Your Makeup Agony Aunt: Archive

Ooh, ooh! If you've every wanted to find a good mineral makeup with a more matte finish, there's a great online mineral makeup company called Meow Cosmetics, who have a massive selection of mineral makeup shades. I have their powder foundation in flawless feline, and absolutely I love it.

I’ve tried some Meow Cosmetics stuff - seems like a good solid product!

Thank you for recommending them!

Love,

Your Makeup Agony Aunt

Jun 17, 2011

Darling agony aunt -- Have you tried any mineral makeups? I have a fabulous mineral foundation that I love though I'm not sure how it's going to do later in the summer. It, like all of my makeup, is Avon. What can I say, my mom's an Avon lady, she gets me stuff at cost. :)

I’ve tried mineral eyeshadows and I really love some of them. I’m not personally a fan of mineral foundations because I am usually going for a very very matte look. None of that natural dewy look for me, no sir! *grin* Mineral foundations always seem to have kind of a sheen to them that looks wonderful on other people - but I always feel like I look sweaty.

Avon has some good stuff. My very first favorite lip gloss, when I was in high school, was by Avon. It was called Bronze Glow and I’ve never found it’s equal. It was a daaaaaaaark brown-burgundy with a warm shimmer to it. Oh, how I miss it!

Love,

Your Makeup Agony Aunt

Jun 17, 2011

Hi! I'm about to go shopping for foundation--probably powdery-Bare-Essentials-type. I have pretty easy-going skin. What should I be thinking about as I purchase? I was thinking about MAC or Bare Essentials. Thanks!

For loose powdery type foundations, you definitely want to keep a couple of things in mind:

How are they going to wear in different weathers? Is the powder heavy enough that it would cake up if you started sweating?

How are they going to settle with wear? Is it going to settle down into any lines on your face and look… weird?

How’s it going to photograph? Granted, if you aren’t in photos, this isn’t as important a consideration. *grin* But some mineral foundations are reflective - and some others give a strong tonal cast to your skin, especially with flashes (usually a strong yellow).

How do apply it? Are you going to need to buy a special brush for application? Can you build up layers? Can you use it like a powder to touch up during the day?

Those are really your big Points to Ponder with mineral foundations! Have fun and I hope you find something awesome!

Love,

Your Makeup Agony Aunt

Jun 17, 2011

Hi there! Some Lip Stain reviews - I personally own and love both a CoverGirl lip marker and a Stila lipstain. The Stila was a bit harder for me to use, since it comes in one of those twist-bottom pen-brush things, where you click up the stain into the brush and it comes out as a gel. Apparently it can also be used as a cheek stain, which could be good for those who like a matchy-matchy kind of look. I got these because I haven't ever found a red lipstick that made me feel like I looked like myself, and since these go on more sheer and buildable than a traditional lipstick I feel more comfortable in them. I also layer them under lipgloss and balm all the time- I find that my lips feel a bit dry if I put more than one coat of stain on, and if I build up a lot of layers too quickly, without giving drying time between, they can flake or pill off when I inevitably bite my lips or have something to drink. Going slower, and putting one thin coat on the bottom lip and smooshing it on to the top lip really helped me get the hang of the application. Someone also asked about the Revlon stains- I haven't used them personally, but I saw a couple of reviews from Miss Plumcake, who liked them quite a bit. Hope they help: http://manolobig.com/2011/03/10/review-revue-revlon-just-bitten-lipstainbalm/ http://manolobig.com/2011/03/11/you-asked-for-it-review-revue-part-deux-just-bitten-lipstainbalm/ Yay for makeup! :)

Yay! Thank you so much for your reviews!

The funny thing about Stila - back in, like, 1998, they were the first real high-end makeup I started buying. They had THE most amazing silver pretty much ever. And a fantastic hot pink.

A few years later, they redid their color philosophy and got rid of the “edgy” stuff. ALAS. Now everything seems to be all sheer and floral and PRETTY. Which isn’t bad, not at all (it’s totally pretty) - but it’s not really my major emphasis. I’m super glad to hear the color on the lip stains is buildable - they are some really just LOVELY shades.

Yay for makeup, yay!

