Don’t Be a Makeup Chicken

A commenter (thanks, Yadon!) asked if wearing makeup the way I wear makeup (i.e., not at all natural in the slightest) is like wearing a mask, since this kind of makeup isn’t like anyone’s face. And I’ve been thinking about that. I’m going to have to say no.

I can see how it might feel that way to some people - like it’s putting on a different face. So much of the conventional wisdom surrounding makeup, as it is with clothes, is about emphasizing “assets” and minimizing “flaws” - as though people’s faces aren’t perfectly fine the way they are.

That’s the kind of social pressure that makes loving makeup kind of a mine field for a progressive, feminist, etc., etc. person. Because it isn’t like observers can see my politics flashing above my head - they just see another woman wearing makeup. That’s one reason I talk about it a lot, about how fun makeup can be, as opposed to how (fill in the blank)makeup can help you fit in. I’m not really interested in fitting in.

Instead of a mask, makeup is, for me, a paint box. It’s feathers and sequins. It’s adornment. I can’t change my hair color every day, but I can put something different on my eyelids and lips. It’s got elements of costuming, but it’s still essentially me. I’m not looking to hide what my face truly is so much as I’m looking to put bright and spangly things on it because I like it.

I do like my face, for the most part. I hated my nose when I was a teenager, but I suspect most people hate their noses when they are teenagers and someone points out to them that noses are kind of strange.

This is, of course, not to say that all natural-looking makeup is bad or wrong. I don’t think there is bad or wrong when it comes to a particular style of doing makeup itself. (The impetus and insistence that gets leveraged behind certain styles is another matter.) It’s just not my style.

Closed eye with yellow and orange eyeshadow in warm, matte shades

Today’s makeup is meant to match my new dress from LucieLu.com - seriously, y’all, if you’re looking for plus-size, on-trend clothes for decent prices with good quality, I cannot recommend LucieLu highly enough. Love it. Anyway, I have this wren dress with a mustard yellow top and I wanted to do some eyeshadow that played with that color.

Both closed eyes, with eyeshadow in warm, matte shades of yellow and orange

I really need to figure out how to take better pictures, y’all.

This is MAC in four colors. Burnt Orange, which is a mustard yellow matte, all over the lid; Brown Script, which is a brick brown matte, in the inner corner; Orange, which is a bright freaking orange matte, at the outer corner; and Retro-Speck as a highlight under my eyebrow.

What the pictures don’t show so well is how much dimension you can get when you’re playing around with tones and related shades. I’m pairing this with bright red, matte Ruby Woo lipstick, also by MAC, because I can look really washed out and, indeed, jaundiced when wearing yellow. The pop of color really helps even things out.

In other makeup news, I wore this last week:

Closed eye, with neutral cream eyeshadow and a burst of pink, with black eyeliner

I think this was Thursday (I’ve been wearing makeup every work day but I’ve not managed photos every day - I’m working on it). It’s one of the MAC Hello Kitty palettes - I am still so glad I bought them both. I used Yogurt allllll over as a creamy neutral shade. It’s got a tiny hint of pink to it, at least to my eye, so it brightens everything without being in your face about it.

See, sometimes I’m subtle. Okay, not really. *laugh* That’s Romping, a (definitely blue-based) hot pink frost, in my crease and blended down onto my lower lid.  I lined with Stately Black, which is a matte black with fine (blue-based) silver glitter.  The glitter doesn’t show up so well in this picture, alas. And then, though you can’t see it in this pic, I lined under my eye with Too Dolly, which is a nice cool aqua frost. It was bright and perky without being color from lashline to browline.

Most days, you know, I do opt for color from lashline to browline. *laugh* I wore shades of purple yesterday - I wish I’d gotten a photo.

Saturday night I went out with my husband and a friend to play pool (and air hockey and ping pong) and I decided to go for something a little more dramatic. This has also taught me to take pictures before I go out for the night, especially if the night involves drinking. Still, let’s just take this as a testament to Urban Decay’s Primer Potion: this makeup is at least 7 hours old.

Closed eye, eyeshadow in shades of black and silver, very smoky

Who doesn’t love a good smoky eye? Man, I wore this with Ruby Woo again and it was so awesome. Reminded me of getting ready to go clubbing when I was going clubbing almost every night.

