Rose-Marie Swift On The 3 Makeup Mistakes We All Make (& How To Fix Them)

It's safe to say that Rose-Marie Swift knows a thing or two about beauty. The professional makeup artist and founder of organic, non-toxic brand RMS Beauty has 35 years of experience under her belt, having painted the faces of Gisele Bündchen, Zoe Saldana and Celine Dion, and worked closely with some of the most knowledgeable cosmetics formulators in the industry. So when she tells you that you're applying your makeup all wrong, you listen. Here are the three makeup rules we learned when we sat down with the beauty know-it-all herself.

According to Rose-Marie, the YouTubers are making a total hash of applying concealer – and she can't understand why we're all following suit.

"The whole drawing a triangle and filling in the blank space you see on Instagram is all wrong," she told R29. "You’re only pulling your entire cheek down and it’ll make you look unhappy. Also, with this technique, you're putting concealer under the entire eye. If you’re just blanketing it on, you haven’t conquered the thing that’s bugging you – the discolouration. Because of the anatomy of dark circles and bags, they extend into the corners of your eyes, too, and drawing a triangle underneath means you still have the problem."

The right way? "Leave less underneath the eye and work on the discolouration only. Try the Un Cover-Up Concealer, £34. If you want to cover blue colours, take a concealer that has a salmon tone – you can even mix your usual concealer with a coral or pink lipstick – and just put it where the bag or dark spot is. We all wrinkle on the outside corner of the eye, so it doesn’t make sense to layer on concealer over this area. No matter what brand it is, it’ll cake off. Concentrate it to the areas that need it the most."

"Stop lowering your blush," said Rose-Marie. "I learned this tip from Gisele who told me that I’d given her a 'puppy dog' look. By putting blush in the contour of your cheek, you’re only pulling the face downwards. The trick is not to put blush below your nostrils." Whether it's a cream or powder, apply a little to the apple of your cheek and blend it up towards your temples and the top of your ears to lift the face. "When you put the highlighter on top of that, it’s like magic," added Rose-Marie.

There's something about creme eyeshadow that gives the lids a glow but just like powder, it can be a little fiddly to get right.

"Firstly, rub it a little with your finger or a tissue to warm it up, especially if it’s mineral-based, like Myth Eye Polish, £26, which is the perfect mink shade and looks like you’ve contoured your eyelids," said Rose-Marie. "This is because the minerals are slightly heavier than the pigment and tend to sink, so giving it a bit of a warm-up will boost the shade."

And there's a failsafe application technique Rose-Marie thinks we should all adopt. "You don’t want to tap when applying cream eyeshadow. No tapping allowed! Instead, you need to rub it in. It’s like making love – skin to skin." The more you rub it in with your fingertips, the more the product properly merges with the skin and the more natural the shade and shimmer pigments will look on you. Makes sense, right?