Your biggest makeup application fail — go!

[PinkEvergreen]

We’re all at different stages of our beauty journeys, but I’m pretty sure we’ve all had a moment when our vision of makeup greatness and the actual outcome didn’t quite line up 😁

My most memorable fail happened when I was about 19. I had applied very dark purple Maybelline matte eyeshadow all over my very pale eyelids. (“Transition shade? Blending? What’s that?” asks my 19-year-old self. This was the 90s, before YouTube even existed.) Bottom line: I was convinced I had totally nailed my look. 

Feeling like a boss as I hustled to my morning psych class, my chill was suddenly disrupted by a security guard who stopped me and asked, “Excuse me, is everything okay, miss? Can I be of assistance?” I gave him a puzzled look and replied, “Uhh, yah? I’m fine...?” He gave me a long, significant look, and leaned in closer. Then he pointed at my eyes and asked, “Ohh, is that makeup?” Again, totally confused, I replied, “Umm, yes?” He replied, “Oh, okay. I thought you had two black eyes. I wanted to make sure you weren’t in any danger.”

As much as I appreciated his attempt to ensure my safety, my heart felt like...

  Credit: Claudio Greco on YouTubeI can laugh about it now but the memory came back to me for years at random moments and caused me to cringe internally soooo hard 😂

Over to you guys! I can only tag 10 people in this post, so feel free to tag others so we can have more giggles together 😊

@makeitup305 @gingerleigh @NotCrocker @ChristineR07 @MissPuff @RGbrown @vivix @blackkitty2014 @NatureGirlSD @JenniferOhJenny

[blackkitty2014]

Sorry for the late reply and thank you for the tag @PinkEvergreen.  I was thinking what was my biggest fails? What's that? lol 😉 Joke aside, i have tons but the funniest are probably using highlighter as blush and using finishing powder (which has tons of shimmers) as setting powder. Needless to say i was a walking glitter ball.  Oh did i mention that i got mad and thinking to myself these products are no good.

[PinkEvergreen]

@blackkitty2014 I wish I could say “can’t relate” but sadly I can relate to this too 😄 It seems so long ago but it was only two years ago for me 😂

[samkeaysxo]

Oh I wore a foundation shade that was wayyy too fair for me all through high school😂😂 and NO ONE told me! And then I wore foundation that was too dark for a few months, and AGAIN, no one said anything😭 also over lining my lips waaayyy too much and thinking it looked bomb af. Oh, and in high school my eyebrows were a hot mess. Big and bushy, I never plucked them, but I shaved off the ends of them so they were stubby too😂 and surprise, again, NOBODY TOLD ME I LOOKED STUPID😂😂😂 I’m so glad I’ve found my way😂🙌🏻

[PinkEvergreen]

@samkeaysxo I think it’s so ridiculous that people don’t share honest feedback 😐 It can be done kindly. I’ve finally convinced my partner that it’s okay to point out makeup fails and malfunctions on my face, and malfunctions on colleagues’ faces. I explained that it’s the equivalent of walking around with toilet paper on your shoe and no one telling you. 

Because he’s usually around when I watch YouTube tutorials, he’ll give me precise feedback like, “hmm, that highlighter seems to exaggerate texture,” lol 😂 And one day he came home and proudly announced that he had whispered to a colleague that her “mascara had transferred.” Apparently she was both grateful and impressed with his makeup vocabulary 😄 Then he added, “I noticed that she had a foundation demarcation line on her neck but I decided not to mention that since there wouldn’t be much she could do about it at work.” Can you tell that I subject him to waaaay too much makeup talk?! 🤣

[eshoe]

“hmm, that highlighter seems to exaggerate texture,” Looooove this comment, @PinkEvergreen-count your blessings, this is a very cool (and helpful) comment indeed 😂

[PinkEvergreen]

@eshoe Lol, I definitely do!! But it took me a long time to convince him that he wasn’t walking into a “does this make me look [insert negative descriptor]” trap 😂 

[sprocketta]

@PinkEvergreen  My biggest make-up fail was actually at a Smashbox counter at Macy's.  I really like their Be Legendary Liquid Lip line.  I had a few colors I loved already and had been lusting after Bad Apple, the bright red.  That formula can be messy if you're not careful.  The applicator is perfect.  Since I was trying it at the store they gave me a simple throwaway applicator like you see for liquid lips at Sephora.  Unfortunately it did not have the same precision and got a little messed up over lip lines.  I went to wipe away the product in those spots and bright red smeared ALL over my face.  I kept wiping at it which was only spreading the red.  The Smashbox rep gave me a tissue and that didn't help at all.  It just kept getting worse and worse.  I looked like a clown.  The beginner clown that doesn't know how to put on the red smile properly.  We then started using make-up remover but it was not strong enough.  We had to scrub at my skin with the strongest remover they had.  At the end my face was pink.  I think it was a combo of irritated skin from the scrubbing and leftover color.  I was so mortified as I left and self-conscious as I walked down the street.

