You’d think celebs would have it easy. They have professional makeup artists and makeup products either designed for them or picked out of millions to match them perfectly, yet sometimes they still end up with makeup blunders.
Frequently, the issue is not even the quality of the makeup itself; rather, it is the flash photography that undermines the overall appearance. Yes, you could tailor the makeup for flash photography, and when it’s a photoshoot, makeup artists often do. But when someone is going to an event, not just a photoshoot, you can’t account for everything, you sort of have to pick and choose and realize that certain things will look good irl, but might look weird in photos. And then on top of that, the light at the venue could be all weird too. So let’s take a look at some celeb makeup disasters that stick out in our memory.
Jessie J’s Lilac Lipstick Moment (BRIT Awards 2014)
Jessie J famously had a lipstick mishap at the BRIT Awards in 2014. She was probably going for a risky fashion look with her cool-toned lilac lipstick, but the internet reacted harshly. Everyone basically said that lipstick shade made her look unwell. It’s hard to tell if the lipstick really looked that bad irl or if it’s the harsh light that made it wash out Jessie’s complexion, but everyone, including Jessie, agreed it didn’t work in the end.
Chrissy Teigen’s 2008 “This Tan!!!” Throwback
Some celebs feel embarrassed about their mistakes, and then there are some who love to look back and laugh at themselves. Chrissy Teigen is one of those. In 2018 she decided to have a little walk down memory lane and posted a throwback of herself from 2008 with the caption “This tan!!!” Yeah, that tan looked intense, but it was the classic case of looking fine in real life, and the camera makes it look 200 times more intense. And let’s just all agree that anyone who used self-tan in the early 2000s was a risk taker and deserves a support group.
Selena Gomez vs. The Met Gala Tan (2018)
Selena Gomez also went for the self-tan option to look more sun-kissed at the 2018 Met Gala. But the self-tanner did her dirty. It looked fine at first, but it just kept getting darker through the night. Yeah, that happens with some self-tanners, they just keep oxidising for hours, which is why you should never do it the night of the event. Do it a whole 24 hours before, or better even a couple of days before the event, so that it could develop fully and you saw the end result. In the end she looked almost unrecognisable. Selene also approached the situation with humorous and posted a video of herself running through the parking lot with the caption “Me when I saw my pictures from the MET.”
Kendall Jenner’s “I Don’t Even Look Like Myself” Marc Jacobs Face (NYFW 2014)
Fashion Week makeup is always more about the vibes than about making the model look her best. It’s all about the vision for the collection and less about each individual model. So when Kendall got a Marc Jacobs gig on the runway she didn’t think twice. She recently turned 18, and this was a huge opportunity for her. She was very game for whatever the job required and commented that the fashion scene is mad but she loves the energy. She’s never had her eyebrows bleached before (and for good reason) and she didn’t look like herself with the blunt wig and super pale makeup, but you’ve got to respect the artist’s vision.
Nicki Minaj’s Not-So-Soft Contour (AMA Nominees Press Conference, 2011)
Contouring can be very powerful when done right, but that requires a lot of blending. Sure, you can do dramatic unblended contouring if you want, we often see it on Drag Race, but that’s done to achieve a specific dramatic effect. We doubt that’s what Nicki Minaj was going for when she showed up to the AMA Nominees Press Conference in 2011 with hard lines on her nose and her whole lower face looking much darker and giving 5 o’clock shadow. It was an awkward look, and the harsh conference lights didn’t help one bit. Fortunately, Nicki learned from her mistake and never repeated it.
Rihanna’s Too-Light Under-Eye Era (NRJ Music Awards, 2010)
Perhaps this was the moment Rihanna thought, “I should make my own makeup brand”, we can’t know for sure. But it seems like back in 2010 Riri was struggling to find matching concealer for her complexion, and showed up to the NRJ Music Awards with her underlies looking way too bright. We know that concealer and powder that’s way too bright in combination with flash photography always leads to trouble now, but it was a common mistake in 2010. Thank god these blunders are over for Rihanna, she’s always looking great these days, and her makeup brand Fenty Beauty is one of the most influential and has an incredibly extensive shade range to avoid situations like this one.
Demi Lovato’s Brows Taking Over (X Factor Era)
Demi can pull off pretty much any look when it comes to makeup, but it was her brows that became a bit of a problem on X-factor. She said that she tried using a product made for growing eyelashes on her brows. The goal was to fill in her brows and perhaps regrow some sparse areas, but the brows just took over her face. Considering the show is shot in HD it was very obvious and she even later joked that the product worked like miracle but her eyebrows basically took over her role on the show and had their own opinions, she doesn’t know what she was thinking.
Courteney Cox and the “Too Much, Too Gradual” Trap
Courtney fell into the fillers trap gradually slowly and then all at once. It all culminated in 2014 when she was looking a bit much. She’s been refreshingly open about her journey and has said that it started out with little tweaks here and there, but that was really the problem because you would do a little at a time, slowly, and you wouldn’t notice changes until it was too late. But she has since realized that fillers are not her friend and has dissolved them all and is as natural as can be.
Victoria Beckham’s “Please Don’t Shave Your Brows” Warning
Victoria Beckham got to address her makeup and style mistakes in a letter to her 18-year-old self in Vogue. Her 2007 bleached blonde, self-tanned look with frosted lips was far from her best. She commented on many choices her Posh Spice self made, especially the too much hairspray, too much makeup and never to let a makeup artist shave her eyebrows because the effect of that is very long-lasting. But she said that while she wishes she wore less makeup and let her skin breathe more, she also looks back at her younger self with a smile, because she’s happy she got to express herself however she wanted, even if some choices were questionable, they made her life more interesting.
