Makeup and Skin Care

by Joan Renee
and Kathy Wilson


How do I cover my beard shadow ?

To cover a beard, minimize roughly textured skin or you perspire heavily, use Kryolan Cream Stick plus Dermacolour powder. The cream stick is an oil base makeup and comes in a great variety of colors, so you should be able to accurately match your skin tone. It is opaque enough to cover heavy beard shadow without using a beard cover stick. Follow the instructions that come with it, and finish with Dermacolour powder. The powder is pigmented, so you need to buy an appropriate shade to match your skin tone. It sets the cream stick and makes it last through heavy perspiration. Several layers of cream stick and powder will effectively smooth out acne scarred skin. To minimize large pores, a second coat of foundation and a dusting of powder works very well. - Joan Renee

If you have oily skin, some oil based foundations and concealers may begin to slide off or look greasy after a few hours. Cosmetic oils can make dark beard hairs appear even darker beneath your makeup. My favorite beard cover is a wax based "Camouflage Cream" from Jim Bridges Boutique in Los Angeles and some theatrical supplies. If you match it carefully to your skin tone, it looks natural and stays put on hot and cold days. It is easy on your skin and makes a great concealer for blemishes and dark under-eye areas. Set it with powder from the jaw-line up and blend the powder sparingly below the jaw. Too much powder on your neck can come off on clothes and jewlery. - Kathy


How do I apply foundation?

Apply a drop each to the forehead, nose, chin. And lips. Using fingertips or a sponge, gently blend downward until the foundation blends invisibly. For those with beards to cover, use the same procedure but with slightly more beard concealer. Smooth powder over the face ( from forehead and down ), let set on beard concealer for a few minutes, and then lightly brush off excess. I use this time to apply my mascara. By the time I've finished, my foundation is set. - Joan Renee

Foundation color should be tested at the jawline in natural light. It should virtually disappear into your skin color. For most people, it looks more natural to use a moisturizer under foundation. This makes the foundation appear to be part of the skin, not to sit on top of it. On the other hand, some moisturizers can darken beard hair under the skin and should be avoided under beard concealer.

Makeup sponges, bought by the bag at drugstores, and a good set of natural-hair makeup brushes are worth their weight in gold for applying and blending all your makeup. - Kathy


What about Concealers?

Dot concealer directly on dark circles and at the inner corners of your eyes. Use your ring finger to gently blend. As with any area close to the eye, gentle is the word. - Joan Renee

Your concealer should just match or be slightly lighter than your skin tone. - Kathy


How do I do my eyes ?

The eyes are the most fun to paint, but possibly the most difficult to do well. First, avoid brightly colored and frosted eye shadows. I know that they're fun, but they can age your eye. They are alright if used in moderation and you are under 30. Otherwise avoid them. Learn to contour your eye with neutrals like taupe, brown, and off white. The upper eyelash line should be defined with a brush and brown liner or an eyebrow pencil, and lightly smudged with a Q tip. Even if you are older and don't plan to wear much makeup, you should softly define the eye. To NOT makeup the eye is aging. The lower eyelash line can be dotted with brown and smudged, or defined more strongly with a blurred line.

To contour the eye, keep in mind the natural light and shadows of the eye. There is a high light under the brow bone under the arch of the brow. The crease above the eyelid is shadowed, and the lid picks up some light and seems lighter. This means the lid can be foundation color, the crease can be darkened slightly, and a bit of highlight added on the brow bone, if you MUST use color, use color the same value as your foundation on your eye lid. This is the one spot you might get away with a frosted color. Use a deeper color in the crease (definitely NOT frosted), but use off-white on the brow bone. This combination will seem more natural. For major glamour, you can use smokier color on your eyelid.

If your eye is aging, and the upper eye is sagging, you have to be careful where you put color You can still easily make the eye look gorgeous! Be careful that your brow bone highlight doesn't blend down so far that it highlights the sagging fold of skin. Avoid shadowing toward the nose in the deepest part of the eye. That will sink the eye even more. The important thing is to shadow the sagging fold flesh and keep any frosted colors away from the sagging part of the eye. Frosted colors will highlight the problem. Your safest bet is a dark taupe or charcoal to minimize the fold of flesh. This will give you a normal pretty eye. If you wish, you can vary the look in keeping with current makeup trends. Just stay with what women in your age group are using. - Joan Renee


How do I tame my eyebrows?