Love,

Your Makeup Agony Aunt

Jun 17, 2011

Thank you so much for all this excellent information on make-up! The top 3 "musts" you posted were exactly what I needed. I have a few questions though. 1. You said an eyeshadow primer is important, what qualities am I looking for in it? Is it just one of those "try it and see" things or are there things to look for? How do I know if it is doing what it is supposed to? (Of course, these might be kind of weird questions. I /may/ be psyching myself out and making it way more complicated than it needs to be. lol) 2. What is the fluffy brush and translucent powder for?

You are totally welcome!

1. Primer is supposed to do two things. First, it’s supposed to make your eyeshadow stay true to color. You can test this on your hand. Use an eyeshadow brush to put some eyeshadow on the back of your hand. Then put a little bit of primer on a spot close to where you put the eyeshadow. Put eyeshadow, again using the brush, on the spot with the primer and compare the two swatches. The swatch with the primer will generally appear brighter and more opaque in color. That’s what you want it to look like over primer. If it doesn’t…. Try using a little more primer. If it still doesn’t, that primer might not be doing its job. Second, primer is supposed to extend the wear of your eyeshadow. Sometimes, people experience creasing of their eyeshadow - odd little naked skin spots where their eyeshadow has worn away during the day. Primer is supposed to prevent that. The only way to really test that out is to wear the primer.

2) The fluffy brush and translucent powder are for when you want to even out skin tone and look a bit more matte. It’s not the same as foundation - it’s very light. I’ll mostly dust under my eyes, where I have dark circles, as a very soft effort to blend a little bit. The dark circles are still there, they just look a little softer, a bit muted.

Please don’t worry that you’re psyching yourself out or making things more complicated than they need to be. Makeup is a thing we’re all sort of expected to just KNOW about. We’ve got to start sharing all this knowledge somehow and somewhere - and that somewhere is going to be different for everyone.

Love,

Your Makeup Agony Aunt

Jun 17, 20111 note

For the commenter who just asked about eyeshadow primer and lipstains: I don't have a ton of experience with using them, but for what it's worth I use the E.L.F. primer and find it sort of fantastic. It's sold at Target, comes in a tube about the size of your average wand concealer tube, and--wait for it--costs $1. YES THAT'S RIGHT ONE DOLLAR. As I said, I don't have a ton of experience using similar, more highly-priced products, so I can't speak as to relative quality, but I definitely notice a difference when I use it vs. when I don't. Also FWIW, my sister is a licensed esthetician, and she quite likes the E.L.F. line. If nothing else, it might be worthwhile to use the E.L.F. primer for your everyday looks, and get the small bottle of Urban Decay to use for special occasions? As far as lip stains go, I've used Cover Girl Outlast Lipstain and quite liked it. Judging by the reviews I've just read I seem to be in the minority there, though, so maybe someone else could weigh in? Personally, I found that it gave great color and wore really well (and never dried out as some of the reviewers' did). Also, it's like coloring your mouth in with a marker, and seriously, how fun is that? P.S. I'm enjoying this whole project entirely too much. Yay for makeup talk! Thanks so much for starting this. ^_^

I actually spent some time at my local Target looking for E.L.F. based on hilarygayle’s recommendation recently - alas, I don’t think all Targets carry it.

Coloring with the lip markers is so much fun. I’m really kind of glad you mentioned that because I thought it was just me being a dork. *grin*

Thank YOU so much for participating in this! It’s total crowdsourcing, you know?

Love,

Your Makeup Agony Aunt

Jun 17, 20112 notes

Revlon just came out with a lip stain that's like 6 to 8 dollars a pop. I'm hoping to try it soon, anyone else have results with it?

I haven’t tried that one but I hope someone else has!

Love,

Your Makeup Agony Aunt

Jun 17, 2011

I have two questions, both of which stem from my being quite poor at the moment. First, I got a sample bottle of Urban Decay eyeshadow primer and it is AMAZING, but I can't afford to buy it regularly. Are there any cheaper alternatives that will yield similar results? Second, I'm hearing good things about lip stains and I want to try it! I'm not sure what (hopefully affordable) brand I ought to start with. Thank you!!

The UDPP can hurt the pocket, that’s for damn sure. Unfortunately, I am not super well versed in cheaper versions of it. I’m hoping someone else will chime in on this one! There IS a smaller travel version you can buy for cheaper - it just won’t last as long because it’s smaller.

