One of the most important things in my mind for a Trans-woman to master is the art of makeup. While there are exceptions, including my close friend "D" who can pass with little or no makeup; the majority of us cannot. What follows are some of my thoughts on the topic.
One of my flaws early on - and for a great many Trans-women - is that we don't wear our makeup in an age appropriate manner. Now I'm not saying anybody has too, but if you are seeking to blend in one of the worst things you can do is have your makeup done in a style more appropriate for someone 10/20/30 years your junior. Another common thing I see is overdone makeup. Don't get me wrong, I love to wear makeup and look nice, but try going to the grocery store on a weekday morning. At the vast majority of those stores you'll see cis-women with little or no makeup and almost none done up for a night on the town. The same could be said for attire - stilettos for example are something I love, but again you don't see them at the grocery store, library, etc. However, that's a topic for another day, today's is makeup.
Lets talk about the elephant in the room to start with - purchasing makeup. This seems to be the largest hurdle for many Trans-women, including myself at one point. Some deal with this by utilizing the Internet and while that's great once you know what kinds of things you like and what works for you it can be frustrating (and expensive) early on as you're playing a guessing game to a large extent. I'd recommend biting the bullet and going to the store personally. Now, if you have a supportive significant other or even friend that can/will go with you that can greatly ease the stress; but even if you don't I want to say a few things. I spent nearly three years as a part-time cashier and then customer service manager (cashier supervisor basically) at Wal-Mart and then about a year as a part-time cashier at Target and trust me plenty of men, cross-dressers, and Trans-women came in alone and bought makeup. Virtually nobody gives it a second thought. We're too busy worrying about our break/lunch, what we're doing when we get off work, our families, and a million other things to care about what you're buying. Now are there exceptions to that? Yes, especially older cashiers, they're usually slower and pay more attention to what they're scanning. Younger cashiers are generally faster, are less concerned with what they're scanning, and often times even if they do pay attention they're more accepting anyway. What you DO NOT want to do is start making excuses for the makeup you're buying - nothing draws attention to things quicker than that. It should be no different than any other shopping trip for you.
A special word about "self checkouts". Those are hit and miss for a couple of reasons. Generally there is a stand where an employee monitors those self-checkouts and they can see everything that is rang up. Now that assumes that the employee is actively monitoring their system; but don't think that simply because you're not directly in front of a cashier that you're not being watched by one. The other "concern" is that a great deal of makeup has very small barcodes that can be difficult to scan. A regular cashier is used to that and will generally know just how to get the scanner to read it; but for somebody just in there to shop who may be nervous it's sometimes a challenge and you may quickly find an overly helpful employee standing next to you which can draw unwanted attention. Therefore if you are trying to get in and out the easiest I would suggest a young busy cashier as I said above; now if you've made it to the point I have where you don't care then self-checkout away.
From a personal perspective, I've also found that higher end stores such as M.A.C. and Sephora are great for this. Now it's more of a "personal experience" there as they have sales people roaming the floor; but both of these stores seem to cater to the Trans community. I've never had a salesperson be anything less than helpful there. Additionally, they're generally more than happy to help you make choices based upon what you're looking for and will generally demo it on you if you'd like. I still recall my first visit to a M.A.C. store; it was before I made the decision to transition - I was basically still cross-dressing. I wanted to wear lipstick on a regular basis so I decided I needed something in a nude shade to match my lip color. A very sweet young lady spent a good 15-20 minutes working with me to pick out a great lipstick and lip liner, and even took the time to apply it and explain what/how she was doing. Since I was so new at things it was great for me.
Sephora has been just as helpful. Their ColorIQ foundation matching system is great; although it didn't work very well for me as my skin was overly red from a laser treatment a day or two prior. However, the young woman assisting me took the time to try out several foundations until we found the perfect match and even re-did my makeup for me. I walked out looking better than when I walked in. I've also had a "make over" there. My roommate "M" and I went. I believe it's $50 *OR* you can purchase that amount in makeup (I ended up purchasing way more than that). It was about 45 minutes and she took my input as to what I liked and did my whole face explaining it along the way. Now I will say Sephora does this out in the middle of their sales floor; so if you're shy (like I am) this may be something you have to work up to. I was able to handle it and am glad I did; but I know our local M.A.C. store has both a setup on the floor as well as one in back if you don't want to be on public display while your makeup is being done. Despite the fact that it was hard for me to go into these stores back in the day I'm so grateful that I did as it allowed me to get some much needed help finding a good shade of foundation. Once I did it gave me so much more confidence with the rest of my makeup and my appearance that I started going out more often which I think has been a huge help to my transition.
The bottom line is that you're the customer with money to spend and these stores want that money. I've had nothing but good experiences at stores such as Sephora, M.A.C., Ulta, and Beauty Brands, and I don't hesitate to shop at discount stores - even "dollar stores" often have some great makeup cheap. I often pick up things there for "practice", but I've found a few things that I use regularly - just don't get attached as the dollar stores often get whatever inventory they get - it may be overstock, discontinued, or whatever; but it's generally not replenished.
I think this has gotten long enough; so I'm going to wrap it up now. The next time I post, I'll start covering specific makeup items and my experiences with them.
Thanks for reading.
-M
No comments:
Post a Comment