With watertight eyebrows, glowing skin & eye-shadow blended for the gods, some ladies look like they have just left a magazine shoot on Mount Olympus no matter the time of day or whether they are wearing a ball gown or jogging bottoms.

Meanwhile for the rest of us, it does not matter how gracefully we swish eye-shadow onto brow bones like we are in a YouTube tutorial video it all just looks a little off. Certainly, not all of us are blessed with genes like Claudia Schiffer, but that still does not explain why we cannot apply liquid eyeliner correctly.

Fraught for help, we turned to make-up artists Maddie Pearce, who has 2 decades of experience & has worked on London Fashion Week, & Stacey Whittaker, who has painted models for Vogue & Elle. Of course these are only guiding principle for a very specific look.

“When people go for perfect make up, the biggest mistake they make is putting too much on, thinking if they cover everything it will be completely perfect, when in reality by putting on layer after layer they are taking all the life out of the skin,” says Pearce. Ideally, make-up should enhance a person’s unique attributes & reflect their personality not eclipse them in glitter & matte foundation.

So before you blindly follow a make-up tutorial, consider what you are trying to achieve. Think of it like tweaking a recipe for your taste. “You see many influencers simply copying each other without any understanding of why they are doing what they are doing,” says Pearce. “For example people put the same contours in the same place, regardless of face shape, so flattering for some but not for other.”

If your skin is dull because you do not eat any fruit & vegetable, there is not much the lady at the Mac counter can really do for you… “Make-up should be beautiful, light & freeing,” says Pearce.  “Everywhere we look we see images of beautiful skin, healthy & glowy, & the way to achieve this is by looking after yourself, drinking water, eating well, & picking the right product for you rather than whatever the latest best-seller is."

“In my opinion, one of the worst mistakes that you can make when applying make-up is not blending correctly,” says Whittaker. “It can be time consuming to ensure your foundation is equally blended & your eye shadow has no harsh lines but if you take your time & ensure everything flows together seamlessly, the finished look will be much better.”

That might mean investing in beauty sponges & blending brushes to buff out the different elements of your make-up.

“I always recommend using a stippling brush to ensure foundation is flawlessly blended. This brush is particularly great for cream based products & can be used for both the face & body. For eyeshadow, I would always recommend using a large fluffy blending brush in sweeping motions over the lid to ensure all the colours used merge together nicely.

 “Another common mistake you see is too much highlight, which can cause alien-like looks. Blend blend blend!” urges Pearce.

“I think with eyebrows & highlighters in particular, people can fall into the fake tan trap, where you get so used to seeing yourself with it you gradually put more & more on. The brows begin to take on a life of their own & highlighter gets more silver & slowly spreads around whole face rather than delicately sweeping the cheekbone.”

Assuming you are a human person rather than a cyborg, your face is not going to be proportioned - & that includes your eyebrows. Do not waste your time trying to paint them on identically.

“Sometimes they can be so perfect they become far too cartoony, eyebrows really should look like eyebrows," says Pearce.