As for lip stains, lemme tell you: NYC (carried at Target here in Florida) has some lip markers that look pretty awesome. I’ve heard really good things about them, too. I almost bought one this past weekend. The colors are a little softer than some of the high-end offerings but they are quite lovely. I think that’s a great place to start if you’re looking to experiment with them!

You are totally welcome. Thanks for the ask!

Love,

Your Makeup Agony Aunt

Jun 17, 20111 note

My dearest Aunt Agony, I just wanted to suggest that your recent asker - the one who wants to be a redhead - might want to try henna. They may still want to try bleaching first, depending on the shade of red they're going for. My hair is dark brown naturally, and I've been able to achieve a nice auburn without bleaching. If they'd like to do more research on henna, I highly recommend http://hennaforhair.com, especially the mixes page! I also have a question for you: what's with brushes? I don't understand the need for all of them. I can understand why you wouldn't want to use a tiny little eyeshadow brush to put on foundation, but why are there like forty different eyeshadow brushes? I don't get it. Thanks! Your Tumblr Niecelette

Oooooh, henna! There’s something so wonderful about hennaed hair.

Do keep in mind - you aren’t supposed to use henna over commercial dyes. There are chemical interactions that will turn your hair green. Which, if that’s what you’re going for, might be awesome. *grin* That’s a joke - the chemical interactions aren’t good for your hair.

Eyeshadow brushes are designed to do a lot of different jobs. But, to be honest, there is no real reason for a regular makeup-wearing person to own forty different brushes unless that person just really likes brushes. Most of the brushes overlap in purpose. The key is figuring out which brush style works for you for which purpose.

So that’s one part of it as well - it provides a variety so people can figure out what works best for them. But it’s also just a money maker. Brushes are expensive.

I think I use, regularly, four or five different brushes. I could use more, if I had them. But I’d rather spend my $$ on a new eyeshadow.

Love,

Your Makeup Agony Aunt

Jun 17, 20111 note

I love applying make-up, but I have glasses that magnify my eyes, which makes it pretty damn tricky to do lovely things to them that don't look clownish. I can get contacts, but my prescription is highly expensive, and my health issues (and motherhood) make it a pain to wear and maintain them. While I have LONG lashes, they're light in colour (natural blond), so that's also part of my misgivings with make up. Any thoughts?

Contacts schmontacts! Makeup and glasses are not mutually exclusive. I also wear a pretty heavy prescription (though I haven’t noticed much magnification) - I only take off my glasses to take pictures. *grin* There’s no reason you can’t wear makeup you like while you wear your glasses. Once again, it really becomes a matter of learning what YOU like and what the limits of your own comfort zone are.

I think you mayb be falling into the thing where you aren’t used to how makeup looks, especially with it magnified behind your glasses. I am not sure how clownish it would look to someone else. *grin* So, start small. Pick a shade that complements your skintone, maybe something pinkish or purplish, and just wear that on your eyelid. You don’t have to worry about complicated blending or anything.

For mascara, see if you can find a brown - it’s pretty common but sometimes it’s a little harder to locate on the shelves. You can still wear black mascara, it’s just going to look a lot more dramatic. Try the brown and see if that looks less jarring.

Start with simple stuff and give yourself time to get used to it. Your glasses honestly should not be a barrier. I think part of the problem we have is that, as people with glasses, we’re looking right up at the mirror, much closer than most people would be. We have to step back from our own faces a little bit, consider the effect from a larger distance.

Love,

Your Makeup Agony Aunt

Jun 17, 2011

have you SEEN this? http://lsdfe.net/ljylKf (via my buddy @dragonflyeye) ALTHOUGH one thing that bugged me about the captions: the picture of the lovely WOC with the manga-style eyes is captioned as "angry lady" while the smaller white woman with a similar, though more sinister-looking (to me) style is captioned as "manga make-up." HMM. *grumble* i want to figure out how to do the peacock eyes. zomfg. not much of an ask, but i had to share.

Thanks for the link! There is some AWESOME stuff there.

Yeah, labeling the WOC “angry lady” is totally skeevy when the white woman is “manga make-up” - just: EW.

