Makeup Survey

We surveyed nearly a hundred women about their daily makeup routines and habits. Here are some of the responses:

We asked the women if there were any special makeup tips or techniques they wanted to share. Most women responded that they needed tips rather than had them to share, but here are a few:

• "Just For Men" hair color works great to dye your eyebrows since it is safe for men to use on beards/mustaches, it does not dye the skin like other dyes.
• Put a little eye shadow over your liner to make it stay longer
• Thin brushing of white or peach eye shadow directly under the lower lashes brightens the eyes and keeps mascara from smearing under your eyes.
• Perm endpapers are really good for blotting oily skin before or after makeup and throughout the day.
• You can use the same lipstick day or night if you add a darker lip liner in the evening
• I found out the hard way - makeup has an expiration date. I had my mascara forever and wound up using it past the date and had a terrible eye infection. Check the dates!
• If you apply a little foundation to your lips before you put on your lipstick it will stay on longer.

Do you only apply makeup once a day? Only when going out? Repeatedly throughout the day? That's what we asked our ladies. The majority wore makeup almost everyday with a possible at-home weekend day to let their skin rest.

We went one step further and asked them if they still put on makeup even if they weren't leaving the house and almost to a person the answer was no - but most added that there was seldom a day that they didn't leave the house.

Most of the women did not have a significant difference in their day and evening makeup - a little more color, but nothing drastic and very few stuck to one brand - they mixed up their favorites.

Since the brands were mixed up it was hard for a lot of them to judge how much their daily makeup routine cost. Some were bought at Marcs and Wal-Mart and others at Kaufman's and Nordstrom.

This would obviously account for extremes in pricing. Taking the average the women spent less than $1.00 a day and most say they watch for sales.

Finally, we asked what age the women thought it was appropriate for young girls to start wearing makeup. The answers came in as follows: Clear lip gloss 11-12 color 13-14 blush 12-13 and full makeup 14-15.

Many added comments that they remember fighting with their parents to wear makeup earlier, and most lost. As one woman responded "That's why I'm giving them at least clear lip gloss as early as 11 - it just makes a young girl feel pretty!"

Have any comments or tips to share? e-mail us at makeup@ClevelandWomen.com