As the title says, I can’t tell if I’m just doing my makeup wrong or if my face is just not looking good to my eyes.

I think I have a pretty decent foundation match in a few different brands, a Juvia’s place powder foundation and Clinique’s medium coverage foundation. Both at least seem to look just like my skin when I put them on. A half face test just makes it look like half my face is matte. I usually only go one coat of mascara, and go for a winged eyeliner. It looks OK in the house, in both warm and cool lighting, but I s2g it seems like as soon as I step outside and look in a car mirror or in the mirror at a ship I look like a clown. One coat of mascara seems to look like 8, and the brown eyeshadow that I do very little of, looks like I slathered Nutella on my lids.

Problem is, nobody ever says my makeup looks bad, and I occasionally get compliments on it. I just can’t tell if those compliments are genuine or if they’re the compliments that have an unspoken insult behind them. I don’t normally wear makeup during the workweek, so I don’t know if maybe it’s just the difference when I put it on during the weekend? I just seem to notice that as soon as I step out my front door it’s like my jowls dial it up to 1000 even if all I put on was eyeliner and mascara? Like, what is this phenomenon where make up that looks fine in your own home looks like circus makeup as soon as the front door is opened?