Makeup tips for the transitioning girl

I have not posted an extensive tutorial or article in a long time on this blog, but there will be one soon!

What will I talk about this time? Well, I’m going back to the basics! Yup! That’s right! I will even try to do a video this time, which might be completely shitty because of the lack of decent lighting in my appartment.

Why am I going back to the things I covered already? Because I went full time. And when you go full time, not wearing makeup is something you can do, but be prepared for some strange looks. Another reason is actually hormones! HRT changes your skin a lot and your makeup routine has to adapt. Also, I have the job I have and I’m often on the road. Which means that carrying a small kit is better and carrying tools that are easy to wash as well!

I travel a lot for a living. Sometimes I’m even on the road for weeks or months at a time, living in close quarters with other human beings. In these situations, being able to have compact luggage is important.

Last March, I realized that my home makeup bag is everything BUT compact, so I’ve been trying to assemble a compact kit.

This eyeshadow palette is one of the few NYX released in that « petite » series. It is crazy pigmented (careful with the dark shades!). The shimmery/glittery shades are gorgeous and they really apply and blend well if you spray your packing brush with a little bit of setting spray!

Lipstick... we all probably have a love/hate relationship with it. You put it on, it looks gorgeous. Then you go out and first thing you know, it smudged on your sleeve or half of it stuck to your coffee cup.

In the line of my personal favorites, Maybelline’s matte lip ink is DA BEST! Once it dried, it stays. Just apply wait a few minutes, kiss a tissue to remove the excess and you will have flawless lips for the whole day! They have a nice collection of colors and it is available in every drugstore for about 10-12$ CAD and is often on sale for about 10$.

That mascara is my latest find and my new favorite! You can rub your eyes all day with wet hands and it won’t smudge! The wand is super long as well and it separates the lashes quite well, so applying it is very easy and quick! No need for falsies when you got that!

Maybe the folks at Dermablend really did lose track of my first message... maybe they just did not care... we will never know the truth.

Good thing is that finally someone took the problem into their hands and I got that message yesterday!

I will keep you posted!

They have those insane videos of people hiding their tattoos all over their bodies. They say their products do not transfer or rub off. It really seemed like the holy grail of concealing.

So I decided to ask them about their thoughts on beard shadow.

That was two months ago and I’m still waiting for an answer. A few days ago, I wrote them on their facebook page via messenger. For days, all I got was an automated reply telling me to visit their website. So I left a bad review on their page and left them an angry message on messenger asking if their customer service sucked for everyone or only for trans women.

That’s when I finally got an answer, asking me to give them the email address I used to contact them in the first place.

Sorry for the late reply! I have actually no clue. I’m not even sure what you are talking about...

If you go to the drugstore and wander in the cosmetics section, you can be completely overwhelmed by the quantity of products and brands you will find. If you don’t know what you are looking for, it will be even worse.

So I decided to put together a little cheat sheet of what you should have in your makeup bag to cover all your needs. Keep in mind that I’m always trying to achieve a natural look, so I really go minimal here, but it’s a good base to build upon.

Skin preparation

Before we do anything on our face, it is important we prepare it properly. Here is what you will need:

Facial scrub: you know these facial soaps that used to have micro-beads and that got banned almost everywhere? Well now they make mother-earth friendly products! These will clear your pores from dirt and clear your face from all the dead skin. It’s important to have a clean face or else your makeup can look cakey and won’t stick as well.

Day cream: a good day cream and/or serum. Nivea does some very good stuff at decent prices. Usually a little goes a long way, so even the small pots give you a good run for the money. If you shop at Costco, they have very good products for very decent prices in their home brand too. Apply after cleaning your face.

Makeup base/primer: some daycream can double up as makeup bases. You can also use BB cream or primer to get some light coverage or color correction before you apply your makeup. There are lots of options here and you will learn what you need over time. For example, I use a yellow base to cancel some of the redness of my skin (I have rosacea) on top of an anti-redness face cream.

You can stick to a face scrub and a day cream, but the makeup base is a good extra to help your makeup stick better. I found a few amazing products that I will list in another post.

Tools, etc.

Before applying your makeup you will need tools to apply it, etc. I will break it down into a few categories:

Consumables: this is the part where you will spend a few bucks every now and then. Makeup sponges (the small disposable wedges), makeup remover pads, Q-Tips, facial tissues, etc.

Face tools: Blender sponges (the big egg shaped sponges), face brushes, etc. The blender sponges are kind of a must have, but I don’t use them that much. A good brush set should at least include: a foundation brush, a blending brush, a concealer/contour brush and a powder brush.

Eyes tools: forget about all the gadgets for now! You need 3 brushes to get started with your eyes: a blending brush, a flat shadow brush and a liner brush.

