An average person tries Instagram looks and doesn’t totally fail

Ah, makeup. It’s what wakes me up an hour earlier in the morning, what keeps me awake during the day since I can’t rub my eyes and ruin my mascara. I could talk for hours on end about it…and I have. There is nothing more wonderful than the feeling of bonding with someone because you just HAD TO ask what blush they’re wearing.

However, as much as I claim to be a makeup enthusiast, I have noticed that my looks have become very one-note. Rose gold eyeshadow, mascara, and my handy dandy Kat Von D Lolita II (hi Kat, please love me) and I call it a day.

So in order to break out of this sameness, I decided to go through Instagram and find three unconventional looks that were totally possible for vastly inexperienced me to recreate. Here are the results.

Full face of highlighter

Products used: NYX Born to Glow Liquid Illuminator in Gleam, Physicians Formula Powder Palette Mineral Glow Pearls in Beige, Wet N Wild Geometric Highlighting Powders in Where The Dreamers Go and Desert Explorations (original look by @mariya.ae)

Now, this look started gaining some momentum on the interwebs after sites like Buzzfeed and Cosmopolitan wrote about it. I should leave this one for last since it is the more famous look of the three, but I figured: let’s just get this one out of the way because it was a steaming pile of “nope.”

First off, what in the world is wrong with my winged liner? It looks more like a fin. Secondly, the use of a liquid highlight in place of foundation did my oily, visible pore-filled skin zero favors. Top it off with some sparkly powder and I looked like a greasy, scaly mess. Smearing the illuminator on my lips was also not fun, especially when it started ever-so-slightly burning.

Suffice it to say, I took this look off almost immediately. My apologies. I did not pull through for this part of the article. But fear not! No longer must you look to me as your makeup guru, filled with wisdom and creativ– okay, that’s all a lie. But apparently this look is a challenge on YouTube now, and no one else who has tried it looks like a hot mess. Go check out NikkieTutorials and Jeffree Star‘s basically flawless attempts at it.

Rainbow brows

Products used: Wet N Wild Eyeshadow Palettes in Poster Child and Art in the Streets (original look by @joeyhealybrows)

These brows…I’m still conflicted. Once I finished working on them, I found them to be oddly normal on my face. Like maybe this is what I was meant to look like all along. For a moment, I forgot they were even there.

So I went to my brother’s room, normal as ever, to ask him for outfit advice. The look on his face is what I can only describe as strong regret for having to be in the same family tree as me.

I started talking, telling him about my outfit choices for the day. He sat there, looking at me with the same look of regret. After I asked him a question, he was quiet for a moment. Then, in a whisper: “Genny…no. Noooooo.”

My two outfit choices were either a black dress or a polka dot dress. He said, through a bunch of concerned pauses, that the polka dots would work to distract from the brows. Ouch.

Lip art

Products used: Sephora Cream Lip Stain in Always Red, NYX Liquid Suede Cream Lipsticks in Foiled Again, Pink Lust, Amethyst, and Little Denim Dress (inspired by @girlgreybeauty)

To put it simply, lipstick is my weakness. I don’t mean just within the world of makeup. Lipstick means more to me than most things, living or inanimate. Therefore, this last look was my favorite.

Plus, it was very well-received, so that helped. I met up with my best friend Kristina whilst wearing it and I got a resounding “YES! HELL YES!” with aggressive pointing from both her and her boyfriend. Instead of wiping it off like I fully intended to once we went into the real world, I kept it on.

Lo and behold, people who were not actually obligated to be nice to me liked it too! Here I was, trying to hide my face behind my hair as I walked to my car because I didn’t want my neighborhood to think I was any weirder.

The thing is, whatever other people said about what was on my face didn’t matter. None of these looks were meant to be taken seriously. Makeup itself does not need to be taken seriously. It’s simply an outlet for self-expression. More than that, it’s just so damn fun.

Pick something that breaks from the rigidness of everyday life and puts you ever so slightly out of your comfort zone. Life really is too short to be serious, and there’s no point in obsessing over what people say about you. Do that something for yourself, not for whatever comments others may or may not make.

So go out there and find it. Find your rainbow brows.

@TheTab