, but I don’t have a lot of lid space so I have to make sure I don’t go too crazy with a bunch of shadows.
El Hub calling your nose adorable reminded me of something – when I was in college back in the old days, I was in the computer lab listening to music and doing some work. This guy next to me passed me a note that said “Your nose is very cute! What’s your name?”
It certainly took me by surprise. Nice guy, but not really my type. Makes for a funny story, though. 🙂
Happy almost Friday!
I always, without fail, wear mascara because I have really fine, light brown lashes that are, for all intents and purposes, invisible. They have great length and a natural curl, you just can’t see them without a couple of coats of mascara. I also fill my brows in, because they are a lot lighter than my hair color.
I emphasize my eyes or my lips pretty evenly, one or the other. Sometimes I’ll go crazy and do a smoky eye with a bright lip! But I have very hooded eyes, so it’s easy to do heavy eye makeup because you can’t see it as easily when my eyes are open.
I just try and get a little more arch in my eyebrows, because they are a bit straight.
Hm good question! I use moderately coloured lipstick because I don’t think my lips are very full and because I’m also pasty, my lips tend to disappear. I can’t do “nude” lips, I look washed out!
I fill in my eyebrows because they are black and one of them has a sparser front than the other, and can look like I have a bald-spot if my brow hairs aren’t perfectly up and down. Hard to describe – plus, my brow tails aren’t as thick as the rest of my brow so I try to fill them in a little more to finish my look properly.
I have very dark brown eyes and used to HATE that they were a boring brown most of my life…but have learned to embrace how dark they are and try to emphasize the brown in them (i used to just wear lots of colourful liner to bring some more ‘interesting’ colour to my eyes!). I also have a mostly hooded lid, so I neeeeeed to have some kind of crease action happening or my eyes look beady (in my opinion). Over my week long summer holiday, I wore less makeup and was perfectly happy with it, but I definitely put more on to go to work. I feel more polished/ professional when I’m on top of my makeup game. Ooo and because I have such light skin, any discolouration/blemish is super obvious so I try to make my skin look smooth and perfected. I enjoy the process though, so it’s not a sacrifice! That’s why I love makeup…can be very subtle or very dramatic but what an effect!
I have medium size very deep set eyes with not much lid space. I usually just do a wash or a 3 color basic eye instead of something with a million colors and techniques.
My left brow is longer than my right so I feel your pain!
I have this little divot on the inner third of my right upper lashline, so I have to be careful when applying any kind of eyeliner. I usually have to really get in there to make it a nice clean line! And on weekends I usually do a little shading on my nose. 🙂
It used to be my eyes, I used to get compliments all the time until now…I’ve got major dark circles that make me look really tired and it’s not my favorite feature anymore. My cheekbones, however, I think frame my face well and with the right blush, do not make my eyes look so tired all the time…I now love using a little highlighter, bronzer and I sometimes experiment with mixing blushes.
I usually don’t wear lip stuff, or only minimal lip stuff, so I like playing up my eyes – I like slightly winged liner to give more of an almond shape. I also play up my skin, if that makes sense, trying not to hide my freckles, and using highlighter on the cheekbones.
I love my nose and freckles. As a kid I hated my freckles and of course now that I love them they are fading. I wear a light foundation so my freckles don’t get lost in it.
I have small facial features though, small lips and eyes. I try to over draw the lips a tiny bit to help and I wear a ton of mascara. And when all else fails, I try to make others laugh and then they never even notice my features 😉
Karen, your makeup skills are beyond this world. Every time I tried to do something a little bit more complex than the usual brown eyeshadow, not that I failed miserably, but never came close to your level of precision and artistry. You definitely have a gift for this! Have you tried to makeup other people? I’m pretty good at making up my mother and girlfriends, but only that very basic kind of look I always do on myself. I call it, quoting Lisa Eldridge, the ultimate beautifying makeup, a look she posted in one of her videos and I adapted to my features.