If you watch videos on youtube with 20 years old girl advertising big brands and you look up the price, be ready to cry. Brushes can cost a LOT! But I managed to find a few good deals on big brands at Winners and Marshall’s and also stumbled on some surprising brands that are really affordable. One of my best find so far is ecotools. I’m not affiliated with them in any way, but I got their « Daily Defined Eye Kit » at Winners the other day and the brushes are awesome and they sell for really cheap. I haven’t tried their face brushes, but I will definitely give them a run in the future. From what I can see on their website, their « Airbrush Complexion Kit » looks really good for the price.

Eventually we will get to the eyebrows and lashes and the tools that go with them, but that is for another day. Now it’s time to grt down to business.

Makeup

Now to the good part! Let’s keep it to the minimum because you could buy things forever. If you want to look more feminine, there is only a few things you need to do to. The main one is to erase the beard shadow. The second one is to make your skin look more feminine. I know some girls are happy with just some eyeliner and lipstick, but this is not the case for me. If, like me, you have to change that face of yours to feel good in your skin, then the following is for you.

Beard cover: this is not an official product name, because girls do not have beard. What you will be looking for is a product that will be either pink or orange and that will stain your skin. Usually you can find those shades in the color correctors. I tried many things and for my skintone, orange is what works best. You will also have the choice between liquid or cream. My personal choice there is cream because I find it sets better on my skin, and also because I find liquid ones tend to mess my foundation color after. NYX is making excellent full coverage concealers in peach and orange. But if you are in a pickle, a cheap lipstick of the appropriate color can do as well.

Loose powder: pick a pot of loose powder that roughly matches your skin tone. If you have redness problems, you can also go with a yellow powder. This powder is multi-use, but the main one is to set your makeup in place and bake the areas that are the most at risk of rubbing off, etc.

Setting spray: it’s like glue for your makeup. Not much to add there: spray it on your face to set your makeup. Some people also use it as a skin primer. It usually works both ways.

Matched concealer: a concealer that matches your skin tone. I like a liquid concealer for that application. You will put that in the T zone and in the under eye area. Some people also use a concealer as an eyeshadow base, but I personally don’t like it.

Foundation: your color matched foundation. As I always say, better go with something that has buildable coverage as it is more versatile.

Eye shadow base: makeup companies now make specialized products to prime your eye lids. I prefer those a lot as they can help the colors pop and keep your eye shadow from creasing much better than any concealer would. My absolute favorite is the MAC Painterly base, but it doesnt work well with everyone. My girlfriend, for example, cannot use it because it drags the skin of her eyelids. She needs something more liquid. There are a few good liquid and cream eyeshadow bases in the drugstores. Revlon makes a decent one that really helps with creasing.

Eye shadow palette: if you are not certain what to pick, I suggest you go with a « quad » or something similar. Quads are those small palettes that have 4 colors that go together. They are basically a look in a box. If you are not sure which colors to pick, nude shades are pretty much universal. Otherwise, stay tuned and I’ll cover eyeshadow in another post.

Contour/Highlight/Blush palette: you might not find it all in one palette. I try to avoid highlighters that have too much glitter (it’s a trend to look shiny it seems) but sometimes it does look good.

Mascara: everybody knows what that is. Maybelline’s Great Lash has been a reference in the drugstore brands for years. Cheap and effective!

Eyeliner: you need two black eyeliners. A black liquid liner pen and a black kajal liner pencil. NYX make some really good liner pens and pencils. Maybelline also has amazing liquid liners and pencils. Experiment with different products because most of the fun is in the eyes!

Lipstick: pick your color! I really love Maybelline’s matte lip ink. It’s a liquid lipstick with a built it applicator that lets you draw on your lips with precision and that turns, once set, practically indestructible.

Conclusion

You might all be tempted to use full coverage products right off the bat because you think it will hide your man’s face instantly. Well, take a minute before you buy and think about your skin and your intentions.

Coverage

First you have to understand that coverage is only in terms of color! It’s not some kind of putty that will fill up holes and erase your wrinkles! It can actually do the exact opposite and make any imperfection on your skin pop out! So if you have a baby’s skin, go crazy, but if you do not, then I suggest either a light to medium coverage foundation or, even better, a buildable coverage foundation (one you can layer until you reach the desired coverage).

You can also mix some of your foundation with your day cream or serum to give it some coverage. It’s surprising how it can actually help achieve a very natural look when you don’t feel like wearing a full makeup. It evens out and brighten the skin without hiding everything and making you look plastic.

Color

Then, you need to see your skin for what it is. Nobody has a perfectly even skin color. You have blood vessels, redness, etc. You have to pick a foundation that will match your general complexion. When in store, it is a good idea to try the samplers on the back of your hand and then compare in the mirror with your face! One step further would he to actually bring a mirror and go look at yourself in the sunlight. Don’t forget to blend the product on your skin!

