The Kardashian Family’s Biggest Makeup Mistakes

If there’s one thing we love about the Kardashian-Jenner sisters, it’s their willingness to make mistakes. While the family has been through a major transformation over the years, going from reality stars to a household name with global brands in their empire, their honesty and humanity has remained consistent. “We’re all going to make mistakes,” Khloé Kardashian shared in a 2022 interview with Elle. “If you don’t make mistakes, I think that’s weird. You’re supposed to fail.” And while she was talking about life mistakes in general, this wisdom can certainly apply to the beauty blunders Khloé and her sisters have made over the years. 

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To give credit where credit’s due, the sisters rarely put a foot wrong when it comes to beauty these days. With so many cosmetics brands between them, it’s hardly surprising that slaying their makeup is part of their public image. But still, even experts get it wrong from time to time. Whether they’ve committed blunders recently — like Kylie Jenner’s infamous lip-liner clash — or in their earlier years in the spotlight, these memorable moments show that our favorite famous family is capable of the same mistakes as the rest of us.

As the owner of SKKN BY KIM, Kim Kardashian is a certified beauty guru. But as we can see from her look at the 2010 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, she’s gained her expertise through trial and error. Baking, which involves patting on setting powder to stop your under-eye concealer from sliding around, works best when you wipe off the excess afterward. Otherwise, you end up with under-eyes that are unnaturally whitened. Kardashian has since released a few videos detailing exactly how to nail under-eye makeup, so it’s safe to say she’s moved on from this mishap.

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When Kourtney Kardashian Barker arrived at the premiere party of the fifth season of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” in 2010, she experienced a makeup blunder that many of us know well: the sliding falsie. A common occurrence with strip lashes, this happens when the glue at the end of the eye fails to stick, literally leaving your falsies hanging. If you’re using false lashes to make your eyes appear larger, note that this mistake leaves the eye smaller and with an odd silhouette. Ensure the strip fits your eye and the adhesive is applied properly to avoid overhang.

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Khloé Kardashian has undergone one of the most drastic style transformations of the Kardashian-Jenner clan, to the point where her look at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim 2011 barely looks like the KoKo we know. One of the biggest changes is her makeup game. Now, smokey siren eyes aren’t inherently bad, but they should be paired with neutral and muted makeup elsewhere on the face to strike a balance. The issue here is that Kardashian paired her dramatic black eyeshadow and liner with highly pigmented blush and bronzer, and looking back, the intense combo is giving stage makeup rather than glamour.

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Yes, it feels blasphemous to call out Kylie Jenner for anything makeup-related, but the Kylie Cosmetics founder committed an error at a 2022 launch party for her beauty line when this untouched snap seemed to show her with eye-catching lip liner — and not in a good way. The contrast between her rose-toned lipstick and dark-brown liner is so intense that it’s difficult not to gawk. “The liner and the lip color clash … ” one disappointed fan wrote under the post, which was shared by Colt Paulsen on Instagram. 

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Listen, 2011 was a different time. We’d just left behind the 2000s and the decade’s notorious concealer lips craze. But since it was technically the new era of the 2010s, we can’t give Kourtney Kardashian Barker a pass for these muted lips, which she wore to Avril Lavigne’s spring 2012 Abbey Dawn fashion show. Though we appreciate the subtle shine, the tone is too close to her skin color for comfort. Since Kardashian Barker was dressed in clean black and white, this was a missed opportunity to pull off a bold lip.

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Pairing a red lip with a yellow dress isn’t a fashion faux pas on its own, but there are a few factors to consider. Firstly, this bright color combo lends itself to a spritely look, which in Kim Kardashian’s case, may have missed the mark if she was going for formal at the Cinema Against AIDS Gala in 2011. Secondly, because these tones are so overwhelming on their own, their pairing means the rest of your makeup should remain minimal. Instead, Kardashian crossed the line with a dramatic wing and full glam lashes. 

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