Lip Service

1. Pick the right shade. What most of us do: Swipe a possible new color on the back of our hand to see if it flatters. A better idea, says San Antonio-based celeb makeup artist Starley Murray: Test the lipstick on your fingertip — that way, you can hold the color next to your face to see how it looks. (No mirror? Your finger is still a better gauge, since it's similar in color and texture to your lips.)

2. Get buff. For the prettiest finish, run your toothbrush over your lips to exfoliate any dry skin (a damp paper towel also can do the job). Post-scrub, lipstick will glide on without caking.

3. Fill in fine lines. Here's a way to keep lipstick from feathering (a great trick if you have tiny wrinkles above your upper lip): Coat your mouth and go slightly outside your lip line with a clear balm ‑- like plain ChapStick — before applying color. "Like invisible spackle," says celebrity makeup artist Shalini Vadhera, "it keeps your lipstick from traveling."

4. Extend the life of your lipstick. So you'd like your color to last through lunch, but you don't like the feel of long-wearing formulas? Here's a tip from makeup guru Laura Mercier: Apply a coat of regular lipstick, then press it with a single-ply tissue and powder lightly (over the tissue) with a puff or brush. This sets the color and prevents running and feathering.

5. Plump up. For a finishing touch, dab the middle of your lower lip with a bit of silver or gold lip gloss. Any makeup artist worth his shimmer powder will tell you this is the fastest route to creating the illusion of fullness. But remember: If you blot or purse your lips, you'll blur the Jolie effect.

Fresh Eye-Deas

1. Fight droop. Lightly shade the area just above the arch of your brow with a nude or white liner and blend, advises Jo Davis, artistic director for Trucco Cosmetics. "This subtly lights up your face and creates the illusion of higher brows and lids, which is great for droopy or tired eyes," she says.

2. Smudge-proof your liner. Apply it with a pencil or a tiny brush, then trace over the line with a matching powder shadow. To make it last even longer: Wet your shadow brush with Visine first.

3. Make your eyes look larger. Place a lash curler at the roots of your lashes, then slowly "walk" it out to the tips, pressing as you go, says Sydney, Australia, makeup expert Napoleon Perdis.

4. Outsmart your mascara. Love the waterproof kind but hate wrestling to remove it? Celebrity makeup artist Nick Barose applies a coat of regular mascara first, then tops it with waterproof. "This way, the waterproof formula locks onto the other mascara instead of your lashes, so it comes off more easily — when you want it to," he says.

5. Widen your eyes. To look more refreshed, use white or nude eyeliner — but this time, below your eyes, not above. Pull down gently on your undereye and trace the line between the lower lashes and the inside rim. Stop before you reach your tear ducts.

Complexion Perfecters

1. Conceal flaws...strategically. A full face of foundation — or too much concealer — can look and feel unnatural, says Mercier. She advises using cover-up only where you need it (and, where you don't, letting your own skin shine through). Blend.

2. Try a soft touch. Your ring finger is the perfect tool for applying makeup, says Davis, because it's the weakest digit. The more powerful index finger may apply color too boldly or tug too much (hello, wrinkles!) on your delicate skin.

3. Look luminous. Every face has natural shadows, and you'll look better if you brighten them, says Craig Jessup, makeup artist for Kevyn Aucoin Beauty. To find the shady spots, he says, just smile at yourself in the mirror. "You'll see darker areas — like your Cupid's bow, under your bottom lip and at the inner corners of your eyes." To lighten those areas, dab on shimmery white eye shadow. Blend if necessary.

4. Give yourself a mini face-lift. Apply blush starting at your upper cheekbone (at the hairline near your ear) then brush across your cheek horizontally — not diagonally or downward — until you get to the center of your face. "You'll be thrilled to see the difference when your blush is darkest at the hairline and faded at the apples, instead of vice versa," says Murray, "because it's more youthful."

Droopy lids: To widen tired eyes, slightly darken and lengthen your brows.

