7 Beauty Mistakes You Might Be Making

We are INUNDATED with stories and rules about beauty. Do this! Don’t do that. No, wait, don’t do that either. This color is cool, and this style of highlights is out. These are silly rules. But there are a lot of beauty mistakes I see people making – most of them have a simple

1. Over-exfoliating and over-medicating. Face brushes are great to help deep-clean your skin and prep it for serums and moisturizers, but too much exfoliation can actually make your skin rebel even more. If you’re combining this with scrubs and, say, acne medications or creams, that’s an insane amount of exfoliation and way too much for your skin to handle. When you get a monster zit, don’t go crazy trying to shrink it with all kinds of potions. Be gentle with your skin.
2. Too much heat styling. Dry, brittle hair is not cute. I know that some of us (myself included) don’t like the hair texture we were born with and heat style it to the desired form. But give your hair a break once in awhile! Deep condition often. Get trims. Don’t walk around with raggedy ends. Protect your hair, because once it falls out, it’s pretty hard to grow back.
3. Failing to moisturize. You might think that if your skin is oily, you shouldn’t use oils or moisturizers. WRONG. Oil fights oil, so you should definitely apply an oil to your skin. EVERYONE should be moisturizing both morning and night. It will make you look younger longer.
4. Poor straightening. If you’re a curly girl – I am! – it’s tough stuff to straighten your hair. I’m sorry to make it even tougher, but if you want super-sleek hair you need to blow-dry it first. Even a rough blowout will help you get your hair as straight as you want. A flatiron-only routine isn’t going to cut it; you’ll damage your hair more running the iron over and over the same strands. Use a heat-protective straightening serum and do your best to blow your hair out before you iron. It will look much less frizzy and uneven later.
5. Not washing your brushes regularly. This is a pain in the ass, but regularly cleaning your makeup brushes means less bacteria and icky makeup residue on them. You don’t want that shit on your face, do you? I try to wash mine in gentle shampoo or soap every Sunday. It takes less than ten minutes, I promise.
6. Poor nail care. This might be nitpicky of me, but every time I go somewhere and interact with someone whose polish is almost totally chipped off or way grown out, I can’t help but see them differently. I used to do interviews for the store I worked at, and when girls came in with their toenail polish all wonky and their nails gnawed down, it really did affect the way I thought of them. If you can’t regularly pay for manicures, learn to do your own! Or keep your nails buffed and bare. You’ll look far more pulled-together.
7. Really, honestly – just don’t do this unless you know how. I know the Kardashian girls look amazing in photos because they contour the shit out of their faces, but it’s pretty complicated and unnecessary for every day. If you really, really want to contour, do it gently with some highlighter dusted on the top of your cheekbones and down the bridge of your nose. Contouring is tough, and I’ve seen a lot of girls with muddy bronzer streaks on their face. Those basically say, “I failed at contour.” It’s hard!