Make-up women love but men hate

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by Piper Weiss, Shine Staff, on Mon May 2, 2011 12:53am PDT
From: shine.yahoo.com

Neon lips, blue eyeshadow, shimmering glitter, and golden bronzers: This spring, some of the most dramatic looks we saw on the runways are making their way onto our faces. But not everything we dabble on pleases everyone. We had a hunch that some of our biggest beauty obsessions might be turn-offs for guys...so we went ahead asked. Prepare yourself: brutal honesty ensues.


1. Heavy foundation and powders: "The inch-thick powder is a huge turn-off," says Maxim senior editor Nick Leftley. "No guy wants to kiss a girl on the cheek and then find he¹s wearing foundation himself." A flaking face is one thing, but when your cheek becomes a palette of skin-tone colors, men pay attention...and not the good attention. "I'm always amazed to see women with two-tone faces, two apparently different shades of skin on the face, as if they apply makeup in the dark," says James Oliver Cury, the online editorial director at Maxim. "I'd rather see one greasy face than some sort of melanin imbalance. The nose should match the cheeks."

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2. "Bumps": “I never liked, or knew of any other guy who liked, the Gwen Stefani "bumpit" look," says Henry Belanger, an editor at The Good Men Project. "Be wary of anything that makes your head look unnaturally large."

3. Neon lipstick: Most of the fashion world agreed that electric pouts were a beauty "do" this season. Some men, however, beg to differ. "Orange lips are definitely a departure from what we're used to and not necessarily something a lot of guys I know really respond to just quite yet,” say fashion blogger John Januzzi of Lucky and the fashion website, Textbook.

4. Too-thin brows:"My pet peeve is overly plucked eyebrows," says David Swanson, Maxim's Features Editor."I mean, really? It's basically an advertisement that naturally you're hairier than Robin Williams. If it looks natural, we'd never have to wonder."

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5. Bold eye-shadow: "I don't understand the revival of bright blue eyeshadow," proposes Maxim's Cury. "Is it retro? Is it purposefully over-the-top? To my eyes, it just looks tacky no matter how you wear it." Lucky's Januzzi isn't as bothered by color as he is by application. "Smoky eyes--when done right are great--very sexy and attractive but when done wrong they look a total mess," he says. "Seek professional guidance before trying at home."

6. Rosy cheeks: “As far as make-up goes, I think rouge is for old ladies,” adds Good Men Project's Belanger. "I think guys generally prefer the kind of make-up you don't notice is there, and since there's a lot that guys don't notice I think women have a lot of leeway."

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7. Two-toned lips:Remember Kim Mathers? She was almost as famous for her lip liner issues as she was for being defamed by Eminem. According to our dude survey, the pucker problem was more serious. "When I see thin lines drawn around a pair of lips, I think: Is this part of some gang initiation rite?" says Cury.

8. Glitter:"Women need to be judicious with it," says Cury. "It¹s like any good seasoning. You shouldn't shake it all over. It can overwhelm the main course." That being said, he's not opposed to a heavy sprinkle of cleavage glitter. Figures.