Gray roots: Emphasize your hairline (which shows less gray) by wearing a loose ponytail or, for shorter hair, a headband.

Dull skin: For a quick flush, hold a plastic bag filled with ice against your face. Then maintain that glow with a cream containing retinol, a skin brightener.

Thin lips: Dab concealer a shade lighter than your skin along your lipline's outer edge and blend, it'll plump up your mouth.

The eyes may be the window to the soul, but your hair says a lot about you, too. Here's five easy ways to improve your hair in a hurry.

The ends of your hair don't get the benefit of our natural scalp oils so they are always going to be drier and more susceptible to breakage. So, prevention is your best course of action. Another tip: don't use blunt scissors on split ends. It further exposes your already damaged cuticle.

In an ideal world, you would have all the various makeup products you want, have the time and money to update them each season and have the skilled hand necessary to apply them flawlessly. But even if that’s not the case, there are simple fixes you can try to help correct the most common beauty wrongs. Here, the makeup mistakes many women routinely make, plus how to do it right.

1. Wearing too much (or too little) makeup.

Your makeup should be time and place appropriate—so what looks perfect for a big evening event shouldn’t be the same as what you put on to go to the grocery store or the gym. When you consistently overdo your makeup, you run the risk of looking like you’re trying too hard. Toning it down a notch—for a more natural look—will be a better option for every day. On the flip side, don't be so afraid of looking fake or overdone that you skip makeup altogether. The prescription for the perfect minimal makeup: A good moisturizer, under-eye concealer, blush, curl your lashes and add a sweep of lipstick or gloss.

2. Never updating your colors, products or techniques.

Still using the same eye shadow, blush and lipstick shades you fell in love with when you first started wearing makeup? Well, unless that was just last year, chances are you’re long overdue for a trip to the makeup counter. Just like you pay attention to which jeans are currently in style—and feel outdated if you’re still wearing bootcut when the look is straight-leg—you need to pay attention to makeup trends. That’s not to say that you have to toss and replace all your makeup every season, or that you have to wear bright red lipstick just because that’s what the models were sporting on the fashion runways. You can find ways to make the trends your own (perhaps swapping your circa 1990s brown-toned lipstick for a wine-colored stain if reds are in fashion) so that your face looks as stylish as your wardrobe.

3. Using the wrong color foundation.

You could have beautiful skin and perfect application technique, but if you’re wearing a foundation that doesn’t exactly match your natural skin tone, the results are going to look awful. By picking a shade that’s an exact match, you’ll make it very easy to get a flawless looking face. To find the right one, try on three—pick the one you think is the closest color match, and also try one shade darker and one shade lighter. Go to the makeup counter with no makeup on, and swipe the three shades in stripes that run from your cheek down to your neck. As you blend each one into your skin, look for the one that blends so effortlessly it literally just disappears. That will be your perfect match.

4. Over-tweezing (or ignoring) your eyebrows.

The brows are such a central and important feature on your face, and when they’re well groomed they can enhance your eyes and your entire look. If yours are out of control, it’s worth the time and money to let a professional take tweezers to them. Get a referral from a friend in order to find someone you know will do a good job. The worst thing you—or a pro—can do is to take off too many brow hairs. As we get older, the brows naturally become more sparse, so if you tweeze your brows too thin, they might never fully grow back. If you follow your brows’ natural arch—but clean up the areas over, under and between brows—you’ll find the best shape. Visit a pro for a tune-up every few months and you should be able to keep them groomed on your own in between.

5. Wearing a rainbow of eye shadow shades at once.

Just because your compact came with four or more colors packaged together doesn’t mean you have to paint them all onto your eyelids at once. In fact, use no more than three shades at a time—a medium shade on the lids, a lighter one to highlight the brow bone, and the darkest as a liner for the top and bottom lids. For a simpler, everyday application, you could skip the liner and just use a single light shade all over the lids up to the brows.