The peacock eyes would be totes doable with liquid liner pens, I think - or powder-based eyeshadows mixed with medium or water to make them easy to paint on.

Love,

Your Makeup Agony Aunt

Jun 17, 2011

I also have a sample of the Benefit Badgal mascara and it's...ok. I actually really like Cover Girl Lashblast (the one Drew Barrymore used to advertise). I'm more about volume than length, though - I have plenty of natural length in my lashes.

I think our lashes might be opposites - I have plenty of volume but they aren’t super long. It really is nice to have a variety of products - I just wish they wouldn’t all advertise essentially the same thing, you know?

Love,

Your Makeup Agony Aunt

Jun 17, 2011

Jun 17, 20115 notes

My two cents on mascara! Like you, I haven't really found the Holy Grail of mascara for myself; however, I have found a system that works really well for me. I use Rimmel's Extra Super Lash mascara as sort of my mascara primer/base. It's not a super powerful mascara, but it does outline lashes very well. If I'm patient and have a lot of time, I just layer on a few applications, and it can be lovely on its own. (I also can't live without Rimmel's Exaggerate eye liner. It's my go to, and one of the few things I wear on a regular basis. Super smooth and easy to apply in small amounts or in dramatic lines. Yay drugstore makeup!) If I'm going to for something that pops a little more (or I'm going for super thick spidery lashes a la Rose Tyler in Doomsday [for anyone who is a Doctor Who fan] - a look I actually have large love for), I still use Extra Super Lash as my base, but I layer L'Oreal's Voluminous mascara over it. The Voluminous is kind of globby and shapeless on its own, and my eyelashes get clumped together if I don't have the Extra Super Lash as a base. But the two together work well for a really popping mascara look. So my main thought about mascara is that mixing and matching works! If you like one aspect of one mascara and something different about another, try applying them in succession to see if you can combine effects. It's best if you apply, let it dry until it's tacky but not fully dry, and apply the next layer/type. It won't always work the way you want it, but it lets you get at the mascara look you want if one application of one brand just isn't cutting it.

I’m using Benefit’s Badgal mascara at the moment, and it’s pretty decent. I have a travel size of it. I’m kind of addicted to getting travel sizes individually from Sephora. Mixing and matching does work! And I love the idea of carrying that into layering different kinds of mascara totally.

Love,

Your Makeup Agony Aunt

Jun 17, 2011

Jun 17, 20116 notes

re:outlining lips for people with thin lips... This trick also works for those of us who don't have matching upper and lower lip shapes. My upper lip doesn't meet the edges of my lower lip so I have to create the shape otherwise lipstick will smear on the outside edges of my upper lip and it just looks a mess.

Excellent! Thank you.

Love,

Your Makeup Agony Aunt

Jun 17, 2011

Mascara... I have tried them all and my #1 favorite is the Rimmel Lash Extender. It lengthens (<3 long feathery lashes), it's buildable, it's pretty awesome and it's like $6. I've tried most of the expensive brands and always wind up going back to my old friend. How do you feel about nail polish? Do you have a favorite brand?

I was looking at Rimmel mascara just this past weekend. Now I wish I had tried it. Ah well, there’s always this upcoming weekend!

Oh, oh, oh, I love nail polish. LOVE IT. Just spent the evening polishing my nails.

Once upon a time, when I was a wee little Rotundling, I bit my nails. Like whoa. My mom bought me a manicure kit - when I was 8 years old - and I started polishing my nails and stopped biting them.

For a very long time, I polished my nails every two or three days like clockwork. Like, for twenty years I did that. I’ve been prone to going a lot longer between manicures over the past few years - but I’m really at my best when I have a fresh mani/pedi. I generally do my own, but I’ll splurge every now and then, especially for a spa pedicure. *swoon*

China Glaze is probably my favorite brand. They offer fantastic colors, good length and endurance of wear, and they aren’t super pricey.

Tonight I applied China Glaze Lubu Heels to my toenails - it’s a black polish with intense red glitter in it. And then I used Emerald Sparkle on my finger nails.

I’m also coming to appreciate Orly more and more - they have really beautiful cream colors.

