When bad makeup happens to good people

[Smoresleepplease]

Would you want to be told if you’re makeup looked awful??
Saw one of the teaching assistants this morning on the school run, walking along with a friend/colleague. She’s quite young(26 perhaps) and her foundation looked shocking. Wrong colour and no blending whatsoever. Just a tide-mark of orange about 2cm from the edge of her face. If I was said friend/colleague, maybe I’d have kindly said something along the lines of ‘Oo, do this(and gestured on my own face a ‘blending’ motion)’.
Would that BU?
Would you want to be told?

In the 80s at least there was the excuse that foundation came in very few shades and we didn't have magic blending sponges or brushes.
Now with a gazillion shades and textures and tools I find the orange line frustrating. All that money the cosmetic companies have spent on formula after formula wasted.

I have a lovely colleague, but she does look galvanised
I'd never tell her though, she'd be hurt, I'm sure.

Sometimes I walk down the road, and all I notice is EYEBROWS from metres away...

Obviously, I'm old, so I don't get it...

My friend went on a hen weekend with a group of cakey make up wearers. In the morning over breakfast, she had to subtly find out all their names again because she didn't recognise any of them bare faced.

The problem is... they can see it and don't think it's looks bad so they'll think you just have a bitchy opinion :/

I know this is a bit off-topic but I'm totally rubbish at make-up and hardly wear any. This thread has made me worry even more than when I do attempt it, I'm probably getting it wrong. Can anyone recommend any good make-up tutorials please?

I wouldn't say anything.

Partly because it is rude to make personal comments, but partly because really shit makeup is actually the chosen look of many young women. Oompah loompa orange faces with brown and pink stripes, eyebrows drawn on with magic marker, eyelashes like dead spiders, the lot. I don't get it, but then I had those stupid thin eyebrows in the 90s, so who am I to criticise.

I used to put makeup over a scar I have on my face. I was obsessed with not leaving the house without it and then one day, I looked in a mirror whilst outside and it looked AWFUL.

People must have pitied me ....walking around with a cakey blob of concealer on my face.

I stopped immediately and found a good powder foundation thing which minimizes it but is smooth and whilst you can see the scar, the redness is neutralised.

If someone had said something I'd have been so embarrassed. I was horrified as it was to discover it alone...

This drives me mad with my DD's (twin 15yo's) apparently without the line no-one would know the had foundation on... Which I was told with an absolute look of disdain. Apparently the fact I don't look like I have make up on when I wear my day to day make up is "pointless".

But at 15 they know everything (I know I did ) so it was nice of them to explain it to you .

I'd never thought of it like that, though - that people can see they've made an effort. I've watched some YouTubers and been amazed, but recently I saw a whole "extreme" contoured/highlighted/eyebrowed look in real life when I was giving a presentation to a group of university students. The wearer came up to ask me a question and I wanted to ask if she'd just wait there a bit longer so I could look at it properly. But they frown on us frightening visitors, so I didn't.

Good fun on contouring:

I used to wear a yellow toned foundation when I'm actually pink toned...I preferred how it made me look. If some random person commented, I'd have told them to go fuck themselves quite frankly.

I thought the entire point of good foundation was you don't know someone's wearing it?! Clearly Wayne Goss and John Maclean have been lying to me! Although conversely I don't wear foundation or concealer because I'm scared of not doing it right and it looking wrong. Colour cosmetics are much easier to get right in my head.

Oh yes, Sailor J is brilliant!

I work in an office full of men and once I used a new eyeliner and didn't realise it had totally smudged on the way to work, definite Alice Cooper look. I went to the toilet much later that day and saw the state of myself. When I got back and asked why no one had told me they said they assumed it was my look for the day or they hadn't even noticed!!

@Smoresleepplease I really think that some people s perceptions are out of sync .
For example , when I look at myself In the Mirror and try on an outfit and do my makeup and hair I think I look fab and then when I take a photo i look skinnier than what I thought I was (stick completely ) my hair is a mess and my outfit looks awful in 3D so I always judge what I look like by photo image and not mirror image ... I can bet these girls perceive themselves to look great . . I would say ....Don't burst their bubble ...

It depends on how you think she’d react, whether she always looks like that (is it a conscious decision?), and how confident you are to say something.

A mum I knew pretty well at my kid’s school once stopped me outside the gates to blend my concealer for me - I was just grateful; i’d had a hectic morning and had got ready in a rush!

I did see one woman who had drawn on her eyebrows (in black) so that they extended pretty much all the way to her hairline AND were only around 1cm apart in the middle. She looked like a Disney villain, but I figured that must have been the look she was going for. Definitely striking, that’s for sure.