This one took a little more effort, but I was also playing around and thoroughly enjoying myself. I started with Cinderfella, the black/silver mineralized shadow from MAC’s Style Black collection. Seriously, those eyeshadows still make my heart pound with how gorgeous they are. Ahem. So, Cinderfella on the lower lid. I took a dark pewter frost called Pandemonium into the crease, then a lighter silver called Silver Ring above that. Then I used a slightly purple color, a recent aquisition that I seem to be using every chance I get, called Crystal as a highlight under my brow.

That might have been enough but I also went back in with Carbon, the most intense black matte (I love it so much), and generously lined top and bottom. I blended Carbon into the Cinderfella pretty aggressively and then applied more Cinderfella so I didn’t lose the mega sparkle.

Then I cleaned up with MAC wipes because, zomg, fallout like whoa. *laugh* It’s good to keep something on hang to clean up - I use the MAC wipes but I haven’t been using foundation at all lately. When I am, I use a clean brush or a q-tip to pick up/brush away spots of fallen color.

That was one night when I wished my quest for the perfect mascara was already over. I’m trying a Sephora sample right now and it’s fine for daily wear but I need some more drama.

For the record, I use the MAC wipes to take all this stuff off at the end of the night, too. Some people are sensitive to them but I love the mild exfoliation and how easy they are. When I don’t have them on hand, I don’t wear makeup.

Okay rant time.

As we have seen with photographic evidence I am a Black woman. I am a milk chocolatey shaded Black woman.

I am really annoyed today. I am annoyed because I have a love of supporting small business and whatnot but you know what, fuck you small mineral make up companies. Fuck you right in the ear.

I am saying that because I have been on the hunt for new things to try and 95% of the sites and shops I come across make products that are only appropriate for people up to a tan person and screw the rest of us.

And it’s always the same excuses. I have spent time (not recently because I don’t feel like it) emailing makers of fine sparkly bits asking why don’t they have foundations, primers, powders etc appropriate for brown people. The usual excuse is well I’m white so… Or the I don’t know anyone to help test.

I call double bullshit and shenanigans.

I would imagine if you are making make up than you probably understand that you could in all likelyhood purchase some foundations etc that are made for brown skin and figure out your own color combos.

Now my ire on this issue is not reserved for the little guys. But the big ones too and for them I’m naming names.

I have been wearing make up for a long time and once I had internet access about ten years ago I started writing letters to companies like Maybelline, Almay, etc. How was it that the cheap brand CoverGirl I’m looking at you, had figured out that women of color wanted access to decent cosmetics but the rest seem to not even think about it.

Not once did I get an answer from any of them. Just put on mailing lists and sent coupons I couldn’t use.

It’s frustrating and it makes me angry because I feel forgotten. I feel left out and there is no reason for it.

There is no reason I should have to search high and low to just find a product that’s darker than tan nevermind finding something quality. There is no reason that every drug store in my immediate neighborhood (there are five of them) carries every shade of products up until you get to the brown ones.

I can understand that huge corporations probably don’t care. They’ve done the market research and they probably just don’t care.

But the little companies stick in my craw because as we all know, once word gets out that so and so makes some awesome products people will flock there. I know that I personally have turned on other women of color to cosmetics that are affordable and beautiful.

It’s 2009 I think at this point in the game more people would be looking at these things and saying, hrm we are leaving out a potetentially huge and profitable market. In terms of that, do you then just say oh well I don’t know brown people/understand brown colors/am not brown myself and let it go?

I’m only going to say this once.

Grow some balls.

Okay now I’m done ranting under the jump I have some new reviews of stuff, things that make me feel fabulous.

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I know my post from yesterday is going to raise some eyebrows, but I hope y’all know that I’m still learning.

And no matter what, every blogger, reader and challenger is cared about by yours truly. Because these issues really matter to me. And hey! So does my best friend.

In love and solidarity,

JT

I associate the term non-fat with generally less-nutritious, bland and unsatisfying food. It’s different, but not in a good way.

