It is no secret that the makeup industry has changed drastically over the last five years. Social media plays a humungous role in that. With that being said, here are a few makeup-related pet peeves of mine that, unfortunately, I won't ever be able to unsee. These are in no particular order because I couldn't possibly rank one more annoying than the other. All opinions are my own.
1. EXTREME HIGHLIGHT
Please. PLZ. Make it stop. Don't get me wrong - I love me a good highlight, but the more I see this the less I want to wear. The influencers edit their pictures to draw you in. There is not a single amount of product that you could (or should) wear to make your face look like this... plz just take my advice on this one.
2. CAKED ON MAKEUP
There's a common misconception that the more makeup, the better. I, personally, believe this is false. I was, absolutely, once guilty of piling on my makeup. Using WAY too much foundation, putting on 10 pounds of powder, copious amounts of eyeliner, filling my brows in way too much. This just brought back the worst memories... UGH.
The next time you sit down to do your makeup - try using less foundation than you usually do. You'll be surprised that you will probably get the same look with less product. I love a natural look - freckles poking through, non-Sharpied brows, etc. Most of my clients request natural looks, but if someone requests "Instagram makeup" I will happily let them know that they will be gravely disappointed because that makeup does not look good in real life. Nor will I fulfill your request.
3. PRODUCTS PROMISING FALSE CLAIMS
The makeup industry is SATURATED with new products. I gave up trying to keep up (I'll get to that later in this post). It drives me up a wall when I see a new product coming out claiming to be better than this, get rid of that, etc. What evidence do they have to support these claims? I need facts. I need videos, lab reports, all of it. Just gonna go out on a limb here and say that whatever it claims to do is probably not true. It's probably just a regular ass product.
4. "MAKEUP ARTISTS" THAT ONLY APPLY MAKEUP ON THEMSELVES
There are so many Youtubers and Instagram influencers that are famous from applying makeup on themselves and no one else. I am slowly seeing the trend of them calling themselves makeup artists leave and the influx of the term "influencer". While I am self-taught, I take my business very serious. These self-proclaimed makeup "artists" make it difficult for people like me. There are a ton of self-taught artists that are reputable, but there is a whole gang of ones that are not-so reputable. Those are the ones you need to watch out for. The ones who you scroll through their Instagram feed and they ONLY have pictures of themselves, but want to charge you $100 because they have 10k followers or a YouTube channel. Giiiiirl, I think not.
5. HUGE LIPS
For all that is holy, please give this up. I am all for enhancing something that you don't like about yourself - I want everyone to feel confident within themselves. But lord jesus... I can't with the lips. The overdrawn look looks great on Instagram, but going out in public with your top lip drawn to your nose looks ridiculous in person. Oy.
6. "STOP DOING THIS... START DOING THAT"
This goes back to the whole makeup "artists" that only apply makeup on themselves. Those that give a tutorial and tell you THE ONLY way to do something. That's the best apart about makeup - it's limitless. There are so many ways to apply foundation, eyeliner, eyeshadow. Just because an influence does it one way and tells you that's HOW you do it doesn't mean that's the only way. These people are not professionally trained and have never applied makeup on a face shape different than theirs... How would they know?
7. HASHTAG TAKE MY MONEY
I swear every time I blink there's a new brand, new collection, new product over-promising to under-deliver. Now while I am a recovering makeup junkie, I am so over seeing all of these products come out that all do the same thing. My favorite is the beauty influencers that get these products for free that are promoting them saying #takemymoney... 1) you didn't spend any money on this and 2) I'm not paying $60 for that highlighter that you got for free that you just LOVE so much. I totally understand that every thing is a business. With the industry changing so fast, I get that brands need to keep up to stay relevant and try to come out with something that is new and "trendy", but right now it's just overwhelming. People are going broke over products because their favorite influencer said to buy it and it's not that good. This isn't true for everything, but it is very relevant. It hurts me... it just hurts.
8. RUDE MAKEUP ARTISTS
While this post has been rather ranty, there is nothing that pains me more than seeing makeup artists make rude posts about clients. Sure, we all have our annoyances, but I would NEVER post a passive aggressive message telling you that I will cancel your appointment if you do this or that, that I don't care about being rude to your face, etc... I just don't get it. I have policies set in place for a reason and because of that I avoid being approached to the point where I feel like I need to be rude. I just can't imagine being a client, seeking out their services, and seeing that post. Just imagine how they would actually treat you in person. They get a little Instagram famous and it goes straight to their head. I love my clients - I wouldn't be here without them so I would never treat them rude. You attract what you put out into the universe; this applies to so many facets of life.
9. CONTOURING
This is not something new. Drag queens and professional makeup artists have been doing this since the beginning of time. My favorite question about my services "do you do contour?" Nope. I'm here to make your face look like a flat potato.
I strongly dislike what Instagram (funny how everything keeps relating back to this) has done for the makeup industry and this new light it's brought onto contouring. If I never have to be asked if I "do" contour, I will live a happy life. Contouring will not make you look like the girls on Instagram, sorry.
10. VIRAL "TRENDS"
Oh boy. This one. I saved the best for last - FOR. SURE. This is for all the videos of people applying their makeup with random shit like forks, Louboutins, chicken nuggets, iPhones. For all the videos doing weird shit with their eyebrows. For all the videos of people putting glitter EVERYWHERE. The ones making themselves look super fudged up in their thumbnail only for you to click on it and that thumbnail has nothing to do with the video. Oh my lanta. I could go on for days. I'm over the "WOW" factor of the internet. It's cool that these people are artsy, fartsy and expressing themselves, but these "trends" are just flat out stupid. Why would you waste a perfectly good chicken nugget by applying your foundation with it? I just need it all to go away. Forever.
What are some makeup trends you'd like to see dismissed? I'd love to hear your thoughts.