The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 4 plus 3 plus 6 letter word PAPER OVER THE CRACKS
P
A
P
E
R
O
V
E
R
T
H
E
C
R
A
C
K
S
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "to make things look good" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case to make things look good = paper over the cracks.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.