I am non-fat on this blog. My non-fat status has caused me to pause for a moment and consider my place on Makeup Chicken and also what it means to feel marginalized. Essentially, fat women feel this way most places they visit–from airplanes to clothing stores to the doctor’s offices they visit. And here I am a member of a blog that has the potential to turn that world on its axis. It has the potential to be axiomatic by marginalizing thin, here. Though, like Soul Man*, I know what it’s like to escape the confines–I simply shut down my blog.

But I am a strong ally. Marianne Kirby, one of the most intelligent and inspiring people I know, has been my friend since I was 23 years old. 10 years of ups and downs and love all around. And I’ve seen some of that struggle, even if I have witnessed it from a position of privilege.

What I would like to say is that I recognize the axiomtic nature of this blog and that I am proud to walk the walk of being an ally, of being someone who defends fatpol and likes to consider herself a part of it–even if being non-fat means I don’t get to participate in the same ways fatpol women and men do.

So, listen. I’m non-fat, but I’m here to back y’all up in any way I can. And we should totally have a contest to see who can make the best logo for allies. Can we get a widget? Can we get some recognition over here? Let’s make being an ally something the non-fat can declare everywhere–publicly, on their blogs, to others who aren’t aquainted, to trolls, to haters of all kinds and to non-advocates.

I am an ally. Are you? Got something you wanna do about it?

*Yes, the cheesy ’80s film.

Tonight, I’m flying on a jet plane. To India. I’ll be in Delhi and Bangalore and out into Karnataka for 2 weeks.

My plan is to post as much as possible from India and include pictures. I’m hoping to explore questions about how another culture uses makeup to express themselves, how color is used to represent aspects of the culture and hopefully become inspired.

Now, appropriation is an issue we’ve discussed already, so it will be interesting to explore this issue in tandem because we can ask: Are things like color an exemption from this issue? Is it appropriation if I wear a style I see while I’m there? Or: Why can’t I appropriate some aspects of cultural expression in makeup? Or is makeup depoliticized in this area and separate from products that appropriate, like the Harajuku bottle?

I guess what I’m asking is: Is being inspired and wearing another culture’s style in makeup appropriation? And if so, to what degree? If not, why?

I’m so stoked about this trip, y’all.

So, who the hell do I think I am? I think I’m JT Taylor–struggling dissertator, copywriter, makeup and skin care enthusiast, and last but not least, a melancholy baby. Like my list of labels? No? They’re just a place to start.

I’m writing my dissertation on Martyrdom and another subject I will not release into the ether just yet. I’ve been an academic on and off for about 10 years, if you include my over-achieving final years of college. I would ramble off the rest of my CV, but nah. I’ll talk to you about my dissertation and your eyes will glaze over, or you will just pick on me for months on end about it and I’ll get annoyed. *nervous chuckle*

I work as a copywriter for a major university in Orlando. We’re a force for economic certainty. We’re……oh, wait. This isn’t a brochure. I’m marketing ME. Yes. Right.

Moving along.

I come from a working class family in the back woods of Florida. No one ever showed me how to take care of myself, so things were sprung on me as life happened. No makeup counter visits. No shopping for pretty bras. No telling me to shave, and when to or how. Makeup, for many years, was a mystery to me. Something rich people did. And while the degrees to which I was right are rather high, I can afford it now and so I do.

I think aesthetics have the power to be political, and I’m revealing myself here to some degree, partially because they are personal. They are personal choices we make, and often make every day. Part of the point of my presence on this blog is to join with you in talking about the cosmetic world in not just an aesthetic sense, but a political context. It’s cultural. It’s class restrictive, but isn’t really restrictive in and of itself (Oh, Marx, you’ll have to wait to talk about capital until another post). Its meaning is invested, not essential. That thought is liberating to me, though I find myself conflicted in the fact that it is very much a class marker, and yet I tend to buy the most “status” makeup and skin care of anyone I know. (See: Freud.)

Think I’m getting too cerebral about makeup? I don’t, but if you do, wait ’til you hear my theories on Silence of the Lambs.

So, as I mentioned yesterday, JT and I went and bought makeup the other day. Having the disposable income to enjoy a splurge on makeup is a relatively new experience and it really highlights the socio-economic indicators of makeup shopping.

I’ve enjoyed MAC products for years. But I’ve always gravitated towards the eyeshadows. This is, in part, because eye shadows are little explosions of awesome color. But they are also, arguably, among the cheaper makeup products, especially if you are getting the palette pans ($10.50) instead of the individual pots ($14).

