Tutoriel maquillage parodique complètement raté

What does “ne pas y aller à moitié” mean in French?

In this over-the-top makeup parody, the host piles on color and says “on n’y va pas à moitié.” Word for word that is “we don’t go at it by halves.” Real meaning: do something fully, with nothing held back. You use “ne pas faire quelque chose à moitié” when someone gives everything — for real or for laughs. It fits cooking, work, or a wild look. Here she says it as a joke, because she clearly went way too far.

In the clip, just after applying blue eyeliner over green eyeshadow, she says: “Du lisoitier, on n’y va pas à moitié” — “Eyeliner: we don’t do it halfway.” (“Lisoitier” is how the audio was captured; she almost certainly said “eye-liner” in her Québec accent.) She means she used a lot — and she is joking by making it sound small. “À moitié” means “halfway” or “half.” On its own: “Le verre est à moitié plein” = “The glass is half full.” Add a negative and you get the idiom: “ne pas faire les choses à moitié” = to not do things by halves, to go all the way. People say it with pride (“Quand je cuisine, je ne fais pas les choses à moitié” — “When I cook, I don’t do things halfway”) or, like here, with a wink at someone who clearly overdid it. Two close cousins carry the same idea: “ne pas y aller de main morte” (literally “not go at it with a dead hand” — meaning without restraint) and “ne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère” (literally “not use the back of the spoon” — meaning pour it on generously). All three say: full force, nothing held back. This expression sounds the same in Québec and in France.