10 BiggestBeautyMistakes.(cosmetics usage)

10 Biggest Beauty Mistakes

OBVIOUS LIP LINER In nature, human lips are pretty much one color, and anything else is a baboon's butt. The first rule is to match liner to the lips or the lipstick. Above all, liner is meant to be functional, not decorative. "If your lipstick slips, feathers, or bleeds, you need lip liner," says makeup artist Chrisanne Davis. "But you have to blend it in toward the center of your lips" or else pencil over the whole mouth and add a layer of gloss on top.

BAD EYEBROWS Overplucked brows make even 23-year-old Christina Aguilera look older. "Plus, they look cheap," says makeup artist Pati Dubroff. Dermatologists recommend giving meager brows a boost with Extra Strength Rogaine for Men, applied with a Q-tip twice a day for four months. The opposite, a unibrow, is equally unflattering. Tweeze between the brows, at the temples, and the ragged hairs under the brows...and leave the rest.

REVERSE RACCOON EYES Using a concealer that's too light "is like installing a white leather bag under your eyes," Davis says. In fact, dark circles on white women tend to have a mauve, red, or brownish cast, "and only a gray or olive-beige concealer will cancel that out," Davis says. For black women, olive-green concealer typically helps.

GARISH BLUSH This could be called the red badge of cluelessness. "It's that whole '80s contouring thing," says makeup artist Jenna Anton. "People suck in their cheeks, make that fish face, and then put blush under their cheekbones. That's the wrong place. Blush should be on the apples of the cheeks." Beyond the placement faux pas, there are also color blunders. "Blush should barely be seen," Dubroff says. "It should be rosy or peachy on the face, not fuchsia circles." Chronic blush abusers should stick to easily blended cream formulas.

OVERDRAWN LIPSTICK Like we're really not going to notice that your mouth is an illustration. Buck up and emphasize your eyes instead. TALON FINGERNAILS Unless you need to scratch someone's eyes out, talons are a sign of uselessness. "They make you look like you've got too much time on your hands," says manicurist Ji Baek, owner of New York City's Rescue Beauty Lounges. "They're also disgusting because of the dirt and bacteria that gets trapped under there." Instead, she says, go for "clean, dark, short, and gorgeous."

CAKEY PIMPLE COVER-UP As bad as it is, a zit is at least natural -- unlike that molting mound of camouflage. "The more layers you put on a zit, the more cakey it gets," Davis says. "Don't even try to hide the texture, because it's impossible. Concentrate on taking away the red color." She suggests limiting the pileup to foundation with stick concealer, like Nars's, on top.