Makeup Monday: 10 Beauty Mistakes That I Used To Make

Once again, I went awol from my blog and I apologize to my loyal followers. I have had a ton of requests recently and I intend to get to each on in the coming weeks. Honestly, I just really have had a lot going on in my life and I needed to focus on my family for a bit. But again, I am back,

I will admit that while I have a ton planned, I just did not have the time to take and upload photos for my post today. So I thought I would do something different this week and stray from providing knowledge to admit some mistakes.

Hair
1. Washing too often and using too much shampoo. I used to wash everyday and use a handful of shampoo, which I later learned was actually damaging to your hair. Shampooing too often strips your hair of the oils and nutrients that it needs to maintain a healthy balance. To read more about this, check out my post on keeping  healthy hair from earlier this year.

2. Not using a heat protectant spray before using hot tools. To reduce breakage, it is so important to protect your hair before you style with a hot tool. When I was a teenager, I NEVER used heat protectant spray and I had some pretty dry and damaged hair. More about heat protecting sprays can also be found in my Healthy Hair post linked above.

3. Over-plucking my eyebrows. When I was a kid I had caterpillar eyebrows. From 11 years old on, I began to torture my eyebrows by trimming, plucking, and shaving them, sometimes overdoing it. It wasn't until I hit my late 20s that I realized that my eyebrow hair just doesn't really grow anymore, which saddens me! Now I am stuck with filling in my brows, which is something that I never thought I would have to do.

Nails
4. Abusing my cuticles. I don't know if it's weird but I used to find it satisfying to rip off a stubborn hangnail or dry skin from the side of my nails. And, I also took the time to remove all of my cuticles. It wasn't until about a year ago that I learned your cuticles serve a purpose which is to protect your fingers from infection. You should never cut your cuticles. If you feel the need, you can push your cuticles back using the appropriate nail tool. Using nail polish can also cause dry skin around your nails. If you polish often or have hard skin around your nails. get some cuticle cream ASAP! I would recommend Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream, which can be found at most drug stores.

5. Skipping nail primer. If you want hard and healthy nails, use nail primer! I will warn you, nail primers are not made equally. Invest in a quality base if you really want hard nails.My miracle solution to weak and peeling nails:

Buy it here

Makeup
6, Using a dull wooden eyeliner pencil.The skin around your eyes is extremely sensitive. Using a dull pencil pulls the skin around your eyes, which can cause irritation or even wrinkles! Sharpen your pencil often for a gentle application.

7. Not using makeup brushes to apply my makeup. For years I used my hands and fingers to apply half of my makeup (foundation, concealer, and eye shadow) and made it look pretty good, if I don't say so myself. While I always had clean hands, I was still getting grease film on the top of my eye shadows. I also later learned that using your hands can cause wrinkling around your face. So I reluctantly started using brushes for everything and I would never go back. I became good at blending and my skin started to look more clear. Even with clean hands, the oils below were clogging my pores. I won't go back.

8. Not using eye shadow primer. Primer keeps your shadow on, nuff said. :) Elf Eye Shadow Primer works great, can be found at Target, and is just $1.00.

Skin
9. Not removing makeup before bed. Now there are days when you just don't feel like it but if nothing else, wash your face before bed! You cannot undue wrinkles, so keep a fresh face!

10. Washing my face too often. I used to wash in the morning and at night and then I learned that it is not necessary. If you wash at night, your skin will not get dirty while you sleep. If you are not using an acne wash regimen, splashing water on your face without soap is just enough in the morning. You will avoid getting dry skin in the long run, which can cause wrinkling in the face.

**Thanks for reading. What are your biggest beauty mistakes? Let me know in the comments below. Have a great Monday!**