Makeup Looks to Avoid at All Costs
Makeup can be an absolutely magical tool. It allows you to highlight your natural features, as well as create stunning and dramatic looks. Makeup artists are behind the gorgeous faces of runway and fashion magazine models, and it takes talent and time for them to get as good as they do. Unfortunately, some aren’t quite as experienced, and as a result, end up doing their makeup like a kid with finger paint. You would think some people would think twice, or at least get a second opinion, before uploading their amateur work onto the internet. But nope! Sometimes a person’s ego is too strong to realize the mess they’ve made.
Here are some of the craziest makeup looks we found online.
Showing Your Love for McDonald’s
You’re probably familiar with the McDonald’s golden arches, but have you ever thought of paying homage with your eyebrows? People model their makeup looks after their favorite celebrities, pop stars, and models, why can’t you do the same with a fast food chain? It looks like this person had to block out their original eyebrows to achieve this bizarre look.
We’re guessing they were unsatisfied with their natural brow arch and decided to go as dramatic as possible. But we don’t think we’ll be seeing this style in Vogue or Cosmo anytime soon. Curved brows might be in fashion but everybody has their limits! Let’s just keep these arches at Mickey Ds where they belong.
How Not to Apply Makeup
Aspiring makeup artists can learn what exactly NOT to do from this photo. Everything from the eyebrows to the lips is totally off in this look, but we’ve got to start with the most obvious mistake. It looks like she was trying to contour the lower half of her face while highlighting the area around her eyes. However, the over-application of shadow just makes it look like she has a beard coming in.
In this mess of contouring, there’s one thing that sticks out, the lip color. Not only is this color not the most flattering, but it’s emphasized by a lip liner that’s not doing it any favors. Even without the improperly applied blush and eyeshadow this look has too much going wrong to be salvaged.
Too Many Trends on One Face
What happens when you take every fashion trend and throw them onto one person? You end up with a disastrous makeup job like this. It’s hard to tell in a close-up, but we’re assuming this woman’s foundation doesn’t make her natural skin tone the way it should be. The excessive amount of highlighter (in a few places it shouldn’t be) doesn’t exactly distract from the mismatched makeup.
Strangely enough, while eyeliner is intended to highlight and lift your eyes, it looks like this woman applied it to make hers droop down. That’s not even to mention the overuse of mascara. We’d comment on the piercings, but this is an article about makeup after all. She needs to get a makeup wipe and start over!
A Lot is Going on Here
Where to start with this makeup look? We are so confused by the recurring trend of white circles around the eyes, framing an otherwise orange face. The black-lined lips are very vintage and the eyebrows are incredibly thick. A quick internet search reveals that this white-eye-framing technique is meant to create a natural highlight around the eyes as if there is natural light hitting the face.
However, this is not the way to do it. The shade is only supposed to be a little bit lighter, not fully ivory. What’s more, the eyeshadow completely clouds the face and creates a “raccoon-eye” effect. What’s interesting is that it seems that not only is the makeup unblended, but it seems almost intentionally off.
Not Exactly a Golden Goddess
Whether you’re buying it in gold or silver tones, there’s no doubt that highlighter has catapulted itself into becoming an ultra-popular makeup product. But as is with most trends, people tend to go overboard with their shimmer. This woman here has transformed her entire face into a glowing golden mess, it looks like she just got caught in a shiny sandstorm.
To achieve this look, she must’ve used a foundation that was several shades darker than her own skin, a major makeup no-no. We’re not sure why she decided to mask her naturally beautiful features with so much makeup, with nothing but a little mascara and lipgloss she would look absolutely fabulous.
Why Would You Do This to Your Eyes?
Typically eye makeup is applied to highlight your peepers and make them look bigger than they actually are. This woman’s eyeshadow certainly makes her eyes stand out, but not in a good way! With the right eye makeup, you can completely transform the natural shape of your eye, but we’re not sure why anyone would choose to change their eye shape to this.
We’re pretty positive that “Kinder Egg” is not an eye shape that exists on any real human face. The lack of makeup anywhere else on the face just makes the bad eyeshadow pop even more, which is definitely not a good thing. With a bold enough lip color she might be able to distract from it, but we suggest wiping it all off and starting over.
Better Hire a New Makeup Team
It just goes to show that no one is exempt from a makeup horror show, even if they’re a presenter on the news. Maybe the station recently fired its hair and makeup team and had to make do with whoever they had on hand. We certainly hope there wasn’t a professional makeup artist behind this look, if so then they’re definitely in the wrong profession.
