10 Makeup Hacks Tested

Hi Friends!

If you're an internet lover and makeup addict, you have likely seen some "makeup hack" posts floating around. Some of these look really stupid and obviously won't work, but others are intriguing and may make your routine easier, maybe you've even tried some.

I feel like the majority of us see this hack posts and like to watch or read because they are made in such a mesmerizing way but most of us don't actually do any of the hacks! That's why I'm here to test some of the most common internet makeup hacks, so you don't have to. This way, we can see what works and what's a waste of time. I found this a lot of these hacks on Pinterest, so if you want to see the full things you can follow me on Pinterest: She Is Already Legendary, I have a board set up for these hacks.

1.) Spoon cut crease.

I've seen this hack EVERYWHERE and I think it's a good idea but I've never actually tried it. My main fear is not getting the right shape that I would want.

Anyway, let's get started:

First off, I found placing the spoon on my eye kind of difficult because eyes are not spoon-shaped. But I really tried my best to make all these hacks work.

So, as you can tell my crease is cut but the shape is weird. I'm sure that I could make it work, but a hack is supposed to make your life easier. You shouldn't have to make a hack work.

Let's see if we can get the crease to match on the other eye.

Okay! Well we got matching creases, and really the spoon works pretty well on the inner part of the cut crease. If you struggle with getting that inner part of your crease to be even on both eyes, then this hack might work great for you! In my opinion, I prefer just cutting my crease with concealer and a brush because it's more versatile.

2.) Lining your lashes and curling at the same time.

The theory behind this hack is that you can do two things at once. Really it doesn't seem like a terrible idea, but I don't know if a liner would transfer to the lid so well, I hope it does because that'd be really cool.

I like to keep my lash curler pretty clean, so this hack makes me cringe! But if it works then maybe it's worth it! I followed the hack's directions from Pinterest.

SOOOooooOOOOoooooOooOOoo.... this is kind of a fail. Barely any liner transferred, and you have to get so freaking close to your lashline that it feels like you're pinching your lid in the lash curler. All this for a smudgy little line? No thanks. If you struggle with liner, try a dark eyeshadow on a liner brush, or just go without liner. Mascara will handle what you need if your looking for just a simple black line.

Not to mention how GROSS my lash curler looks now!

3.) Expensive Mascara Wand In Cheap Mascara Formula

This hack is really interesting to me, I'd love to know if this works. Imagine if you could but your favorite luxury mascara only once and get the same results from a drugstore mascara.

One of the top mascaras at Sephora is the DiorShow mascara. The only drugstore mascara I have is Loreal Lash Paradise which I know will give amazing results, so I thought I should use a Sephora brand mascara instead.

This is the DiorShow using the Dior mascara wand

This is the Sephora brand mascara using the Dior wand.

DiorShow is on the left, Sephora with the Dior wand is on the right.

As you can tell, the DiorShow with the Dior wand is more voluminous and dramatic. The Sephora brand mascara with the Dior wand is not as voluminous.

It makes sense to me that this hack wouldn't really work. With mascara, the wand and formula are meant to work together, I suppose if the mascara is really shit then perhaps adding a better quality brush could really improve your results! But really, the drugstore has SO upped their game in the mascara department, so buying a really expensive mascara isn't super necessary. 

4.) DIY Contour Brush

This hack is one that I actually haven't seen before, but I saw it today and thought, "well I guess that might work." Realistically you could just drop $5 on an Elf contour brush, but I definitely know some people who can't afford to drop $5 and that's okay, maybe this hack will do the trick.

As you can see, I got a pretty weird shape. It was near impossible to get the bobby pin around all the brush hairs.

This hack goes along with our next hack as well, I'm going to see how well this contour brush works for extreme contouring.

5.) Extreme Contouring

SO. I don't really know if this is considered a "hack" but if you search "makeup hacks" anywhere I guarantee this "hack" WILL show up. So you're supposed to highlight with a really light concealer and contour with a cream all at the same time, then blend it all out and the drastic colors should mix to create a foundation-like appearance with highlight and contour already done.

Now, I've seen this technique done before, but usually the result when doing the makeup exactly as the hack shows is usually way too harsh. A professional when doing this hack would blend on top with a light layer of foundation to soften the look, but today I'll be doing the hack strictly as shown.

Also, we'll be using our contour brush that we crafted in the previous hack!

