The Makeup Rules We’re Breaking

Sometimes rules are meant to be broken. Not when they are punishable by law so much, but definitely when it comes to your beauty routine. The days of coloring within the lines are gone—now almost everything goes. We’re talking raccoon eyes (how chic!), putting mascara on your bottom lashes (added drama!), using only one color on your eyelid (simply stunning!) and much more. Read on for the beauty rules you should be breaking and why being bad looks so good.

Naeem Khan, Thakoon

When it came to eye shadow, the rule used to be to apply the lightest color on the brow bone and the darkest in the crease. Now we’re sweeping one shade from lash line to the brow.

Get the look: A monochromatic lid can be tough to get used to so start slow. Fill in the entire area with a lighter color for a day look, and ease your way into darker shades for evening.

Tadashi Shoji, Rodarte

Once you hit a certain age, it has long been an unwritten rule that glitter anything had to go. But some things are just too fun to leave behind, so we’re finding more grown-up ways to incorporate a little sparkle into our special-occasion beauty routine.

Get the look: The trick to pulling off glitter appropriately is to keep the rest of your makeup natural and dewy looking. Focus on a small section of the eyes–like the upper or lower lash line–and keep it simple.

Monique Lhuillier, Roberto Cavalli

We used to cringe when we caught sight of ourselves in the mirror in the middle of a workday and saw that our mascara had smeared off our lashes, leaving us with dark circles under our eyes. Believe it or not, raccoon eyes are the new thing in beauty.

Get the look: Line the waterline with a black pencil and smudge a dark brown or purple shadow (black is too harsh) onto the lower lash line with a thin brush.

Narciso Rodriguez, Dennis Vasso-Avon

Tracing your mouth with a lip liner before applying lipstick is so last season. Nowadays we prefer a more natural-looking stain that looks perfectly imperfect.

Get the look: Dab a lipstick onto your lips and then apply gloss. This evens out the color and gives it a juicy shine.

Blugirl by Blumarine, Mary Katrantzou

It used to be that we would never leave the house without coating our lashes in mascara. In a creative twist, now we sometimes skip the top lashes and focus only on the bottom ones.

Get the look: Put a new spin on your daily makeup routine by applying 2 to 3 coats of mascara on the lower lashes. Curl the top lashes and leave them bare for a fun and unusual effect.