Where did you learn makeup?

[Anonymous]

Hi Melissa, I first had makeup done by Transitions by Celeste in melbourne. I then had a GG friend here in hobart do it for me a couple of times. She can do in 10 minutes what takes me an hour and is never as good. To get any sort of proficiency I bought a bit of everything on line and then spent a few evenings doing nothing but practicing. Even GGs have to work out what works well for them. There are a huge number of vids on youtube as you would have seen. Trinny and Susannah may have a book out on it, they certainly have good advice about what clothes to wear etc..

You can’t go past the three Ps, practice, practice, practice!

[Anonymous]

Its been very much trial and error for me over a long period of time. A few years ago I joined a make up forum on the net and was a regular member on there for nearly 2 years. I learnt a lot there and again its a lot of practice and experimentation with different products, techniques, applicators. Made lots of mistakes along the way.

[Anonymous]

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Where did you girls learn your makeup?

Where did you girls learn makeup?

All over the place

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Was it from a professional with some lessons?

Yes, make-up artists in Shops (like Mac and Clinique) they’ll tell you what they are doing and why whilst making you up.

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A wife/gf who showed you?

Yes, (ex)girlfriends gave me some tips.

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Just trial and error?

Absolutely!!! When you have the basics, grab a mirror and sit and play.

No one taught me the “Goth look” (not even Melissa) yet with very little knowledge I produced some stunning results over the last few weeks that have had many people (especially GGs) asking me who did my makeup…!

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From a book?

Just the absolute basics of eye makeup.

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Or a combination of some or all of those?

Yes, and add the Internet into the mix, both instructions, and video’s as well as stills of people with beautiful makeup. Take photos of people and examine how their makeup is done. Take for instance this pic of my ex Melissa:

now zoom into the lips here:

notice how she has used a lip pencil colour that is very much darker than both her lips and the lipstick for an outline…? Something to try, but if you get the colour difference wrong it just doesn’t look right at all.

Another example, a recent pic of me:

in this one I’ll zoom to the eyes…

Notice how I have used at least two colours (there are actually three) …

First I used a soft eye pencil (black).
Second I used a dark eye shadow, and used a smudging tool to blend the 2 together.
Third I applied the colour to the centre crease. In my case a pink/purple colour as I have blue eyes.

The general rule on colours (and this is not rigid because I have broken them with spectacular results, but it’s difficult to get right):

For Blue Eyes:

1. Tried and True: taupe, gray, violet, purple, deep blue (a darker shade than your eye color makes your eyes really blue), black (mix it with bright blue for a smoky effect)
2. Funky Favorites: silver, turquoise, fuschia (brightens any shade of blue)

Green or Hazel Eyes:
1. Tried and True: brown, apricot, purple, plum, deep khaki or forest green (because they are in the same greenish family, they brighten green eyes)
2. Funky Favorites: gold, lime-green, really light green, bright purple (super modern)

Brown Eyes:

1. Tried and True: copper, bronze, champagne (soft pink with a touch of apricot), brown (for a doe-eyed look), beige, and khaki-green (lighter shades add highlight)
2. Funky Favorites: tangerine, royal blue, hot pink, lime-green (the contrast adds punch to brown)

All Eyes:

1. Tried and True (Classic): navy or charcoal base to define and a powder-blue shadow for highlighting (it brightens your brow bone so any eye color pops)
2. Funky Favorites: silver-sparkle shadow makes all eyes look edgy.

So in summary, take tips from everywhere, and especially if you see someone else’s makeup done really nice, see if you can copy it… Just remember you might have to alter the colours to match your skin tone and/or eye colour.

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I’m going to try some lessons soon but saw a makeup book today that I thought might be a good investment. I live by myself so I kind of need someone to say “yeah, that looks good” or “no, that’s not right with the mascara etc” and so that wont work for me.

Tip: Mirrors are useful if you think it looks good the chances are it is. If you think it looks crap the chances are it is. Don’t forget to take a photo of yourself – don’t do it via a mirror, and use a good camera with flash (not a phone)…. This will help tell you what you look like in harsh lighting, if you survive with that, and think you look ok/good in the mirror, chances are you’ve got it perfect.

Take care,

Shells
xx

[bee]

I went to Professional Makeup artist Rawdon Slater. I felt a professional knows how to make up many people. And they are not trying to sell you anything. The staff at various cosmetic centers will do a make up for you for a purchase of product (MAC, etc), but they are understandably not used to making up trans people. In addition some of the ‘transformation ‘ Services around especially targeting trans people, seem, er to be highly over-priced and often under skilled.

I found going to a professional good for me as they would explain to me as to why some things are better for me, and also explain how things work, and what and why certain things were done. It was not just a make-up but an educational experience as well.

In fact I was so impressed that this service was beneficial to many people, I worked out an agreement with Rawdon. I set up a web site for him, and now we offer a service of a makeup lesson, with a DVD shot of the lesson (So you can review, and clearly see what was done, and the application techniques), and of a set of (usually 150) pro photographs afterwards. (I do the DVD and the photos).