Love,

Your Makeup Agony Aunt

Jun 16, 20111 note

I love how FUN you and the people who chime in/leave suggestions are making makeup. Thank you for helping me feel less afraid of not doing things "right." I just want to buy a bag of colors and paint my face for no reason other than the fact that MY FACE WOULD LOOK AWESOME WITH COLORS ON IT! xoxoxo

Your face would totally look awesome with colors on it!

Makeup is one of those things with a whole bunch of bullshit rules about what we are and are not allowed to wear and what we MUST wear and who’s allowed to wear what in the first place.

FUCK A BUNCHA THAT.

No right, no wrong, just makeup.

Love,

Your Makeup Agony Aunt

Jun 16, 20115 notes

My favorite makeup remover is just plain jojoba oil - I buy it from trader joe's, it's about $8 for a bottle that will probably last me years. I get a cotton pad wet with water, then put a drop of oil on it, then use that to remove my makeup. It gets off waterproof makeup SO easily - no tugging, it just comes right off! Plus I don't have to rinse it off, and it leaves my eye area soft and moisturized. I really, really love it - it's way better than any eye makeup remover I've tried.

Another testimonial for jojoba oil! I love it. Thank you for your rec!

Love,

Your Makeup Agony Aunt

Jun 16, 2011

I have a smallish mouth, and while lip plumping glosses make me deliciously tingly-feeling (on my face only, alas) they do me little good. I love wearing bright lipstick too, but it makes my lips look even thinner for being emphasized. have never tried lipliner or layering on anything else. I'd just go up to my bedroom and fool around with makeup, but I've already tried that, and as a trans person I'm a little sensitive to looking not just bright and bold but cartoonishly overdone. Do you have any tips for emphasizing that particular feature? Thank you eternally. <333

Hello, darling anon! Lip plumping glosses feel so INTERESTING. They make me super aware of my mouth, even though I don’t notice anything different with my lips either. I kind of like the feeling though.

Try this: Find a lip color and a lip liner that are a medium shade - not super bright because you’re just experimenting with liner now, not color so much. Maybe a nice lovely berry shade of some sort.

Do you have foundation? Liquid foundation can be a pain in the ass in the summer time, but it’s worth having a small bottle of drug store foundation in a shade that matches your skin tone around your mouth just for this trick. Dab it on your lips, and make sure to blend it really good around the edges. This will do two things: one, it’ll help make your lipstick last longer, and two, it’ll kind of disguise the edge of your lip where it meets the skin of your face so you can play a little bit.

There are definitely ways to get this wrong - it’s a pretty standard drag queen trick and it looks FANTASTIC on stage or from a distance. But we want something a little more everyday so you aren’t going to exaggerate it. Take the lip liner - a soft pencil is probably easiest at this point - and line JUST outside the edge of your lips. Use the pencil to fill in your lips once you have them lined.

Basically, you’ve colored in your mouth and slightly increased the edges.

It doesn’t sound like a big change, but it has a surprisingly big effect. Then put on your lipstick. Then put a bit of gloss in the middle of your bottom lip.

That’s going to seriously emphasize your mouth.

With darker colors, it can be a very dramatic, vampy look. Which is awesome.

On a certain level, I think almost everyone worries to some degree about looking cartoonish instead of bright and bold. It has extra nuance for you, I know, but I also don’t want you to feel like you are completely alone in worrying about this stuff. Makeup has become one of those damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t things where the standards of acceptability are increasingly narrow if you’re going for mainstream beauty. Dramatic, but not too bold. Lively, but not too bright. This, but not that. It’s really hard to navigate.

I think, with some experience, you’ll learn your own comfort zones with color. There are definitely colors that will be safer - soft pinks and corals seem to signify refinement; they’re less threatening. Sometimes we wear the bright colors and look bright AND bold AND overdone - there are so many people afraid of color that just having the nerve to wear it rocks some people’s worlds.

The other thing is that no matter how safe you play it, there will always be people who think it’s overdone; it’s a bullshit truth that you can’t please everybody all of the time. Please yourself and please the people who count to you. If you’ve got friends you trust, ask them to help you find the line between bold and too much for you personally.

And remember to have fun with it. Going up to your room and playing with makeup might be a fun thing to do on a regular basis. *grin*

Love,

Your Makeup Agony Aunt

Jun 16, 20112 notes

Your Makeup Agony Aunt

June 2011

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