5 Tips I Don't Use

Every once in a while, I'll come across an interview, a video or an article that'll offer one sweeping declaration.  Rim your waterline with a white liner to open up your eyes!  Use a dark pencil to line your lips, they'll look fuller!  Don't put mascara on the bottom lashes.  Do put mascara on the bottom lashes, but only on every third day. What??  I say, do what's right for you -- try, judge, alter and decide.

Highlight your cupid's bow.  My lips are already huge; in fact, my upper lip is a lot bigger than my lower lip, and doing this just emphasizes that to no end.  I could balance it out by adding shadow in the crease under my lower lip but...there's an awkwardly high chance that'll end up looking like a Van Dyke beard.

Clean up nail polish with a remover-soaked Q-Tip/angle brush/miniscule paint brush.  I do this when I have to, but otherwise I'd rather just wait until my shower.  The steam from the shower completely lifts any product, whereas the remover sometimes just smudges the pigment around and stains my cuticles.  Also, in the time it takes you to detail all 20 of your fingers and toes, you may as well do an in-shower hair mask.  Two birds, one shower.

Highlight your brow bone. The only people who should do this are people whose brows actually need a lift or are closer to their eyes than they'd like.  My brows are already pretty arched and really, really far from my actual eyes.  Whenever I put a highlighter on, they just look like they're trying to run from my lids. Not to mention that after I tweeze the area beneath my brows, they're a little paler from the lack of sun exposure anyway.  Instead, I highlight on top of my brow bone for super-clean brows.

Smile to find the apples of your cheeks.  I don't put blush on the apples of my cheeks.  My face lies somewhere between round and square, so when I smile and put blush on, my cheeks look jowly. Instead, I feel for my cheekbone and put the blush directly on top of the cheek to give my face a little lift.  Also, for those of you who want that Kim Kardashian uber-cheek look, you can bet she doesn't smile before she puts on blush.

Curl hair away from your face.  Every hair curling tutorial on Youtube be like, "You have to, always, every single time, curl away from your face," as though if you turn the barrel of your curling iron the wrong way, you'll be tackled by a finger-waved vigilante.  I do curl away from my face, but I strategically place inward curls around my jawline because it's more flattering for my face shape.  Also, hair that's curled all the same way has a tendency to combine into one giant curl on either side of your head.

What don't you do?