My life has wound its way between classes. My father’s family is comfortable, a bit country club, so I know the rules for those situations. My mother’s family is pure working class. Firemen and mechanics. And I spent way more time with them. I move back and forth with a certain amount of ease because I know what is expected - knowing the rules and having the confidence to fake comfort will carry you a long way - but I have never had the personal funds to procure the right Look. Plus, you know, I’m fat. And that is an entirely different social marker.

Even as an adult, especially when I was teaching, I’ve been stretched, caught in that paycheck to paycheck trap. An eye shadow - or a couple of eye shadows if I was unexpectedly flush - was a welcome indulgence, a bit of reward that made me feel like things weren’t quite so grim (and when I was teaching, things were GRIM).

Now I find myself settling marginally into a more middle class situation (which comes with its own terrors) and other products in which I had no interest hold more appeal. It baffles me, still, how much money people can spend on moisturizers. I’m appalled at the price of my own moisturizer (Bobbi Brown’s Face Base $45)!

And that has more, I think, to do with my previous inability to fathom spending that much on something that wasn’t a necessity than it does with any (nonexistent) inherent disinterest in things like moisturizers. Such items were never even in the realm of justifiable, you know?

Of course, even when I was walking the thin poverty line, there were people with even less cash than me. My $10 makeup indulgence was someone else’s weekly food budget. Makeup gets a lot less important in those situations - and unfortunately people are still judged by that lack of participation in a social ritual.

When I walk into the makeup store now, and I’m able to purchase things that used to be entirely out of my reach, I am participating in that aspect of our culture that values makeup and the way women who wear it present themselves. Hopefully, through shopping with a company that values diversity and then wearing makeup according to my own rules instead of the narrow ones imposed by the beauty standard, I’m helping to undercut those societal expectations that get imposed whether you are a willing participant or not. But, still, to a casual observer, I may very well be just another woman wearing makeup.

This is the aspect of makeup that makes me uncomfortable. It is ALWAYS going to be out of some people’s reach. In that regard, it will always underscore socio-economic differences and be used as a marker for class levels. I don’t feel guilt for being able to purchase things like the beauty powder I brought home the other day. But I do wonder if I’m perpetuating a system I’m trying to oppose.

I’ve never been a huge fan of Gwen Stefani. I like her, but to be honest, I’ve never dug the general aesthetic she presents, and presents well. The Harajuku dancers in her video and the small dolls she has used for her perfume sit wrongly with me in general because I see this as appropriation.

From Wikipedia: Cultural appropriation is the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different cultural group. It denotes acculturation or assimilation, but often connotes a negative view towards acculturation from a minority culture by a dominant culture.*

Now, some theorists read appropriation to only be negative if the individual rejects the people of the culture they are appropriating. As far as I know, Stefani hasn’t been in Japan giving time and money to Japanese people. I don’t know. Educate me.

Yet, ultimately, I can’t help but feel appropriation is a much wider issue. Stefani is not a member of Japanese culture. Appropriating Japanese culture in this manner is not entirely ok with me.

I’m sure we can all agree that this isn’t a finely defined problem–this is a very complicated and grey-area issue, so it’s not like I stand against appropriation unequivocally. I’ve had a long-distance love with Japanese and Indian culture for a long time, now, myself. Which may have actually been a factor in my even picking up a bottle of Gwen Stefani’s ‘Lovers’ perfumes. So, there’s my confession.

Reader, I picked up the little Harajuku doll, took off the cap and fell deeply in love with the ‘G’ scent.

Here’s the big question: What do you do with the emotion involved in a moment like this? Our emotions often tend to rule decisions we make, and in a way, by purchasing a bottle of the scent, I have supported her appropriation of Harajuku (and Japanese culture in general, really). On the one hand, I feel like I’ve betrayed my sense of justice, and on the other, I’ve just bought the greatest scent. And I stopped wearing perfume years ago! So, that’s how much I love it.

I may be belaboring the issue and taking it a bit seriously.

So, reader, what does one do in a moment like this, huh? Take it back? Keep it? Talk to me.

*Wikipedia is just a start, here! Hit me with your definitions of appropriation.