Have you ever observed that as you bring

something closer to perfection, its least perfect

element will now draw your attention? You paint

your walls all these fabulous colors, but now the carpet looks uglier than it did before the paint job? You install a beautiful new stove and suddenly the fridge looks so unsightly when it really didn’t look so bad before...

When it comes to our looks, just how do we conceal an

imperfection? Sometimes we don't get enough sleep, our eyes are red and we have dark under eye circles. Other times we break out, or are bloated or are just having a bad hair day. How do we tone down the obvious? 

A lot of it is about contrast.

Rough features only look rougher when surrounded by softness. Contrary to popular belief, soft hair doesn't necessarily make you look softer. A large or crooked nose, a deep wrinkle or even just an unsightly zit will be made 100x more obvious and out of place if you're sporting an overall soft romantic look (soft, blow dried hair, cashmere turtleneck, pearl earrings, etc). The rough feature will suddenly pop even more as now it is set against a very soft background, all by itself in its full glory, nothing diverting attention from it.

Therefore, when you're very tired, like I am now, or have a cold sore or a zit, I don't recommend you sport an overall sentimental look. It'll make you look even more tired, the redness in your eyes and your dark under eye circles will look even more obvious, just like the old fridge does in the newly remodeled kitchen.

You see, when you try to tone down a flaw by contrasting it, you're basically setting it in opposition to perfection and only end up emphasizing the difference. That sounds a bit complicated, it basically means you're making the flaw pop more. 

Here is a demonstration. If you had a red wine spot on the couch, which room do you think would hide it better?

Or this one?

The second one, right? In fact, the spot would be the very first thing you’d notice in the white room, whereas in the second room there is enough going on that you might not even see it at all. You might like the first room better, but as you can see, it magnifies even the tiniest flaw.

The 2-minute make up I showed you in my previous post is for times when you don't even have 5 or 10 minutes to do your make up. It is a fool-proof, zero-drying time make up that will give you a professional look.

Just to illustrate this on someone not as beautiful as Meg Ryan (no offense, Donatella), check this out.

She looks better in this photo:

As far as wardrobe is concerned, I'd say avoid soft, delicate pieces on those flaw-concealing off-beat days. By staying away from romantic looking pieces please know that I am not suggesting you start sporting some vampire-like goth look and change your name to Vyxen . But instead of a dreamy, flowy blouse, pick a bolder, crisp shirt. Instead of a cashmere sweater try wool with a braided knit. Larger pieces of jewelry, a thick belt, rougher fabrics will work much better on a bad hair day than a sentimental look would. We're trying to distort the flaw by blending it in, instead of drawing even more attention to it by contrasting it.  Does it make sense?

Good luck. 

Agnes

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