#WillowDoesMakeup

Shopping list! I was asked for Amazon links, so, acknowledging that company is horrifying, prices and availability change, and that specific brands are likely less important, here we go!
Face brush: https://www.amazon.com/e-l-f-24112-Total-Face-Brush/dp/B00WAJBFAS

Eyeshadow brush (not covered in detail): https://www.amazon.com/l-f-Blended-Brush-Ounce-Pack/dp/B004J2K654

Setting powder: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00CJ1DDMA

Setting spray: https://www.amazon.com/SEPHORA-COLLECTION-Makeup-Setting-Spray/dp/B0C2L1SQPN

Bronzer: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0BSN5K2QV

Blush (couldn’t find on Amazon, here it is at Sephora): https://www.sephora.com/product/danessa-myricks-beauty-yummy-skin-blurring-balm-powder-flushed-P504051?skuId=2654010

Chapstick: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01LC0NUNA

Moisturizer: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001G7PMYA

Foundation: Unh unh. Nope. No link, this is too important, personal, and expensive for you to just try colors at random. But here’s the search term for the product I use: NARS Light Reflecting Foundation - Advanced Makeup-Skincare Hybrid Foundation

@wren

- Learning makeup. I have a whole thing about that pinned in my account (#WillowDoesMakeup), but all these incremental trips to the mall to get things at Torrid and Sephora built on each other, both visit-to-visit but also store-to-store in a visit. When I had a shopping bag from Torrid, I felt bolder going into Sephora.
- Finding a trans femme friend and going out to lunch! I’d always seen women out socializing together in restaurants and I wanted it SO FUCKING BADLY for myself!!! IT WAS FUCKING AMAZING!!!!! Going out for girls’ lunch and moms’ night out is PEAK transition for me.
- Stealthing through conversations with my friends’ friends.
3/3?

Buildable means you can make layers. The full coverage foundation I tried first didn’t really build well - it was too thick.

With the medium coverage, buildable foundation, I put down a layer of foundation (and rub it in like sunscreen), then set it with powder. You can still see through it, but things are softened and muted. Then I pat on a second layer over top of that, just on areas that I want fully obscured (read: my beard shadow). I then set the second layer with powder, too.

Remember the moisturizing? That was super important so the skin of my hands and face didn’t drink up all the foundation before I finished spreading it everywhere.

3/3

#WillowDoesMakeup

Newly out trans femme folks, a note about why it’s okay to go shop for makeup: remember, there are a LOT of reasons for people who present like men to need makeup. Maybe you have a role on TV. Or in a community theatre. You don’t need to specify.

You also don’t need to bluster about it or justify why you want it - the people who work at makeup stores generally like makeup. They see it as a positive thing. You are coming in and asking for their help getting into the thing they like, or at least generally feel positively towards. And you are planning to give them money in exchange for goods; as long as you aren’t intentionally unpleasant, this is (probably) a safe activity.

All that said, I went in super shy and terrified. This advice is TOTALLY aimed at hatchling-me.

#WillowDoesMakeup

Products! Foundation, continued:

I said I wanted it to be a natural, everyday look, not a full-glam one, and that I wanted to be able to cover the beard shadow with it. The salesperson pulled out a tablet with a little gadget attached and held it to my face in a couple places, and the tablet spit out a list of designators about my skin tone. She used that to point me to products that would work well with it. It actually took two rounds of this a couple weeks apart, as my first one was too yellow and, honestly, too full-coverage.

Full coverage means the foundation will totally obscure your skin - it was a bit too much for me, and honestly, I think it really requires more finesse than I have in painting back in your features over top of it. I have no such finesse.

I wound up with a medium coverage, buildable liquid foundation from NARS. Medium coverage means there are still hints of freckles and such showing through one layer of foundation.

2/3

#WillowDoesMakeup

Products! Foundation:

Okay, this is it. The single most important part of my routine. The goal, for me, is to even out my skin tone, hide my beard shadow, feel feminine, look natural and not like I have heavy makeup on, and do all that fast. Picking your foundation color is, frankly, not a job for an amateur, and I’m an amateur, so this next bit of advice could be framed as “how to give advice on a topic you don’t understand.” Foundation is pricey. Mine is like $50/bottle in Sephora, $30-40 on Amazon, and I go through a bottle every two months. So, you don’t want to have to buy a bunch of different ones to figure out what you need.

I, personally, don’t know how to accomplish this on my own, so I went into Sephora. I wore plausible-deniability uniform (femme cut shirt, jeans, messenger bag, shaven but very visible beard shadow, no makeup). I said I was new to makeup and wanted to try a full face, and could they help me pick a foundation.

1/3

#WillowDoesMakeup