Face Paint

I've had issues with make-up for a while. I've always felt that it was used to temporarily mask problems oppose to fix a problem...I think this view might still hold. I've never thought of it as enhancing good looks, maybe deemphasizing the bad would be more correct. It's not like you naturally enhance your blue eye lid.

I've felt that telling people they look good as the result of makeup is...kind of off. It's not different from having your hair styled. It should be more like..."I like what you did with your face."

Despite all this, I've come to the conclusion that makeup is a part of the presentation package and regardless of how impeccable one's style is, clothes aren't enough.

As shown in the previous blog, I went to my friend's wedding recently and I was planning for it a good while in advance - shoes, hair, the dress. I'd been practicing make up for a good few weeks prior to the wedding only to have my cousin's boyfriend do my make up professionally.

Make up is expensive when you don't know what you're doing. I'm finding there's this mad tendency to buy everything in every version possible to see what works (i.e. eyeliner). It's been rather financially draining since I've developed a penchant for MAC cosmetics. Makeup Art Cosmetics seemed to fit my sentiments on make-up. Eye-shadow application was the hardest thing for me to grasp.

I think my best recommendation is finding what fits you in terms of makeup. Experiment with lower cost makeup before buying higher end versions.

For me:
MAC's Studio Fix, eyeshadow, blush, lip gloss.

Formerly lacking a brain for make up, eyeshadow was amazingly difficult for me to apply and I have many pictures of myself looking like a raccoon. For lining my eyes, I tried everything from liquid liner, to this thing that looks like a marker, to a crayon, to a pencil, to eyeshadow. I think liquid liner is fun, but I favor using eye shadow as liner.

- to avoid having raccoon eyes, I use a small angled brush to apply a line of eye shadow, I brush it out a little. Sponge applicators are a little better for eye lid application and I use a pencil brush to get shadow into the crease. After lining, I use a little of the medium shade (assuming the darkest shade is lining and the lightest shade is on my lid) brushed out slightly from the liner.