The simple eye makeup mistake experts want us to quit.

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While the thought of doing full-on contouring and cut crease eyeshadow is enough to make us break into a sweat, there was one reliable eye makeup technique we thought we was a given.

You do your foundation (and primer, if you’re fancy) first, then follow with all the other bits. Logical, right?

Turns out it’s a basic ‘fact’ we’d taken completely for granted.

Image: iStock

While most of us probably follow that order - and have likely never questioned it - there are many who argue that you should be doing the opposite.

Think of it as the beauty equivalent of the chicken and the egg - should you do your foundation or your eye makeup first?

On one hand, creating a base for your makeup with primer and foundation makes perfect sense. It also allows the product to breathe and settle on your skin before you pile creams and powders on top.

Watch: A makeup artist shares her four top hacks. Post continues after video.

However if you're a little, ahem, uncoordinated or you're trying out a product for the first time, you'll know how annoying it is when you smudge, mess up or drop eyeshadow or eyeliner in the wrong place and have to start again - taking your carefully applied face makeup off with it.

It's a practise you'll often see YouTube vloggers do in tutorials for bold eye makeup looks for this very reason.

So what do the experts think?

"I would definitely recommend starting your application with mascara and brows first. It helps to open the eye and really helps to map out your look," says Napoleon Perdis Global Makeup Artist, Siobhan Kelly. (Post continues after gallery.)

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"Then apply your base, contour and highlight to see how far you want to take your look."

Not only is Kelly strongly Team Eyes, she also advises the first step should be something we hadn't even thought about - brows.

"Groomed brows not only make you appear younger and more polished but also means you potentially don’t need as much makeup as you already look ‘done’," she says.

"The start of the makeup is the best time to apply your product as it helps to shape your look."

Ultimately, it's entirely up to you as to the order in which you apply your makeup.

Fortunately if you are firmly foundation first but don't want to avoid going back to square one every time you muck up eye makeup, Kelly has some handy tips.

"Once you’re up to the eye makeup application, avoid fallout by applying an eyeliner pencil in either black or white (depending on your look) to the eyelid before eyeshadow," she says.

Is it problematic to try lipstick on in store? (Post continues after audio.)

"This helps to catch fallout and excess eyeshadow plus it keeps your makeup crease free and incredibly durable.

"Another tip is when using loose eyeshadows like glitter and shimmer, apply with a tapping and pressing motion - a sweeping application can cause extra fallout."

Clever.

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Image: iStock.