We’re not sure how anyone could paint on eyebrows like that and think they did a good job. This poor woman has been made up to look like a drawing done by a three-year-old. Surely she deserves a little bit better if her face is going to be broadcasted on TV.
Overly Excited with Her New Eyeshadow Palette
Colorful eyeshadow is fun to apply but there’s always such a thing as overdoing it. Sometimes it’s hard to contain ourselves when we get our hands on a palette of bright and pretty makeup colors, but restraint is important. Otherwise, you end up with the unfortunate look this poor woman has on. Rule number one of eyeshadow, it’s not supposed to go all the way up to your eyebrows!
We get that she probably wanted to show off some new colors, but this was definitely not the way to do it. Plus, the combination of shades and the messy blending result in all the colors looking a lot less appealing. Next time just stick to one or two hues, we promise it will look a lot better.
Going for the Ghost Look
Here we have another case of not matching your foundation to your actual skin tone. But in this particular scenario this woman went so light she practically turned herself into a ghost! Perhaps she realized her foundation paled her out and decided to compensate with excessive amounts of blush. The final result makes her look like she might have an intense fever.
We wouldn’t be surprised if someone offered to drive her to the hospital! This might be a spooky makeup look for a Halloween party, but it’s not the kind of makeup you want to have on in a restaurant. At the very least whoever took this photo shouldn’t have had the flash on!
The Wide Head Look
Some people prefer to paint on their own eyebrows, but this woman definitely took things too far. When we say “far” we mean that quite literally, her eyebrows might be in totally different area codes! Maybe she was going for something that would make her head look wider, though we’re not sure why anyone would want that. Though the tragic eyebrow and eye makeup aren’t the only things we need to address here.
There’s choosing a natural lip shade and then there’s this. Her lips look practically invisible with that color on, drawing all the more focus to the obviously fake mole above her lip. It’s such a shame to ruin a naturally pretty face with a makeup job this poor!
A Second Pair of Eyebrows?
This woman is clearly trying out every makeup trend she sees on Instagram, but we don’t think the end result is going to get a whole lot of likes. You might be too distracted by the overdrawn, bright red lips to notice the real faux-pas on her face, but we’ll point it out to you. The contouring on the sides of her nose is utterly bonkers.
This kind of face shadow is meant to emphasize the natural shape of your nose and cheekbones, but it looks like she wanted to paint on a completely different facial structure. The final result makes it look like she has a second pair of eyebrows growing underneath her real ones!
Lost in Your Eyes? No, Your Eyes Got Lost!
Sometimes people like their makeup to be all about the drama. Big brows and a bold lip can certainly make for a stunning makeup look, but we think this lady definitely missed the mark. It looks like she spent hours working on making her brows symmetrical, neglecting to check the rest of her face. The biggest issue? Her eyes are being swallowed by those fake lashes!
That’s not even taking into account her forehead contour, which has made her face look orange. The saying “less is more” is definitely applicable to this situation. We commend her for the well-drawn lips and nicely highlighted nose, but everything else has gone to be done over again.
Needs to Ask Her Daughter for Makeup Lessons
Older women should still be able to enhance their features with makeup, but it’s important to know how to apply it. Instead of aging herself down or highlighting her natural features, this poor lady has created a disaster on her face with a bunch of different makeup products. Maybe the sunglasses are trying to distract from the messily applied eyeshadow and eyebrows, but we can still see them!
And that’s leaving aside the lipstick, which is the wrong color and also doesn’t match the liner. She needs one of her kids to show her how makeup should be applied, we’re sure with a little direction she could come out looking fabulous. But until then she might want to consider stepping away from the makeup bag!
Avoid Overlining at all Costs
We understand that this girl was going for a dramatic eye look, something that would make her eyes appear bigger than they actually are. She definitely achieved that goal, but we’re not sure the end result is as pretty as it could be. When you lay on the eyeliner that thick you only end up resembling a raccoon, not the most flattering comparison in the world.
In addition to the caked-on eye makeup, it looks like she’s chosen the worst foundation color for her skin. Whatever product she painted on her face is not doing justice to her complexion. Underneath the wild hair and intense makeup is a pretty face, why hide it under all that mess?
Don’t Use Markers for Makeup
We’re having a hard time believing any actual makeup was involved in creating this look. It appears to be made up of markers and crayons, which are two products that don’t belong anywhere near your face. If this was in fact created with makeup then she might want to consider chucking the palette in the bin, we don’t see them working out for her.
