Marc Jacobs' fall runway sparked one of the bolder makeup trends we'll see this season: ultra 80s makeup. Unfortunately for us, many of our fellow fashion-savvy co-workers and friends will overdo it with a harsh color scheme too tough for the 9-5. Many more will chose to overdo it at night, pairing a colorblock nightmare of a face with their LBD for a cocktail, at say, Rose Bar. As an extra on the set of Sex and the City 2 yesterday, I learned a valuable lesson after changing out of my 80s flashback clothes and drawing horrified stares and snickers on my way home on the 6 train with big hair and loud makeup. There's runway, and there's real way. Luckily, I was paying attention to the makeup ladies responsible for my contoured cheeks, red eyeshadow, and bold brows. It is possible to take the trend out into the real world -- whether you want to prove you can pull it off during the day, or go dancing with it into the night.

Rule #1: Pick one or two features to play up. One is a good rule for day, two for the night, but hitting the right balance is key. If you are going to play up cheek contouring -- which takes up a lot of the surface area of your face -- skip color on your eyes and just use liner. Lips in a dark 80s matte can look a little severe during the day if you are doing cheeks or eyes, so keep the contouring at a low level, and don't make the eyes too loud. MAC has a lot of electric colors in liners and shadow that can be used subtly during the day, or piled on at night. You may want to walk to the streetcorner with your face on and see if anyone whistles or asks "How much?" which is what happened to me yesterday. If you elicit a response of that nature, go back home and wipe something off.

Rule #2: Eyebrows are a great feature to play up, especially if paired with the pronounced shoulder trend for an 80s edge. The artist working magic on my face suggested a brow powder palette in a few different shades. The powder is tapped off, which she said is the key move, and swiped on with an stiff angled brush, so you can control how bold you'd like to go.

Rule #3: Line the inner rim of your eyes; she said, "that's how they used to do it." Use a black eyeliner pencil to line the inner rim, and between the lashes, but be sure not to wing your liner -- unless you are heading out for a night of dancing in the dark. "Luckily, there was one Boy George," she told me, "we don't need any more."

Rule #4: If you are going to for color saturation on the eyes, try to do them in a more modern color, and pair with a nude lip. I had a rusty red color spread from lash to brow, with matching ruddy lips: not subtle. Smokey eyes work for day, or electric blue or orange shadow on top of a thickly lined eye is the best way to pull this off. Lay off the brow bones, unless you are going to see an electro band at Santos'.

Rule #5: It's really about your age. If you look model-young, you can push the envelope, especially since piled-on makeup tends to make everyone look older. Also, a clean, flawless face is important, as loads of color has a tendency to migrate. Think about having electric-hued liner in your fine lines and wrinkles. The makeup artist made sure she used a good foundation and concealed any blemishes before she set to work on my 80s face. "Carrie's hair is the focal point," said another makeup junkie on set, "they didn't need to use a ton of makeup to bog down her face ... her hair is 80s enough."

See also: True Lies: What I Learned on the Set of ‘Sex and the CIty 2’