For the record, that formula is hit or miss depending on the shade so don't write it off completely.  But the red was no bueno.

[PinkEvergreen]

@sprocketta Wow, that is some next level pigment right there 😂 

I feel your pain completely because I had something similar happen on my wedding day. I ended up having to use nail polish remover to dissolve the lipstick because nothing else would work. Yes, I used nail polish remover, on my face, on my wedding day.

While I wouldn’t recommend it, I didn’t break out at all — shocking since I have such sensitive skin. The great part was that my lips freaked out and became bright red and plump. My wedding makeup ended up slaying despite the near disaster 😅

[sprocketta]

@PinkEvergreen  On you wedding day?  Oh man, that must have been so stressful.  Amazing that the nail polish remover worked.  Did you just go with the red, plumped-up lips or did you put on another lipstick?  I'm glad you looked awesome for your big day.

[PinkEvergreen]

@sprocketta I went for the red plumped up lips and called it a day 😂 Until that point everything had been going smoothly and I made an executive decision to not try any other lip products and just be happy with good enough lol. 

[Indy701]

My junior year of high school I switched schools because we moved. What a great time to reinvent yourself. Well I got in with the lazy goths (lazy as in they didn’t go all in full goth; we were all excellent at academics). So dark clothes (with too much skin showing for goths) and eye makeup but super shimmery violet lipstick.  I held on to that lipstick for the entire year.  Everything else our lazy selfs stopped after a few months. I think we all wanted to not be nerds for a bit but that didn’t happen. 

[tastelikewater]

@Indy701 I think "lazy goth" perfectly describes me from the age of 13-16! Thank you for giving me some hilarious flashbacks 😄

[PinkEvergreen]

@Indy701 Lazy goths 😁 I cringe when I think back to certain high school years when I wore a certain article of “cool” clothing or makeup waaay too many times. I wonder what the teachers must have said behind our backs 😂

[sprocketta]

@PinkEvergreen @indy701 @tastelikewater

I was a non-lazy goth/punk kid (I loved Bauhaus and NOFX equally).  Black clothes mostly, crazy colored hair, lots of piercings and spiked jewelry, combat boots or checkerboard slip-ons.  I was also an excellent student which always shocked my teachers.  Before I graduated, a teacher told I was the antithesis of my appearance, so sweet, smart and a great student.  Talk about an underhanded compliment!  Trust me, the teachers definitely judge on how you look and dress.

[Indy701]

@sprocketta  I wanted piercings so bad but passed out both attempts.  Clearly I didn’t have the ability to be full goth. It is funny that everyone makes judgements regarding intelligence based on looks. The smartest people I knew would raise eyebrows. 

[sprocketta]

@Indy701 You passed out?  That sounds pretty serious.  I would have stopped trying too if it was me.

[Indy701]

@PinkEvergreen 😂 I bet that provides a ton of amusement for teachers. 

[GennX]

Oh no, where to even begin with all the fails I've managed to collect along my makeup journey!

There's the drugstore 4 pan maybelline blue eye shadow - frosty light blue to the brow bone with the rest of my eyelids sporting summer sky blue applied like a super thick liner, the too much foundation that also happened to have a *lovely* orange tone, the dark eyeliner and eye shadow but nothing on my blonde brows (kinda looked like I had no brows at all with all that liner and eye shadow to emphasize it!), overdrawn lip line (we're talking WAY overdrawn, like reaching close to my nose overdrawn and extending halfway down my chin)...

When I started using makeup for my brows to actually not be invisible, I used an eye shadow from MAC applied with an angled brush - of course it was the late 90's/early 00's and I colored my hair dark back then (dark brown, burgundy, reds...it was blue black for a while..) therefore super thin brows were the thing to have. Trying to get my brows anything close to even was a challenge, which I decided required stencils. I can't tell you how often I looked like I had Groucho Marx-esque brows and thought it was *the look*. But years later when I see the pictures - I cringe, just like when I see the jean overalls and tennis shoes with like...3inch thick soles I was wearing. 😛

[PinkEvergreen]

@GennX Ah yes, frosty eyeshadow to the brow bones. You had it going on 😁 It was so unflattering on me — so naturally I wore it all the time lol...

As for the brows... Groucho Marx would have been preferable to what was going on in my high school and university. Almost overnight girls began showing up with Uncle Leo eyebrows (shaved off and drawn in) and the trend lasted a couple of years 😬

  

[GennX]

EEK! Shaving off your eyebrows for the purpose of drawing new ones on is just asking for stubble! 😉

And yeah that's an attempt at being pun-y. 😛 Okay I'll for real stop now. Lol