We've all seen her -- the woman with the almost perfect makeup. If only she didn't have those little specks and clumps of mascara dotting her lashes and under-eye. Oh, wait. We are that woman.

Sometimes, the mascara wand is less a magic, lash-enhancing tool and more an implement of makeup destruction. The wrong angle, the wrong brush, one little smudge or blink at the wrong moment, and you're re-doing your eye makeup from scratch. "I think most people screw up before they even get started," says makeup artist Taylor Babain, who has worked with Nelly Furtado and Paula Abdul. It sounds insulting, but you know she's right -- we grab our favorite mascara and go to it without considering key details about our eyelashes. "Are they straight? Curly? Thin? Thick? Long? Short?" Babain asks. Once you zero in on your lash type and figure out what, exactly, it is that you want out of your mascara (length, volume, definition, etc.), you're ready to pick up your wand. Then, and only then, you're ready to follow these foolproof steps to putting on your mascara.