6. Not caring for your skin.

All the makeup in the world can’t compensate for skin that isn’t well primed. In order for makeup to go on smoothly and look its best, you need to think about your skin before you start to reach for your foundation or concealer. If the skin isn’t properly hydrated, your concealer will look cakey, your blush splotchy and your foundation won’t spread evenly. For dry skin, slather on a rich moisturizer or a face oil before applying makeup. Oily skin will look best if you start by washing your face with a cleanser that absorbs oil and then use a lightweight, oil-free lotion that will hydrate the skin enough for makeup to go on smoothly, but won’t make the skin greasy or shiny.

7. Choosing the wrong makeup for your skin type.

Just as using the right skincare will help your makeup look better, it’s important to be sure you’re using the right makeup formulas to enhance your skin. If your skin is on the dry side, avoid powder foundations and blushes. Creamy formulas will blend better, and if you have any fine lines or wrinkles, a cream will help smooth them over (as opposed to powders which can settle into lines and make them appear more obvious). Normal to oily skin should stick to oil-free liquids and powders. And it pays to reassess your choices every so often to make sure you’re using the right formula for the skin you have now: You may have had oily skin since your teenage years, but if you are now over 40, chances are your skin is starting to shift toward the dryer side.

8. Going to bed with your makeup on.

If you’re going to take the time to put it on, you’ve got to also take the time to take it off. Leaving your makeup on overnight can clog your pores (not to mention getting your pillowcase dirty), plus, if you’re not removing your makeup, you’re not caring for your skin by cleansing and applying an appropriate night cream. To make a clean sweep: Use a makeup remover pad first to get rid of eye makeup and anything else that might not come off with your face cleanser (like a long-wearing lipstick).Follow with your usual facial cleanser to finish the job.

9. Paying too much attention to one feature on your face.

There’s a fine line between enhancing your favorite feature and overdoing it. You don’t want to overcompensate so much that instead of seeing your bright, pretty eyes, all people notice is your elaborate eye makeup. The trick is to play up your eyes more subtly and then add a little makeup to the rest of your face. For instance, just because you don’t want to call attention to your mouth doesn’t mean you have to leave it naked. Use a pretty, natural pink lipstick or gloss so that it still looks well-groomed, if not eye-catching.

10. Trying to draw on larger-than-life lips.

You’ve probably read advice from a makeup artist who suggested lining your lips outside your natural line in order to make your pout look fuller. It’s not that it’s bad advice, but most women don’t have the technique to pull it off without looking silly. A more foolproof approach: Apply your lipstick or gloss first and then take a pencil (in the exact same shade as your lipstick or gloss) and draw a light, thin line just at the outermost edge of your mouth. The goal isn’t to make your lips look like you got silicone injections, but just to create the best version of what your lips can be.

11. Attempting to create contours that don’t exist.

Using darker shades of blush to try to brush on an optical illusion of more prominent cheekbones or a less prominent nose is a trick best left to professionals making someone up for photography or film. This is one technique that rarely works in the real world. No matter how skilled you are with the makeup brush, it’s nearly impossible to use dark colors that aren’t glaringly obvious when viewed in person, especially in broad daylight. Focus instead on pretty, soft makeup that plays up your best features.

12. Confusing concealer with cover up.

They may sound like they are intended to serve the same purpose, but according to Liebeskind, there is a big difference between the two. Concealer is what you use under your eyes to disguise dark circles and brighten the skin. It should be creamy in consistency and should be one or two shades lighter than your perfectly-matched foundation. Cover up—which should be used to camouflage blemishes or other flaws—needs to be exactly the same shade as your foundation. In fact, unless you want a treated cover up (designed to help dry up pimples), your foundation can double as your cover up. Use a small foundation brush to dab the product onto the blemish and set with translucent pressed powder.

You can see straight through a bad pickup line. (Stars in your eyes? Puh-leez.) But when it comes to beauty, there are still some falsehoods floating around that you might not be on to yet. Get ready to wise up.

Think brushing your hair 100 strokes each night is healthy? Will frequent trims really make your hair grow faster? Read on to discover the simple truths behind great hair.