Details are here http://rawdon.net63.net

~bambi~

[bee]

I found some books educational “Making Faces” by pro makeup artist Kevyn Aucion, has many makeup styles and examples. It explains how each make up was done in easy steps with diagrams. It shows before and after photos.

He even features a trans make-up. It has been a No.1 New York Times Best Seller.160 pages A4 Size.
# Paperback: 160 pages
# Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (September 2, 1999)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0316286850
# ISBN-13: 978-0316286855
# Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9 x 0.6 inches
# Shipping Weight: 2 pounds

You can find it here currently for USD$14.95
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Faces-Kevyn-Aucoin/dp/0316286850/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250815852&sr=8-1

~bambi~

[bee]

You need some tools I suggest for your make up station.

You can’t do a good makeup if you can’t see yourself. I went out and bought 2 sets of 5 bulb “Hollywood lights”. The type you see often in movie sets where the actors get made up. With small 25w bulbs these give a flat, no shadow bright light. Actually I put my lights on stands so they could be portable and moved around.

In addition for close up work I purchased a magnifying mirror. Yes you can see all the details and that can be scary – but if you can’t see the details, how can you do things to reduce the appearance of them?

Here is a photo of my set up
http://bambi.freeo.net/images/2006-08-17-03l.jpg

http://bambi.freeo.net/images/2008-05-12l.jpg

~bambi~

[Anonymous]

Hi
I like many closeted CD’s got hold of some books from online sources, some were okay like Art and Illusion by Joann Roberts, but like others I ended up going to a professional.
I saw a local lass Sharon White who does a reasonable amount with the TG community here in Adelaide.
Sharon is excellent,some think she is abit exensive but you pay for quality.

[Anonymous]

you can also go to on line sites of the leading make up brands. often there will be videos on how to apply their products.

here is one for estee lauder:

http://www.esteelauder.com.au/flash/video_tips.tmpl?video=0

but there are many others out there (revlon, chanel, lancombe etc)

oh … and bambi – your links gave strange results – a technical article about the dreaded 403 Forbidden HTTP status code …

have fun practising!

Moderator

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A bit off-topic – the question was how did you learn about makeup 😉

[Anonymous]

I learnt by watching and observing girlfriends of the past and even my current gf has passed some tips on to me. the rest is self expression and to practice and try new things in order to achieve a desired result. It’s amazing when you think you can go no further and the next time you’re applying makeup you try something different and the outcome can be truley amazing.

[Anonymous]

Hi girls……

Well, I have been very fortunate I guess.
When I was only 19 years old, I got offered a job as Fashion Photographer.
I was trained by my mentor and life long friend with whom I shared a studio later for very many years.
So, I guess I was around models quiote a lot. They would often ask me how their make-up was because some of them were starting out and were a bit nervous, esp. if it was only their first or second shoot.
Later when I shared a series of studios with my associates, we always had a huge make-up mirror with lighting in the dressing rooms.
I learned an awful lot during that time and being a professional photographer meant that I had to be observant and so I would copy the looks in magazines, etc.
We would also have a big aluminium case full of make-up
there because, despite careful instructions to the Modeling Agencies, girls would often arrive with the wrong look or simply hadnt been told what we wanted.
So we had to always keep make-up on hand. We also had special make-up for extreme fashion looks mostly for adding to our portfoilo.
This gave me heaps of opportunity to practise over the years.
Hugs…..

Monique

[Anonymous]

Initially for me, my girlfriend was my teacher, who made me over the first couple times I went out. Though she stated very clearly that I had to learn it myself.

From there I did some trial and error. The best advice I was given was to try a new look after you just got home from an outing. As you are already done up and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter as you are finishing off any way. This is a great stress free way to finish up the night.

Like Bambi I also went to Rawdon Slater, (a professional makeup artist) though it was a couple of years after I started going out. His knowledge of makeup and his ability to apply it is incredible. I have learn’t a great deal from him.

[Anonymous]

First at the Clinque counter at DJ’s in Belconnen, them from help at Priceline from helpful sale assistants, then from friends along the way. A good tip is to not just stay the same, experiment a bit with slight colour variations etc and chat with other people in you local trans groups communities and or go to a place that does make-up and be bold enough to ask for their help. Hey, its money and if they are reputable, they’ll do a good job and help you. What have you got to loose but a bit of time to chat with them before hand.

[Wynta]

Hi gurls well with my makeup it was mostly trial & error & the help of the internet its amazing the stuff you can learn off youtube………

[Anonymous]

Sadly i’m still learning the art of makeup, for the most part i learned some of what i know watching GFs, over the years i’ve tended to get excited (not sexually but more amazment that i’ll be applying makeup of my own) and made the error of putting to much on which made me look hidious but i was doing this in private i was the only one to see how bad it was.

I am getting better but i am always happy to get advice and help from anyone who can spare the time.

[Anonymous]

still a long long way from getting it right but I am slowly learning. Sometimes I go into profiles to view albums and seee if there are close ups that I can try and immitate some times it looks so easy but wow its not as I have glasses it makes it so hard to see when I want to apply but I will never stop trying