I have a very pale, somewhat round face, with delicate features. I have a big nose, but since I’m so pale, redefining it with contour is unpractical. My beautifying daily look, which I don’t wear everyday, btw, consists in a sheer, satiny cool brown eyeshadow all over the lid and blended over the lower lash line. I have small, blue-greyish eyes, so this step already brings out my eyes (my best feature, for sure). The other essential step is eyebrow filler. A tinted gel paired with a cool-toned brown/grey liner already does the job. They’re not symmetrical, so I try to match my right brow (the wrong one, IMO) to the left one. So, basically, I try to emphasize my eyes and brows (I like them quite full, Cara Delavigne-esque). For eyelashed, I wear a tiny, tiny bit of mascara. I literally just lean the bristles against my lashes, ’cause naturally they’re so light, and my skin too, that whenever I try a lashy look it quickly turns into a mess. Also, I have genetic under-eye discoloration, so concealer is a must.
The two first things I do are contouring and filling my brows. I have a very round face (all my family does) so I love to contour my cheeks. And my eyebrows are uneven because I have a scar on my left brow (from falling when I was 5 lol) so it has a hole in it and I hate it! hahah
Buuut I have full lips and hazel eyes so I alternate between eyeliner or a smoky eye and bright lips. Sometimes both, why not? 🙂
I usually even out my eyebrows (depending on how tired I was when tweezing, one or the other is probably screwed up) and pat a little bronzer down the sizes of my nose as well. I find that if I don’t give it some definition after putting on foundation, my nose is just this weird white blob in the middle of my face.
I used to try to put bronzer or contour on my jawline to make it smaller, but I’ve fallen in love with how strong my jawline is, so I leave it alone and try to highlight my tiny forehead to make it seem bigger and more well-proportioned.
Finally, I’ll put some highlighter on the inner corners of my eyes (they’re kind of close set and deep set naturally) and if I’m wearing lipstick/liner, even out my thin top lip with my thicker bottom lip.
But none of my features really bothers me without makeup anymore. I used to hate having such bold bone structure, but now I think of it as just another reason not to forget me!
I have thick eyelashes but they’re very light (a legacy from my dad’s German & Norwegian bloodline–redheads rule!) so I’ve spent too much time looking for the best mascara for enhancing & lengthening. So far Tarte’s Lights, Camera, Lashes is my absolutely favorite.
Other than that, as much as I love playing around with new products & looks, I’m mostly concerned about skincare & keeping my face acne-free & glowing. The hair removal is a pain in the @&& though (thanks for that, Mom; I couldn’t have gotten the peach fuzz from the Norwegians?).
I have full lips and I love lip products so i like to emphasize them. One brow is fuller than the other so I like to even then out. And lately I’ve had uneven eyelids so just giving my lashes a quick curl kinda evens them out even without product.
My life is spent and wasted trying to cover my circles. Without a hundred tons of concealer I look like I got punched over and over. People will (hand to god) ask me if I “need help” if I am not wearing makeup or enough makeup to cover them. My husband has never laid a hand on me in his life, and people give him death glares and seriously think he hits me, because without makeup I look like hell. My niece informed us at Thanksgiving last year, when I was not wearing makeup, that she does “not prefer” when I don’t go without makeup. I was in the other room in hysterical laughter, I might add. My husband and his mom tried to explain why I “looked so different” that day. It was pretty cute actually, watching her process the explanation before blurting out “I don’t prefer it.”
I like to emphasis my lips .. not with layers of lip liner and shading .. I just like plain o’l lipstick and lip gloss.
I try to de-emphasis the bump in my nose, but ugh .. it’s just there .. not much I can do about it 😛
Monica.
I emphasize my eyes, they’re the best of my face. I can wear eyeshadow very smokey with dark waterlines because my eyes are quite big. I like to sometimes emphasize the blue/green colour by wearing a blue shirt, which totally supports and even improves my eye colour.
What I have to correct is: I don’t have a sharp lip outline around my buttom lip. It’s kind of frayed. I conceal it first before I put on lipstick.
Ah, I forgot, I have hooded eyes as well, and the outer cornes are a bit lower than the inner corners, so I “lift” my eyes with eyeshadow. 🙂
I’ve enhanced and played up my eyes (smokey eyeshadow) and lips the most.