I have a young step sister. This is a look they deliberately go for.

No, I don't get it.

I belong to the 90s school of fairly natural to enhance your features (although I do remember classmates with tide marks and crusty concealer, but formulas have changed to make this more avoidable).

Modern make up trends make me miss 80s make up. At least 80s make up was intentionally fun and gaudy whereas modern trends look like they've just been done by a 6 year old trying to do it properly.

It's not worth saying anything because it is probably intentional.

I may be off trend, but at least I won't date easily.

Sometimes OH does the blending-gesture thing at me. Of course by the time he's home from work it's utterly pointless and then I know I've been walking around unblended all day :L

You could try saying "Ooh, there's a bit of foundation on your chin you must have forgotten to blend" as if it's a one-off thing that she must just have missed that morning.

But make-up isn't always about looking natural and pretty, is it? It can be about showing people you have done yourself up, or even about looking hard and nasty so that people leave you in peace!

I used to work with the most beautiful girl but her eyebrows were mental. She had blonde hair and eyebrows that she had drawn on with what looked like a nlack marker. The first time I met her I couldn’t take my eyes off them. If she got rid of them it wouldn’t be fair to other women though as she is so gorgeous

@AjasLipstick are you able to tell me which foundation you used? I've got a nasty red scar that I've tried that many different foundations on. I've wasted so much money. I've got different setting powders too, to try and stop the concealer melting off the scar. All they seem to do is look dry and cakey over it, highlighting the scar.

@FrederickCreeding go straight to Lisa Eldridge on Youtube. She does lots of tutorials for a whole range of women and skin types/problems. very natural/light touch and is all about technique. She is about 45 but looks incredible (I'd put her in her 30s).
Ignore the 'beauty gurus' because they are going for trend-led makeup and showing off products they've been paid to show off by the big brands.

@Suzyloo maybe I am your office roomie?!
Recently I totally forgot to put any makeup on before going to work (unheard of for me - never leave the house without at least a bit of eyeliner/mascara usually). I spent the whole morning totally unaware. A few colleagues mentioned I looked tired and asked if I wasn't feeling well.
I went to the toilet, caught a glimpse in the mirror and realised with my horror I had no make up on. The thing is I am a victim of 90's eyebrows (plucking them virtually all off) so I have been left with bilateral half eyebrows. If I don't pencil them in I look utterly ridiculous!
I asked my office colleagues why they hadn't told me and they all looked a bit embarrassed and said they'd assumed I had deliberately gone make up free.
I think I'd prefer someone to tell me although it's unlikely that this person in the OP's scenario hasn't looked in a mirror and been satisfied with the end result so may be best not saying anything to avoid offence.

My business partner loves to wear a LOT of make-up. She likes a wet dewy look with blusher in big circles right in the middle of her cheeks like Looby Loo. She has the massive eyebrows too, done by microblading and her lip-liner is a completely different shade to her lipstick. It's never a good idea to give her a hug and kiss on the cheek because you get left with a smear of make-up where you don't want it. She loves it, prides herself on her skill and seems to enjoy the looks she gets. Up to her I reckon, crack on. I wouldn't say anything.

Another woman I know has plucked her eyebrows away to the point where there's a faint pencil thin line half the natural length. It's especially noticeable because it's such an "against the tide" sort of look, but presumably it's how she likes them. Wouldn't do for us all to be the same, but some of the looks at the moment are a bot extreme.

I once missed most of what DC teacher was telling me at parents' evening as I was staring dumbfounded at her terrible eyebrows. They weren't just big drawn-on slug eyebrows, I know that's the look she was going for anyway. They were also done in this grim kind of bright brown colour that looked totally wrong on her, and they were wonky, one was a totally different shape and placement to the other.

I so wanted to say something but she wasn't the type to welcome that!

I think I would want to be told. My DC always tell me with great hilarity about any mascara mess-ups. LOVE the smashed crows description! :o I'l always remember that as the look I'm not going for when doing mascara.

Eh, bad makeup has always been a thing, but every generation likes to pretend the latest trend is the worst trend.

I remember people walking around with opaque stripes of garish blush running from their temples to their upper chin. I remember dry, caked on powder foundation that would literally start to crumble if you were too animated. I remember Brooke Shields big straight brows on countless faces that couldn’t begin to carry them off. I remember poorly drawn on eyebrows barely 2mm thick. I remember dark lip liner paired with pale frosty lipstick. I remember blue eyeshadow applied from lash line to brows. I remember the first time colour correctors hit the market, and everyone ‘hiding’ their spots with liberally applied pastel green. I could go on and on and on.

As far as bad trends go, poor foundation matches are pretty inoffensive.