The One Makeup Move That Makes You Look Better

Makeup is is such a tricky territory. Wear it well and it makes you the best version of yourself. But wear an unsuitable colour or too much product and you look harsh and unnatural. The funny thing is that women struggle for years to achieve the perfect stroke of eyeliner, or the right technique to line their lips sharply. However, as you grow older, sharp lines actually make you look harsh.

The trick is to subtly smudge your makeup so everything looks diffused. Apply a sheer veil of luminescent eyeshadow on your lids, instead of struggling with eyeliner. Pat a creamy lipstick on with your fingers, instead of using a lipliner. Unless your lipstick bleeds, then you must use lip liner. But even then, soften the edges of that liner by running your fingers over it. Keep your brows soft too - don't harshly line and fill then. Just run a brow gel through to set the hair add a few strokes of brow pencil to enhance the shape. But no sharp lines like you see on those Instagram brow tutorials. 

Sharp lines look great when you’re younger, but as you get older you’ll find that softness and luminosity are more flattering. Creamy matte lipsticks are better than powdery mattes. Luminous eyeshadows are better than black eye liner. Chocolate brown eye pencil is better than black. Use mascara to define your eyes instead of a sooty kajal. A cream blush is far prettier than a pop of powdery colour. In fact, even if you’re in your 20s you’ll find that blurring and smudging makeup really does make you look fresher.

After all, there's no point wearing a sharp, statement colour if it doesn’t make you sparkle.