Not only does the makeup look cheap, but the way it’s applied is utterly confusing. The eyeshadow is more similar to the way a clown paints their face, and the over-application of mascara makes her eyelashes look like they’re trying to escape. It’s time to put the makeup brushes away and learn a little bit before going for a look this bold.
Block Brows Will Never Be In
Eyebrow trends have changed drastically over the decades. The 90s were all about the overly plucked, thin brows, whereas the 2010s brought the thick, bold eyebrow into vogue. Despite the change in eyebrow fashion, we doubt these rectangles are going to catch on anytime in the next few centuries! They remind us more of the puppets on Sesame Street than a glamorous makeup artist.
We have to give her credit for making the lines on these brows extra sharp, you can’t deny they’re super precise. But a well-executed makeup trend doesn’t always mean a fashionable one, and this one is definitely anything but elegant. These brows might be bold but they’re far from being stylish!
Even She’s Frowning
Now this person must be aware that they’ve done a bad job, they’re actually drowning in their own selfie! Maybe they’re sad because they couldn’t find the right shade of foundation for their face, or because they weren’t able to glue their fake lashes on correctly. If you only stick them on your bottom lid your eyes just end up looking droopy!
Aside from the mismatched foundation, it looks like they’ve chosen all the right colors and makeup products. The only issue is that none of it was applied correctly! There’s really no point in shelling out on expensive makeup if you don’t know how to use it. Better save your coins and watch a few YouTube tutorials first.
A Reflective Face
You might think this woman is sitting in a room with too many bright lights, or perhaps her face is so oily it’s starting to shine. But both of these assumptions would be wrong, the culprit here is the overuse of highlighter. She seems to have put the product in all the right places, but she should’ve stopped while she was ahead!
You want your skin to have a bit of shimmer and glow, the key term here being “a bit”. You don’t want to apply so much that your face becomes a reflective surface. The bold red lip and eyeshadow might have hit the mark, but the highlighter ruins any merit this look might have had.
Makeup Tutorial Gone Wrong
This poor girl must have been following some makeup tutorial, then things ended up taking a very wrong turn. It looks like this makeup disaster was caused by a lack of skill as well as bad makeup products. You might find yourself staring at this photo for a while as you try to figure out what to focus on, there’s just so many things wrong here.
Should we point out the eyebrows that look like they were drawn on with a sharpie? Or maybe the bright pink lipstick that was messily applied? The most obvious mistake would be the giant fake mole, we’re not sure why she thought it would be a good idea to add one in the first place!
Some Colors Aren’t Meant to Mix
Blending shades isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but you need to know which colors actually mix well together. We think this girl took an entire palette of summer colors and threw them all on a single eyelid, and it definitely did not work out. She might have blended them to the best of her ability, but in the end, the shades simply did not go together.
She’s left with nothing but a dirty mess on her lids that ought to be washed off. On the bright side, she has lovely natural blue eyes and some real killer brows. If she applied her eye makeup right she could emphasize them in the best way. But as is, this makeup only distracts from her God-given looks.
She Looks Better in the “Before”
We have another before and after photo that feels as though the makeup takes away rather than adds to the overall effect. This model is clearly gorgeous, and the right makeup should accentuate her unique features. Instead, her makeup artist applied traditionally “modern” trendy makeup – bronzed, thick concealer, heavy cut crease eyeshadow, and heavy highlighter. Her beautiful features are completely eliminated.
The resulting makeup, while well applied, is simply unflattering. This makeup highlights the crux of the problem in a lot of the looks on this list– makeup is meant to highlight one’s features, not dim their shine. What works for one person, won’t work for another. Every face is different and unique in its own way, and therefore needs different things highlighted.
Just Say “No” to Blue Eyeshadow
It’s time to face the facts, the 1980s are long behind us and blue eyeshadow has been out for a long time. In fact, the shade wasn’t particularly flattering in the decade it was popular, so it’s a big no-no to try and bring it back now. This girl must be a big fan of blue, because she’s used it on her lids and lips, too!
A different color might have really brought out her pretty green eyes, but instead, the shade merely distracts from her natural features. Makeup is meant to enhance what you’ve already got, not downplay your natural beauty. We hope this was only done as a makeup challenge and not what she actually goes out with.
The “Almost Unibrow” Look
What happens when you try to make every aspect of your makeup over the top? You end up with an utterly baffling look like this. It almost looks like she drew a unibrow on her forehead, then erased a small space in the middle. Maybe she’s trying to start an “almost unibrow” trend? Her brows are totally matte and don’t appear to have any hair on them at all. But we think we know where all the hair in this look went.