This is the kind of contouring I got from our DIY contour brush and that bobby pin did NOT hold AT ALL. It popped right off:

So I ended up having to hold the bobby pin the whole time and even then I didn't get a precise contour and WAY too much product, I feel that I would have gotten better results just using my fingers. Fingers are free anyway so there's a hack for you: fingers make great applicators. In fact, I have a blog post that uses only one brush and fingers for the rest.

I followed the contour layout which was shown in the hack, but I personally would never contour like this. It's too heavy and for an individual to contour their face, you need to follow YOUR face shape, you cannot just follow any picture, it would be better to figure out your face shape and follow a contour tutorial best suited to you personally. 

Also Also, nose contouring is included in extreme contouring so we're gonna use this OTHER hack:

6.) Fork Nose Contour

This is supposed to give you a really straight and skinny nose contour. The thing is that contour should follow the natural shapes of your face - like I said earlier - including your nose contour. I just don't know anyone with a nose as skinny as the prongs of a fork! I guess we'll just see how this works out.

As you can see, it's a bit messy. Really I don't think it's that hard to contour your nose, I feel it's super unnecessary to use a fork. Up next, we're gonna finish off all these contouring hacks with concealer to highlight.

After blending it all out, I look pretty weird. It's too harsh and because contour is such a cool tone it makes me look gray and ghostly. 

I feel so ridiculous!! It's so painfully obvious that I'm wearing makeup - too much makeup. My base is so cakey. I feel like if I put a layer of foundation over this that I would feel like I'm wearing a mask and I think it would look that way too.

Less is more when it comes to highlighting/contour game, subtlety will make your face look more realistic, this hack is just unnecessary. 

7.) Brows and More Utensils 

Here we have a couple brow hacks which both use eating utensils which I honestly think is kind of ridiculous. Could you imagine your little cup of makeup brushes with a FORK AND SPOON in there?!?! 

Anyway, I don't see this working but I will absolutely give it my best shot.

So the spoon is for getting a sharp arch and tail:

Well that didn't work... Lets try the fork to get hair-like strokes:

OKAY! I suppose if patchy, smudgy brows ever come into fashion, then this is the hack to go for!

8.) Two-Toned Blush

I don't think this is necessarily a hack, it's more of a makeup tip because it may not make your routine faster, but if it turns out well it could make your makeup look more professional. 

The hack I will apply to this tip is using lipstick as blush. Some people think that a makeup product is strictly used for what's on the label, but as long as it's safe for other parts of your body (eyes, mouth) you can use it anywhere. 

I used a peachy toned lipstick first and applied it to the apples of my cheek, backwards.

Blending out I felt it looked pretty nice!

Next I used a red-tone lipstick only on the apples of my cheeks.

Post-blending I actually really really like this hack! 

This hack is great. I've recently learned how much I love cream products. Even though I have oily and acne-prone skin, I think cream products give a really lovely dewy look even after powder. I also think they can be much faster to apply. 

This hack adds some extra time to your routine, so it's probably best for a special occasion but using lipstick hack as blush is awesome for saving time and getting a monochromatic look. I would suggest sticking to a creamy lipstick, like, don't too a liquid lip or a matte lip because those would be kind of hard to blend out.

9.) ??? Q-tip Lipstick ???

I'm really not sure what this hack is supposed to be for, but it had no explanation and looked so weird that I decided to try it. My only guess would be to avoid getting lipstick in the corners of your mouth where it tends to bleed out sometimes. So I'm gonna use a lipstick that bleeds alot on me.

This is weird. I don't get this hack. I like to think the lip shape I got from this hack was kind of cool and maybe good for a costume. At least I know my lipstick won't bleed on the corners of my mouth but that's because my lipstick is like, five miles from the corners of my mouth. I don't think I'll use this hack again, if bleeding is an issue for you, use a lip liner and carry concealer and touch up brush. 

10.) DIY Matte Lipstick

Our last hack involves making any lipstick matte. This is a trick used by professionals which has become more mainstream. The trick is using a single ply of tissue and applying that to your lips and then taking a translucent setting powder to pat overtop of your lips which should mattify them and is supposed to help them last longer as well.

This hack just blotted my lips in a way that looked really gross and I am sad about it.

!DRUMROLL PLEASE!

Here's our final look with all of our hacks combined:

In conclusion 

A lot of these hacks didn't really work, and have simpler alternatives. I think these hacks are so popular online because of the visuals and unique ideas. Realistically, however, many are too good to be true. Fortunately, some parts of these hacks were helpful!

Please subscribe for better, more useful makeup tips!

Social Accounts:
Instagram: @SheIsAlreadyLegendary
Twitter: @She_Legendary_1
Pinterest: SheIsAlreadyLegendary