Heck girls, we’re not all make-up gurus so mistakes are bound to happen whether you’re a make-up virgin or not. Trust me, I’ve had my fair share of blunders. Like the time I went to a New Year’s Eve beach party wearing a foundation that was too light for my skin. Urgghh! Let’s just say the pictures weren’t exactly flattering. However, making mistakes such as these doesn’t mean you should give up wearing a certain look completely. Here are fool-proof ways to help avoid the five most common make-up mistakes:

Lipstick on your teeth

A pretty common one especially if you’re wearing a dark shade. After applying the lippie shade, place your index finger in your mouth, close your lips around it and drag it out. Can’t be bothered to do this one step? Wear a light shade lippie or gloss instead.

Wrong shade foundation

Be sure to check your foundation shade under natural light to avoid looking like you’ve put on a mask. Your foundation shade should mirror your natural skin shade to a tee. If your foundation is too light, add a bit of bronzer to the shade until it mimics your natural skin tone. Too dark? A little moisturiser can help lighten things up. Of course you can choose to avoid this completely by going au naturel, just go with a tinted moisturiser.

Not blending thoroughly

Ladies, the key to flawless looking make-up application is blending, blending, blending. Telltale lines showing where your eyeshadow, foundation or blush starts/ends isn’t tolerable! You don’t want to look like you’ve just stepped out of a bad ‘80s music video. Make-up brushes provide the best blending results so it’s a good move to invest in good ones.

Harsh drawn-in eyebrows

Thin eyebrows not only give you the constantly surprised look, it makes you look older than your age. Thickly drawn-in brows on the other hand, look fierce and scary. The trick to looking nicely groomed is to pencil-in the brow colour in soft strokes so that they mimic the look of natural brow hairs. If you are blessed with thick brows, keep them tame and tidy with a brow gel.

Flaky skin under foundation

Smooth skin is a true asset, plus it helps make-up adhere better on skin. Flakiness can look even more “enhanced” after make-up application so to avoid that, be sure to cleanse, buff away dead skin cells as well as moisturise, before you start applying make-up.