Eyebrows are a good place to begin making up your eyes. We express so many emotions with them that they attract a lot of attention. Most male eyebrows grow longer and lower on the brow bone than women's brows, and nothing spoils a feminine look faster than bushy 'Andy Rooney' eyebrows. Fortunately, pencil-thin brows are out of style, so it is possible to create a natural look that works in either gender role.

I prefer to trim the upper lash hairs and pluck the lower ones. Use a lash comb to lift the hairs and small shears to trim the ends. Go slowly, trimming a tiny length at a time. Be aware of the direction that the hair is growing; a hole in your brow can take weeks to regrow.

Plucking and shaping requires care and patience. Unlike other body hairs, not all eyebrow follicles regrow. Ideally, your brow should start directly over the inside corner of the eye, arch to its highest point over the outside edge of the iris, and taper to end at an imaginary line that extends from the outside edge of the nostril through the outside corner of the eye. With a good tweezer, start with obvious strays between the eyes and below the brow bone. Women are often told to never tweeze above the eyebrows, but male sprouts that resemble insect antennae have to go. Pluck gradually, a few hairs per day. This reduces mistakes and inflammation and doesn't abruptly change your appearance to others. When you reach a shape you like, a weekly touchup is all that's needed to maintain it.

For a natural look, I prefer powder to brow pencils. First, smooth upward with a small brush, then apply brow powder (most eye shadows work fine), with a stiff angled makeup brush. Blonds should use a taupe color. For everyone else, a shade slightly darker than your hair works well. - Kathy


How do I apply Mascara?

Apply mascara to the upper lashes first, hold brush horizontally. Hold brush vertically to apply mascara to the lower lashes, using just the tip of the brush. Separate lower lashes with brush if necessary. - Joan Renee

An eyelash curler can make the most of thin lashes, especially if used after washing your face while the lashes are moist. Squeeze each lash for about 12 seconds before applying mascara. Brown mascara works best with blonde and red hair, black or brown-black for brunettes. - Kathy


What about lipstick?

One of the biggest makeup problems for lips is color that changes or seem to disappear. Here are six simple steps to color with staying power.

  • Use your foundation as a base coat on your lips. Apply smoothly, but not too heavily.
  • Outline the shape of your lips with a lip pencil. Not too dark a color; this isn't the ‘60's.
  • Fill in with lipstick. Use a brush if necessary.
  • Blot with tissue.
  • Powder your lips with translucent powder, brush off the excess, to fix your lipstick.
  • Add a second coat of lipstick or lip gloss in the same shade, to revitalize the color.
    - Joan Renee

    For a more casual daytime look, you can line your lips with lipstick using a brush. In cold weather, first soften the tip of the lipstick by dotting on your lower lip. The brush will pick up the color much more smoothly. - Kathy


    What about blush?

    Apply blush, starting at the hair line, blending down and toward the center of the eye. Always apply toward the center of the face (not in different directions). Blend with a blush brush, fingers tend to smudge it. Apply from just in front of the ears to a point just under the middle of the eye on the natural cheek area of your face. If you have a large head, leave some space between your ear/hairline and your blush. - Joan Renee

    Unnatural cheek color is the most common mistake that transgendered and genetic women make. The ideal blush is the shade your cheeks turn when you blush and should look subtle and well blended. Less than perfect cheeks can be countoured by using a slightly darker shade of blush just below the cheekbone, blended up toward the ears. Highlight the "apples" of the cheeks with a lighter rosier coler, blended more horizontally. If you choose a more dramatic look for your eyes or lips, keep your cheek color more subdued. - Kathy


    How Important is Skin Care?

    Very important! Healthy skin is the most important step in putting your best face forward. Protect it with a sunscreen every day and cleanse and moisturize your face every morning and night. Alpha Hydroxy Acid cremes before bed can soften and smooth the texture of your complexion. - Kathy

    Practice makes perfect

    ... but only if you strive to eliminate your mistakes. With practice and experience, your time spent applying makeup will decrease from hours to several minutes. - Joan Renee