Okay, how to explain it. When I try to sort of "redraw" makeup on the alpha channel, the makeup is shaped perfectly and nice in Photoshop, but when I plug in my new face overlay into TSRW, the makeup looks lopsided and shaped wrong in the preview. Basically I wanted to know if there are any tricks or insider secrets or anything that people use so that what you draw in Photoshop actually looks good on your sim. I don't even know if I'm making sense. Hopefully someone will know what I'm talking about, and can help me. Because I'm really stuck! Does everyone have such a hard time learning this creating stuff, or is it just me, the blockhead? Sheesh!

Thanks in advance.

I know what you mean.

SOMEONE CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG; Makeup ain't my forte!

The thing is, you sort of have to draw the makeup weird in Photoshop anyway! It's EA's fault; silly UVs on the faces. I bet I know what you're doing--you're using some sort of skin texture of the sims' face (male/female) and drawing on top of it, like around the eyes or something, right? See, the face textures are flattened out, cuz sim heads are round, so the textures will distort and bend odd ways; I've seen this happen and was super confused--and annoyed--and defeated. You'd have to draw stuff like eyeliner and blushes a tad bit differently in order to get it to show up on the face in the right position. Lips are easier, and contact lenses are the easiest by far. But the rest misled me, too--which is why I don't create much makeup. I'd use CC textures that are somewhat similar to what you have in mind, as a place reference, and drawing over THAT instead, to get used to how to work around those bizarre eyes and nigh non-existent cheek/jaw/chin areas.

yes i also find it much easier cloning sth i like and then tweak it further to my tastes (but this solution is for private use at least most creators beg not to use their work as base!) so if you want to upload there might be some ethical TOU clash than...or at least depending on how close you are to the origial? i am no pro on that - cause i only do it for myself you know
and yes the UV maps are no perfect help - ts ts EA

So true. Don't use other creators' textures, even as a private reference/base to learn from, if they've got some wild TOU. Cuz some creators are stark raving crazy sauce.