Unfiltered Pics Of Mariah Carey Prove Her Makeup Should Never Be Captured Up Close

She never wants a lot for Christmas. But in the future, it would probably be good if Mariah Carey asked for a better makeup routine. While us mere mortals don't always have the time to get our makeup on point, the Queen of Christmas herself has said she doesn't believe in the concept of time (via YouTube), meaning that she can always look fabulous no matter how long it takes. Right?

Turns out this is not quite the case. While Carey seems to make it a point to look flawless on every occasion, the superstar singer isn't immune to some botched makeup every now and then. You'd never be able to tell it by her demeanor, though — after all, she really is a diva and probably gets no notes from anyone. But close-up photos allow you scrutinize every decision that the singer makes makeup-wise.

Not that it's always easy to evaluate Carey's makeup. A lot of the times when she's out in public, she wears some pretty big sunglasses that cover half her face. She attends many events, though, so we do get to see her full makeup at times. As some unfiltered images showcase, sometimes it's just hard to nail it, and sometimes it comes down to bad choices — and Carey seems to have lived through both scenarios.

This photo, which was taken during a 2025 Mariah Carey performance in Las Vegas, illustrates perfectly the power that makeup has to make or break you. Carey has naturally accentuated cheekbones, so of course she would like to highlight them. However, as the close-up shot reveals, she went too hard on the blush, and it contrasted with her heavy use of eyeliner — you'd also think there's a lot of mascara going on, but Carey herself has told US Weekly that she never wears it. 

This makeup choice that Mariah Carey wore at Lincoln Center in 2025 is a little weird. She went so hard on the fake eyelashes and eyeliner that her eyes look almost 2D on camera, as if she were a big-eyed cartoon character or a wax figure. The close-up photo also exposes that the overuse of foundation and blush gave her skin an excessively smooth look, also common with cartoons. We're not even going to get into the awkward transition from makeup to hairline, but you can see it's there. We know that "less is more" isn't always the perfect motto, but this is a case in which it applies perfectly.

Yes, 2014 was a long time ago, but we can't forget about the time when Mariah Carey went orange just a couple of years before Donald Trump made it his brand. Of course, no one does a botched fake tan better than Ariana Grande, but at that year's American Music Awards event, Carey gave Grande a run for her money. In this particular case, the close-up photo didn't help her at all. Somehow, it looks like the blush was applied before the bronzer, and the eyebrows were neither too soft nor too strong, which placed them in a weird in-between that made it look like they'd come off if you ran a wet paper towel over them. 

As we've seen in previous photos, Mariah Carey is no stranger to too much foundation. The problem when you do it, as the up-close photo shows, is that you risk looking cakey and people can barely see the lines in your face. We get it, most Hollywood stars don't want to look old, but sometimes a more natural look will do wonders for your appearance — especially during the daytime in sunny LA. At least she wasn't afraid of embracing the excess.

Another problem with going too hard on the foundation is that, if you don't do it well, a close-up picture will make it evident that you look too cakey, like this 2018 photo from the Golden Globes illustrates. In it, you can pretty much see every inch of makeup that was put on Mariah Carey's face. It's a bummer when a flawed texture stands out like this, which is why Carey needs to pay attention to moisturizing and how makeup interacts with her skin type.