Carolina Braina

I’ve realized that for an obsessive makeup lover, I don’t follow the beauty trends very much at all.

Contouring? I’ve always been a fan of a lightweight base, and the less products I use on my skin, the better.

For the sake of experimenting, I’ve tried to apply concealer in a reversed triangle shape under my eyes, and even that was too much for me. I couldn’t stand the feeling of concealer beneath the area where my dark circles are. Heavy contouring is definitely not for me. A subtle contour powder under my cheekbones is as far as I’ll go with the trend.

Strobing? Well, I’ve been naturally strobing since the early 2000s thanks to my pesky sebum overproduction, so no need to douse myself in highlighter.

Color correcting? Because of my hereditary dark circles (Sebum overproduction… Hereditary dark circles… Sexy, eh?), I’ve been using Bobbi Brown’s or a similar peach-toned corrector for years, and they work. Should I switch to bright orange just because it’s on trend? I don’t think so.

See what I mean? This mama’s not much of a trend follower…but I actually do like one of the latest makeup crazes, called “sun-stripping.” Who would’ve thought?

Have you heard of sun-stripping before? It’s easy-peasy! It consists of placing bronzer on the part of the face that usually tans first if you spend much time in the sun. It’s that little strip that runs from one apple of the cheek to the other.

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When it comes to rules, I think that most people fall into one of three categories…

1. Those who follow the rules religiously, without questioning.
2. Those who never follow the rules, just because they’re rules — you know, the rebels.
3. And those who follow the rules only when they think it’s the right thing to do.

Personally, I belong to the third group, but sometimes, especially makeup-wise, after hearing countless times that I should or shouldn’t do something a certain way, I feel like I temporarily lose my ability to judge for myself what works and what doesn’t work for me. And I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this!

So today I’d like to remind you (and myself) that some makeup rules don’t always apply to everyone. You can follow, or ignore, any rules that you want.

Let’s see what some of these rules are, shall we?

1. Curling your lashes

After hearing dozens of makeup artists and beauty gurus say that I had to curl my lashes, a few years ago I got a Shu Uemura curler and started using it without objection until, one day, I decided to skip the curling step and go straight to mascara.

I realized that my lashes actually looked better! I have short lashes, and if I curl them, they look even shorter! I don’t know if it’s because my particular eye shape doesn’t allow me to get as close to the lid as I’d like, but all I can tell you is that it just doesn’t work for me.

2. Using very light under-eye concealer

These days, it’s pretty common to use a very light concealer to highlight the under-eye area, and I think it does look good on some people, but if you’re as dark under your eyes as I am, chances are your dark circles will just end up looking grey and stand out more.

Not cool!

3. Contouring with cool-toned products

We hear all the time that we should contour using cool-toned powders or creams because it’s the best way to mimic natural shadows on the face. As a general rule, I completely agree with that, but sometimes cool-toned products can look ashy and muddy on very warm skin tones. In those cases, it might be better to use a product with neutral or even slightly warm undertones. Only experimenting will tell you what’s best for you.

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