Clearly, she removed the hair from her eyebrows so they wouldn’t distract from her long, fake eyelashes. Seriously, those things are so long you’d be able to dust an entire living room with them! The lipstick shade is nice, but aside from that, this look is a fail.
Not Glow Goals
Highlighting different parts of your face is a makeup trend that will never die, but there is such a thing as overdoing it. If you start reflecting light like a hunk of shiny metal then you know you’ve used too much. This girl has put highlighter in every place imaginable, her lips, nose, cheekbones, and her inner eyes. This wouldn’t have been so bad had she not used so much of it!
We think this look ended up being a major fail unless her goal was to glow like a night light. We think this glow is anything BUT goals, you’d be hard-pressed to find people trying to recreate this unflattering look for themselves.
Lashes Stacked High
Fake eyelashes in everyday makeup looks have become more commonplace over the years, but some people need to know when they’ve stacked their falsies too thick. This might be a good amount of lashes for a costume party or a drag show, but it’s definitely not complementary to an everyday makeup look. Her eyelids are going to feel super heavy walking around with those things attached to them.
What a relief it must have been to take those off, we wonder how much they weigh. You may have been too focused on the lashes to notice the forehead stripe, clearly a contour that wasn’t blended enough. Looks like a classic case of too many makeup trends on one face!
They’re All in This Together
This is a very unfortunate makeup situation that affected this entire group of girls. Getting a foundation that matches your skin tone isn’t easy, but surely whoever did these girls’ faces could have done a slightly better job finding the right hue. It looks like the only one here who looks decent is the girl in blue, which makes us think they all used her foundation color.
The end result makes them all look like they might be tall Oompa Loompas in dresses. It’s too bad because their dresses and flowers look lovely, their makeup should have been able to reach that same caliber. Hopefully, this will be a lesson for the future, always make sure your foundation matches!
Sharp Contour Misshapes The Face
This look is absolutely beautiful when it comes to the eyebrows and the eyes. The lips, too, are gorgeous. But the contour completely ruins the look. It’s so dark and deep, it causes the woman’s face to appear dirty and sharply contrasted. Her nose, too, is too thinly tapered, and the face’s natural shape is clearly beautiful.
We wish that she had taken extra care of the contour to finish off the beautiful illusion of the face. If only she had blended in her nose and cheek to be more subtle, we would be singing an entirely different tune. What do you think about this makeup? would you wear something like this? Let us know in the comments!
Don’t Be A Fool, Stay In School
We definitely have a lot of questions about this look. Our first wonder is whether it breaks the school’s dress code. There never was one in our day, but with cases like these, you’d imagine that there would need to be a policy in place for distracting makeup. We imagine this poor girl’s mother must have been quite upset with her when she saw the stains on her shirt from the foundation!
Private school uniforms are not cheap nor easy to replace! We would be quite upset if we were in her place. As for the makeup, while it seems extremely dramatic for a day at school, the eyeshadow actually looks pretty well done. The overlined lips distract from it, unfortunately. This girl also appears to have drawn freckles on her face, which is a trend we personally particularly dislike. We wish we could have seen her with more subtle makeup because she is truly gorgeous.
What To Focus On?
Where to start with this look? The foundation is not blended into the neck and is unfortunately very far from matching the skin of the model. It is too yellow for her undertones and creates an almost jaundiced look. Her eyebrows, while gorgeous, are pulled too far out and down, which gives her eyes a slanted look. The highlighted powder is too light and therefore looks extreme over the background of the foundation.
The lip color is too close to the foundation and gets completely swallowed up in the makeup. The eyeshadow is gorgeous- And well applied, but the colors are all wrong and with all the other elements, loses all focus despite needing to be the focal point. This girl is clearly beautiful and talented. We hope with practice she can improve even more and avoid these mistakes in the future.
You Get What You Pay For
This girl is clearly naturally beautiful. She went to a professional to get her makeup done — and was duped. Where to start? The eyebrows are overlined, the foundation is mismatched, the lashes are two different pairs, the lips are overlined- the resulting look is terrifying. There is such a thing as too far, and this is it.
The foundation is applied so far back it is in the poor girl’s hairline! What was the makeup artist thinking with this look? We hope the smile in this photo was genuine and this girl was happily satisfied with her final result. What do you think of this look? Would you like to have your makeup done like this? Tell us in the comments!
