We like to think that men and women have a pretty clear understanding and mutual respect for one other these days. For the most part, we're not so different, right? However, there are still some topics of uncharted territory - similar to that of the Bermuda Triangle ... but with lipstick. Makeup, for instance is one of those things most guys can't seem to understand. It's as if they think women wake up with naturally made-up skin! If only. To help men get a bigger picture of what we go through on a regular basis, we decided to put them to the task. We asked three (brave) men to try these classic makeup looks. Check out what happened and get ready to die of laughter!

Despite his successful career as an art director, Tom M. was not confident in his abilities to pull off the classic cat eye. It seemed using his face as a canvas was not his idea of artistic expression, but he took one for the team and tried it anyway.

Although starting off a bit rocky, Tom's cat eye wasn't half bad! Ever the artist, he worked hard at making sure his eyeliner winged out just so and was filled-in to perfection, well, almost. "I guess applying makeup is like coloring - but backwards, in a mirror, on your face," said Tom. We applaud your efforts, sir.

When it came to mastering the sultry smoky eye, Shaan C. had some preconceived notions on the look he was creating. "It looks like a black eye, but that's the point, right?" he asked. Indeed, the end result made Shaan appear like he got in a fight with the neighborhood bully ... and lost. "You know I've heard of a smoky eye look before, but I never really knew how much, uh, brushing, goes into it," he said.

However, we have to give the man an "A" for effort. Shaan worked carefully to make sure his shadow choices (from the Urban Decay Naked Smoky Eye Palette) complemented his skin tone and made sure each step he took aligned with the smoky eye tutorial displayed for his reference. "That's why I went with a darker highlighter - to go with my skin tone," said Shaan as he applied the shadow. Yup, you heard right. He identified highlighter ... correctly. Now that's impressive.

Now to be fair, Patrick C. isn't exactly an amateur when it comes to makeup application. Before this experiment, he'd dabbled in some fun makeup looks for Halloween and silly events and, to be honest, lipstick didn't seem like much of challenge. "I went into this expecting lipstick to be the easiest type of makeup, but including the lip liner was very unexpected," he explained. "I mean, I guess it makes sense, since girls usually have very defined lips, but I guess I didn't realize I would need a lip pencil to achieve that!"

All in all, we have to say, Patrick's lips looked pretty great, and he was pleased with his lipstick-wielding skills. "I think I looked good from a distance, but, up close, you could see my mistakes," he said. "I can't imagine having to do this every day. Kudos, ladies!"

Photo: Erin Laine Want to show those boys how it's done? Check out these makeup tips and tutorials!


Models: Tom M, Shaan C and Patrick C