Some advice.

Never ever ever put a powder palette into a bag that gets jostled around a lot. Those things break like there's no tomorrow. I can have a powder palette in the make-up bag in my purse and it still breaks. I'm talking about highly pigmented stuff, stuff that easily comes off on make-up brushes. It is the most frustrating thing in the world when you pull out a palette and there is powder all over the place. It's happened to me twice now.

Also, don't leave lipstick/chapstick/creme blush/creme eyeshadow in the car. Just don't do it. Take the lipstick for example, you leave it in the car than pull it out to use it and it's all over the cover of the tube. Always try to keep your make-up at or below room temperature, especially the stuff that melts.

Now here are some tips that I have learned from copious amounts of reading.

1. When a mascara dries out you can seal it and put it in a warm cup of water to resuscitate it.

2. If your eyeliner is really hard and pulls at your eyes (Wet N' Wild anyone?) hold it near a lamp to melt it (a little) and it will be much smoother.

3. A really dark lipstick can be made a tad less shocking by putting a really light pigmented lipgloss over it.

4. If all your make-up in a palette cracks because you didn't listen to my advice, you can put it into a box and use it as a loose shade. There are also supposed to be ways to re-shape the powder to the pan but I'm far too lazy to try that.

5. If you use a regular (non-baked) eyeshadow wet as a liner and such you should take from the outer edges of the color because the water can warp the shadow itself.

6. To avoid looking like Snooki while applying bronzer, apply it only to the commas of your face. The commas of your face is that area that starts at your forehead and follows your hairline down to your cheeks. If you follow this technique, you will still get color but you won't look like an oompa loompa.

7. You need to have two different shades of foundation, one for summer and one for fall, spring, and winter. (Unless you live in a place where you can be tan all year long, I do not.) Test the foundation on the edge of your jawbone to see if it blends in with your cheek and neck. If you don't trust yourself to get it right, have someone help you but make sure they know what they are doing. I've been incorrectly matched about 3 times now. Also sometimes your skin looks different under the unnatural lighting in stores. Make sure the person who helps you knows whats what before trusting them or else you will look orange. As stated in the previous, orange is bad.

8. I don't care how lazy you are, cleanse, tone, and moisturize your skin twice daily!!! This is the most important thing I can tell you! Every single step is important. It's up to you to discover what products are best for you but if you don't do all three of those things, you will never have baby soft skin like yours truly. I used to be the laziest when it came to facial maintenance but I had a bad bit of acne that changed my entire mindset and now my skin is the best it has been since infancy. Beautiful skin = beauty. You can cover up your greasy, pimply, dried out skin with all the makeup in the world but you won't look half as beautiful than if you buck up and start taking care of it the way you are supposed to! I'll do a post on what I do/use for my skin at a future time.

Thus ends my impromptu lecture. I hope you enjoyed! Feel free to comment! :)