In this picture you can see a lot of things I mentioned earlier. First, you can see that there is a slight different of shade between a fresh drop of foundation and a blended/dried foundation.

In the top picture, you can see how the skin color is not even: i have veins that show through, the redness of the skin is not even, etc.

In the bottom picture, you see the effect of a full coverage, matte foundation. It’s the back of my hand, but you can see that the skin texture is a lot more visible than in the top picture. Also, you can see that it litterally erases all the nuances in the skin tone: no more veins, no more uneven redness... personally, I think it doesn’t look very natural in person, but it looks good in pictures.

Concealer colors

I say colors (plural) because at some point, you will probably end up needing more than one concealer. If you had to get just one, ask yourself the question: do you have beard shadow to cover? If the answer is yes, well be patient because I will be covering (hahaha!) that topic in another post. Color correction is a topic on its own!

If the beard is not an issue (yet) and you simply want the basic concealer everyone need, it’s simple enough. Pick the color that is the closest to your skin tone as well! This will be used in the undereye area and the T-Zone (which is the nose and browbone area). You will be using it for a bunch of different things. It is your secret eraser. It helps you cleanup a messy eyeshadow job, etc.

Concealers usually come in cream or in liquid form. Depending on your skin type and the use, you might prefer one over the other. I personally love liquid concealers for most of the work, but for beard coverage, I prefer cream ones. If you go liquid, pick one with a built-in applicator as I find those are less wasteful. I have a MAC concealer, amazing product, but it’s a small pump and I never use a full pump. So every time, I waste a lot of product because it’s so stiff that it’s almost impossible not to do a full pump.

If you want to do contouring with your concealer, also get one that is two shades lighter than your skin and another one that is two or three shades darker as well. We will discuss contouring eventually, but this is just a hint if you plan on going on a shopping spree soon!

It might seem obvious, but you will need to pay a lot more attention to your shaving than you ever did. Be sure you use a brand new blade every time you start shaving your face. You don’t want to cut yourself and you want to avoid razor burns.

Never shave your face on dry skin and make sure you touch your face to make sue there is nothing left. If you stroke your cheek and think it’s smooth, run your hand in the opposite direction to make sure. Any slight hint of stubble will make your makeup look cakey and will make it easy to smudge.

If you are like me, your hair grows in every directions and you need to be especially careful around the jawline and the neck.

Once you are done shaving, wash your face with a gentle face cleaner. Leave your face alone for an hour, and then apply your makeup base/day cream.

Make up is one thing, but it’s like paint: you wont go far without a canvas! And you won’t get good results if you have a dirty or damaged canvas either.

So before you even start doing makeup, start by taking care of your skin! I still have a guy’s skin. Bigger pores, oily, thicker in general. I smoked cigarette for years (just quit 2 days ago, wish me luck!) while having irregular sleep patterns and drinking alchool regularly. On top of that I suffered from late chickenpox a few years ago and that left a few scars on my face. I already have wrinkles as well...

So with your skin type in mind (greasy? dry? redness?) go get some facial scrub and a soft facial cleaner as well. I usually use the scrub in the morning and the gentle cleanser before going to bed, doing my makeup or after shaving.

Then you need at least a day cream. Nivea does stuff that I really like, their products smell good and are perfect for sensitive skins without breaking the bank. They even make a day cream that doubles as a very decent makeup base. If you are not sure what you should use, ask someone at the cosmetics counter of your favorite drugstore. Remember that these products might come in a small pot, but a little usually goes a long way!

You do not really need to buy 40 different products (eye cream, serum, etc). Sometimes, too much product can cause irritation anyway. For example, I have rosacea, and before I realized it, I actually made my condition a little worse for a while because I was feeding my skin too much product. I now use a single cream that is made to treat that condition and doubles up as a makeup base as well.

I have never taught makeup to anyone. In fact I haven’t been doing it for such a long time, but everybody tells me I’m doing it right, so I thought I should share the tricks I developed over time.

DISCLAIMER: I’m not a pro! I don’t want to pretend I am! But I like makeup A LOT! I try to learn as much as I can on the subject and I like to try new techniques and products. Everything here is only my opinion, based on my experience! Some products might not work as well for you, it’s part of the game, sadly!

When I started doing makeup, I did not want to achieve big glamorous looks with crazy eyeshadow and glitter everywhere. My main goal was to feminize my face as much as possible so that I could pass in public. I never really wanted to draw attention to me, in fact I wanted to achieve quite the opposite. Look like the girl next door.

So, if you are here for flashy makeup, glam looks and the likes, you are not on the good blog!

Of course, makeup can be expensive. I’m not rich, so I try to find good stuff at reasonable prices, either online or in store. Don’t worry, no need to break the bank at Sephora or MAC!