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practicalcatTWO POSTS. TWO POSTS IN TWO DAYS.
Makeup is another one of Those Things that, if you're female-presenting, you're just supposed to Do without making a lot of noise about it. God forbid you get it wrong, though. I'm lucky enough to live in a place and work in a field where a full face of no-makeup makeup isn't an unspoken requirement, but there is still a Lot Of Shit To Unpack About Makeup and I just wanna destroy the patriarchy with hammers.
HOWEVER, I have figured some stuff out, with some in-person assistance. Unfortunately, that person is no longer speaking to me because they came down with a friendship-ending case of 'refusing to deal with their own shit'. I had a consult session scheduled with another makeup artist friend of mine, but it fell through due to the pandemic. Yes I could probably do a video-chat, but I really hate video chats; plus it is difficult for me to assuage my anxiety by providing snacks over video chats.
Starting from what I mentioned briefly yesterday:
- FUCK the "no makeup" makeup look. Fuck it LOTS. What kind of shitty double-standard requires a person to spend 20-30 minutes of artistic effort to look like they "didn't do anything"? Plus it's generally racist and ageist, since the goal of the "no makeup" look is generally to make a person adhere to white beauty standards (thin nose, etc). FUCK THAT.
- The reason all the eye makeup tutorials I attempted to follow didn't come out looking like much of anything is that I have hooded eyes. Goddamned hidden keywords. I really recommend consulting with a professional makeup artist of some sort when you are embarking on your makeup journey because they can tell you things like "you have hooded eyes" and you can go out and do more research on your own.
- In addition to being hooded, my eyes are blue-gray (I did not need to be told this). As such, I have discovered that the best colors to make them pop are pink, gold, rose-gold, and various browns.
- I also wear glasses, so I have to take those into account when I do makeup. I am completely uninterested in contacts for a variety of reasons.
- I usually use brown eye liner. Even when I'm going for a more dramatic makeup look, I'll layer some brown in there on top of the black, since brown makes my eye color pop more.
- I prefer the retractable eyeliner pencils, largely because I don't want to deal with carrying and sterilizing pencil sharpeners.
- Eye shadow-wise (if I'm wearing it), I tend to default to a smokey eye using a chubby liner pencil or one of those squeeze tubes. Much like the pencil sharpeners, I'd rather not carry and clean brushes. I smudge them out with the pad of my ring finger and then wash my hands.
- If I'm actually Doing My Makeup for an Event of some sort, I'll use brushes and wipe them clean on the inside hem of my shirt/dress. What, I'm throwing them in the wash anyway, why get a specific Brush Cleaning Cloth?
- I used to do a full-on Red Lip sometimes, and I got a lot of compliments on it. I've sort of migrated toward 'wine' shades, what with the Burgundy Signature Color, but I'm thinking about adding more red back in.
- I do tend to chew off whatever I'm wearing on my lips, so I tend to go with stains over lipsticks. I also use a lot of tinted balm. I don't have a stain I'm particularly attached to, but I really like Palledio herbal tinted lip balm in 'sangria'. I've also got a stick of Mary Kay tinted balm in 'rose' that looks good on me.
- One thing I'm struggling with is under-eye bags/darkness. I'm certainly more concerned about it than I need to be, because we always arrow in on our own perceived flaws, but I haven't quite figured out how under eye concealing.
- I don't tend to use foundation or primer; tinted moisturizer at most. But I am also HELLA PALE, so finding anything is a pain in the ass. Note that this inconvenience is not anywhere NEAR the bullshit that people with darker skin have to deal with when they're shopping for makeup.
- When I was little, one of my favorite book series was Pippi Longstocking. For those of you unfamiliar with the character, she was absolutely covered in freckles and very delighted to be so. Sadly, my childhood face freckles have faded into a soft fog on my face, so I've been considering faking some with a stippling brush and spray tanner, or with a product intended for such things. Freckles are CUTE.
- I don't tend to wear mascara because it never seems to show up, even when I'm making sure to double-curl my lashes (once at the base and once halfway up the lashes). And if I can't tell I'm wearing it, no one is is going to be able to tell either.
- Eyebrows are hard. Mine are pale, so I tend to brush some brow tint into them, but when it comes to shaping them? My sister occasionally decides that she wants to spend twenty minutes committing acts of Grooming Sorcery upon me and I can tell they look extra nice when she's finished. Alas, her teaching style is incompatible with my learning style, so I can't figure out what acts of maintenance I should be doing, or how frequently.
- SPEAKING OF MAINTENANCE, I am annoyed that my only options for eye makeup are "apply daily" and "literal tattooing". I would be delighted to do my eyeliner once or twice a week, or even more regularly as long as I can do it at night instead of having to wake up earlier than I would otherwise.
- I am s l o w l y training myself out of picking at my nail beds. One of the things that helped was getting a cuticle pusher and an angled nail clipper. I told myself I wasn't allowed to mess with hangnails and such UNLESS I was using tools. In ended up getting a metal cuticle pusher, but since I'm not using it daily, I thiiiiiiink that's okay? I also got some cuticle oil pens off of Etsy and that's been fantastic because they're easier for me to use and carry around with me.
- Press on nails also help, because they're too thick to get a proper picking going with. But even the 'short' length drives me crazy and I have to trim and file them down. I've got a box of 'real short' length nails I've been meaning to try out but haven't gotten around to it. I am distrustful of acrylics though.
- Also, I realized I can color my nails with spray-on hair dye! I do a layer of nail hardener, the spray color, and then a top coat.