One More Look Overshadowing The Good Elements By The Bad
Similar to the look before it, The best element of this look is being completely overshadowed by all the things going wrong with it. The foundation doesn’t match, nor is it blended into the neck. The highlight under the rainbow is far too light. The blush is too bright and the highlights are in all the wrong places- they’re giving off the effect of perspiration.
The choice of lip color is very confusing as well. Surely an MUA would choose something a little brighter that fits in with the overall rainbow theme, but it was foregone for a more trendy brown lip, which is so prevalent these days and throughout this article. Perhaps if the artist had gone with their vision instead of the trends we’d be singing a different tune.
Eye Shadow Shape Matters
The woman in this photo is looking downright sad. The makeup is incredibly dark, and the heavy tan, combined with the nude lips and dark eyes, garners this whole makeup a simply dirty appearance. With skin so dark, it would be better and more appropriate to wear lighter colors or softer tones. The dark overall combination creates a look that is downright painful on the eyes, and could not have possibly been comfortable to wear.
We wonder if her lashes were particularly heavy. This type of look is less suited for glam makeup and more for a costume, perhaps of a panda, raccoon, or even an emoji. We hope that if this look was paid for she was able to secure a refund. When will makeup artists understand that “burnt sienna” is not an acceptable foundation color? Like a lot of the girls in this article, she is clearly gorgeous under all that makeup. It’s too bad she was caught with a bad MUA.
The Expectations Versus The Reality
We think there should be certain qualifications for makeup “professionals” as evidenced by this woman’s unfortunate trip to the beauty salon – she wanted to get the makeup in the photo and was given that result – a far cry from the reference. A makeup job this bad should be eligible for a lawsuit in our eyes. There was money spent to look this way, and this poor client deserved better.
We hope she didn’t need this look for an important event or at the very least we hope she managed to fix it if it was. We know if we were in her place we would be absolutely livid. At the end of the day, her face says it all. Let this be a lesson to us all: Check the reviews of your service before you go in to get them.
Makeup “Experts” Are Not Safe
There’s the familiar saying “Those who can’t do, Teach” – It definitely seems true in this case of a resident “makeup expert” with a particularly unfortunate case of too much, all over the place. The bronzer, the highlighted eyes, the lips — everything about this look just screams “a bit much” to us. This man was on a tv show advertising his makeup prowess.
If his makeup on his clients is anywhere near as bad as the makeup on his face, we can bet he doesn’t have many repeat customers. There is so much contour on his face it can go on five people! And still, it was unblended to the neck. The Problem is he very well may be talented at makeup, but not at the kind of makeup that needed to be on TV, which is an entirely different style on its own.
Bad Smokey Eye Shadow Creates Strange Effect
This is quite unfortunate. The result of wanting a beautiful smokey eye effect caused this woman to develop a look that resembles double eyebrows! Not only are there multiple eyebrows, but the eyeshadow is disconnected from the eyeliner, and there is a touch of 90s lip liner to complete the effect. Egads! We can only hope that she learned from this mistake and worked a little harder on her makeup for the future.
We’ve always said it’s important to make mistakes. It’s the only way to learn! One day she has double eyebrows, and the next she will learn to perfectly blend her makeup and create flawless looks. We can compliment this woman for perfectly matching her foundation, which is no easy feat, as you will see further down in this article.
Even Professional TV Makeup Can Be Bad
This makeup job breaks our hearts. The woman in the photo couldn’t help it, she wasn’t responsible for it. This was spotted on an episode of “Law and Order: SVU”- Perhaps it was because the actress was already wearing makeup when she sat down for wardrobe or because the lighting and cameras shaded the face differently, but the result is unfortunate.
Usually, we’d like the foundation to match the neck, but this time, it ended up matching the sweater, or the hair. The last thing you’d want. Frankly, we’d be making that face too. It’s a lesson in how the wrong shade can make you look downright sick or jaundiced. Like we’ve said before, mistakes are meant to be learned from.
Eyes Fantastic, The Rest Less So
We’re so disappointed in this look. The eyeshadow is remarkable and very difficult to pull off. But it’s coupled with a heavy highlighter, blush, and feathered brows. The brown lipstick is completely mismatched to the whole look. The artist clearly has a ton of skill, and the model is clearly gorgeous. But without the proper care, the overall look is a total swing-and-a-miss.
The eyes are also mismatched – the overall look screams laziness. The skill is there but the effort is not- If time was invested into the whole look as much as it was invested into the one eye look. The overlined lips are our least favorite trend of these recent years.