4 Makeup Mistakes That Are Ruining All of Your Photos

According to Social Media Today, the average person spends nearly two hours a day on social media platforms. That's 5 years and 4 months spent over a lifetime. So whether we like it or not, the photos we post of ourselves on said platforms are going to have lots of eyeballs on them—and we don't want them to betray us. But in the era of the iPhone camera, they often can. And sometimes it's makeup mishaps that are to blame.

To ensure that our face beats are only doing us favors—flash on or flash off—we asked Glamsquad makeup director Kelli Bartlett to identify the most compromising application mistakes for pictures, as well as how to avoid them.

1. Over-Powdering. "Over-mattifying your face can leave it looking flat and dull," says Bartlett. To appear fresh-faced, only powder the "hot spots" of the face, such as the middle of the forehead, chin, undereyes, and the sides of the nose. Bartlett likes to do this with a small brush, like Make Up For Ever's fluffy 242 eyeshadow blending brush.

2. Going for Insta-Worthy Brows. "Overly opaque and sculpted brows might look amazing in hyper-close-up makeup Instagram accounts, but for full face selfies, a fluffier, more full brow is the way to go," says Bartlett. To acheive this, Bartlett has her own "marabou" brow technique. She uses a brow mascara or tinted brow gel, like Charlotte Tilbury's Legendary Brows, to create depth and dimension for each hair. To fill in sparse spots, she uses a pencil sparingly. Finally, she brushes through to create a soft, fluffy appearance.

3. Too Much Strobing. It's a slippery slope between gorgeous glow and shiny sweat. "Strategically placed highlights can give the face an ethereal, lit-from-within look, but too much highlighter can come off as too discoball-y for everyday," explains Bartlett. "Tap a cream highlighter, like RMS Beauty Living Luminizer, on the tops of cheekbones, cupid's bow, and inner tear duct." Always avoid the center of the cheek and forehead.

4. Not Giving Enough Love to Your Eyelashes. On camera, lashes need all the help they can get. "Short, straight lashes can make the eyes look tired," says Bartlett. To combat eye fatigue, Bartlett curls the lashes with a Surratt Relevée Eyelash Curler for at least 30 seconds. Then, applies several coats of a carbon black mascara, like Lancôme Hypnôse, to lock in the curl.

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