Makeup is another one of Those Things that, if you're female-presenting, you're just supposed to Do without making a lot of noise about it. God forbid you get it wrong, though. I'm lucky enough to live in a place and work in a field where a full face of no-makeup makeup isn't an unspoken requirement, but there is still a Lot Of Shit To Unpack About Makeup and I just wanna destroy the patriarchy with hammers.
HOWEVER, I have figured some stuff out, with some in-person assistance. Unfortunately, that person is no longer speaking to me because they came down with a friendship-ending case of 'refusing to deal with their own shit'. I had a consult session scheduled with another makeup artist friend of mine, but it fell through due to the pandemic. Yes I could probably do a video-chat, but I really hate video chats; plus it is difficult for me to assuage my anxiety by providing snacks over video chats.
Starting from what I mentioned briefly yesterday:
- FUCK the "no makeup" makeup look. Fuck it LOTS. What kind of shitty double-standard requires a person to spend 20-30 minutes of artistic effort to look like they "didn't do anything"? Plus it's generally racist and ageist, since the goal of the "no makeup" look is generally to make a person adhere to white beauty standards (thin nose, etc). FUCK THAT.
- The reason all the eye makeup tutorials I attempted to follow didn't come out looking like much of anything is that I have hooded eyes. Goddamned hidden keywords. I really recommend consulting with a professional makeup artist of some sort when you are embarking on your makeup journey because they can tell you things like "you have hooded eyes" and you can go out and do more research on your own.
- In addition to being hooded, my eyes are blue-gray (I did not need to be told this). As such, I have discovered that the best colors to make them pop are pink, gold, rose-gold, and various browns.
- I also wear glasses, so I have to take those into account when I do makeup. I am completely uninterested in contacts for a variety of reasons.
- I usually use brown eye liner. Even when I'm going for a more dramatic makeup look, I'll layer some brown in there on top of the black, since brown makes my eye color pop more.
- I prefer the retractable eyeliner pencils, largely because I don't want to deal with carrying and sterilizing pencil sharpeners.
- Eye shadow-wise (if I'm wearing it), I tend to default to a smokey eye using a chubby liner pencil or one of those squeeze tubes. Much like the pencil sharpeners, I'd rather not carry and clean brushes. I smudge them out with the pad of my ring finger and then wash my hands.
- If I'm actually Doing My Makeup for an Event of some sort, I'll use brushes and wipe them clean on the inside hem of my shirt/dress. What, I'm throwing them in the wash anyway, why get a specific Brush Cleaning Cloth?
- I used to do a full-on Red Lip sometimes, and I got a lot of compliments on it. I've sort of migrated toward 'wine' shades, what with the Burgundy Signature Color, but I'm thinking about adding more red back in.
- I do tend to chew off whatever I'm wearing on my lips, so I tend to go with stains over lipsticks. I also use a lot of tinted balm. I don't have a stain I'm particularly attached to, but I really like Palledio herbal tinted lip balm in 'sangria'. I've also got a stick of Mary Kay tinted balm in 'rose' that looks good on me.
- One thing I'm struggling with is under-eye bags/darkness. I'm certainly more concerned about it than I need to be, because we always arrow in on our own perceived flaws, but I haven't quite figured out how under eye concealing.
- I don't tend to use foundation or primer; tinted moisturizer at most. But I am also HELLA PALE, so finding anything is a pain in the ass. Note that this inconvenience is not anywhere NEAR the bullshit that people with darker skin have to deal with when they're shopping for makeup.
- When I was little, one of my favorite book series was Pippi Longstocking. For those of you unfamiliar with the character, she was absolutely covered in freckles and very delighted to be so. Sadly, my childhood face freckles have faded into a soft fog on my face, so I've been considering faking some with a stippling brush and spray tanner, or with a product intended for such things. Freckles are CUTE.
- I don't tend to wear mascara because it never seems to show up, even when I'm making sure to double-curl my lashes (once at the base and once halfway up the lashes). And if I can't tell I'm wearing it, no one is is going to be able to tell either.
- Eyebrows are hard. Mine are pale, so I tend to brush some brow tint into them, but when it comes to shaping them? My sister occasionally decides that she wants to spend twenty minutes committing acts of Grooming Sorcery upon me and I can tell they look extra nice when she's finished. Alas, her teaching style is incompatible with my learning style, so I can't figure out what acts of maintenance I should be doing, or how frequently.
- SPEAKING OF MAINTENANCE, I am annoyed that my only options for eye makeup are "apply daily" and "literal tattooing". I would be delighted to do my eyeliner once or twice a week, or even more regularly as long as I can do it at night instead of having to wake up earlier than I would otherwise.
- I am s l o w l y training myself out of picking at my nail beds. One of the things that helped was getting a cuticle pusher and an angled nail clipper. I told myself I wasn't allowed to mess with hangnails and such UNLESS I was using tools. In ended up getting a metal cuticle pusher, but since I'm not using it daily, I thiiiiiiink that's okay? I also got some cuticle oil pens off of Etsy and that's been fantastic because they're easier for me to use and carry around with me.
- Press on nails also help, because they're too thick to get a proper picking going with. But even the 'short' length drives me crazy and I have to trim and file them down. I've got a box of 'real short' length nails I've been meaning to try out but haven't gotten around to it. I am distrustful of acrylics though.
- Also, I realized I can color my nails with spray-on hair dye! I do a layer of nail hardener, the spray color, and then a top coat.
