The Genius Oil Hack That Will Prevent Your Makeup From Looking Cakey

The whole point of wearing foundation is for your complexion to look flawless. With the seemingly magical liquid functioning as your second skin, it's supposed to make your blemishes look virtually invisible and make your skin extra smooth. But sometimes, even our favorite foundations can fail us, as they can make fine lines appear more profound and acne or dark spots look way worse. And more often than not, it's not the foundation's fault — it's yours.

Applied foundation that looks less than perfect is usually referred to as "cakey" makeup. It often happens when you put too much product on or when you fail to prepare your skin for the foundation to glide seamlessly. "I think any area can look cakey if the skin isn't well hydrated, the makeup formula is wrong, or the application is too heavy," Merrady Wickes, a professional makeup artist, told Well+Good.

If you find that your makeup looks cakey and splotchy after getting glammed up, the last thing you want to do is to remove it all and start from scratch. As it turns out, there's a hack that you can do to reverse the cakey look, and it's a trick that even Hailey Bieber vouches for herself.

If your skin is on the drier side, the likelihood of your makeup looking cakey can be high. Foundation on dry skin can sometimes result in flaky patches, or the product settling deep into any fine lines you have. You can combat it by using moisturizer and making sure that your skin is well hydrated, but if you find that you still look chalky after applying the rest of your makeup, Cosmopolitan notes that you can remedy it by applying a tiny bit of oil before you apply powder or setting spray.

Instead of starting your routine all over again, all you have to do is apply a few drops of face oil to the cakey parts of your face, using a damp beauty sponge so the foundation settles nicely on your skin. This hack apparently makes your foundation blend well with the rest of your makeup, too, and even makes it last longer.

But if you feel iffy about applying oil at the end of your routine, you can do it before you do everything else. You may want to try mixing oil or serum with your foundation, just like Hailey Bieber does. It's a tested and proven hack, according to makeup artist Amrita Mehta. "The serum will slightly sheer out the formula, letting skin peek through a bit more, and the skin care in the mixture will really help bring a sheen to the skin," she told Shape.

Not a believer in face oils and serums? No problem! There are plenty of other tricks in the book that you can try to avoid looking like a caked-up mess. For starters, you may want to avoid using powder foundation altogether. Celebrity makeup artist Neil Scibelli noted that powder formulas are harder to blend and have the tendency to appear blotchy. "If you typically wear powder foundations, I would avoid them. It creates buildup," he told The Zoe Project. "I would suggest sticking to liquid foundations that are water-based if your makeup tends to cake up."

You should also never overlook prepping your skin. More often than not, makeup cakes up because you failed to set up the perfect canvas for product. "A lot of how a foundation looks on the skin has to do with how we prep the skin to receive makeup," professional makeup artist Lori Taylor Davis shared with Byrdie. "If the skin surface is dehydrated, textured, [or simply] not at its best, this can change how makeup lays on the skin. That's why skin prep is the key to ensuring that your foundation has a skin-like finish and never looks cakey." Before applying any type of cosmetics, make sure that you've done the proper prep work, like applying moisturizer and primer. Of course, don't forget to let them dry first before applying the rest of your makeup. Make sure that they've been absorbed by your skin fully so your foundation will glide on perfectly.