Don’t Be a Makeup Chicken

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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When I read the eyeshadow_sluts community on Livejournal, it can be a really inspiring thing. It can also make me feel like makeup is only worthwhile if it involves 12 different colors that have all been expertly blended and then accented by fake lashes.

While makeup like that is awesome, it can be really intimidating. When I start to feel like that, I try to remember my very first MAC purchase.

I’d worn a lot of brightly colored makeup before but it had all been drugstore stuff. Loreal had some pigments that I was particularly into when I was in college. But the pigmentation is what separates the good stuff from the drugstore stuff.

So, one afternoon I found myself in the local MAC store and a makeup artsit named Nick did my eyeshadow and set me down a path of bright colors. It was a very simple look. Bitter - a bright chartruese - all over my eyelid, from lashes to browbone, thick black liquid liner, and loads of black mascara.

It was amazing. Especially when I added some Crimson Lipmix.

Wearing bright colors does not require an art degree, fifty blending brushes, and hours of experimentation. Pick one color, a bright one, that you really really love. Grab some black liquid liner (I am so much in love with the Penultimate Liner in RapidBlack by MAC - it’s like a brush marker and is super easy to apply) and yourr favorite dramatic mascara and go to town.

Use a good eyeshadow base. I cannot tell you enough how good the Urban Decay Primer Potion is. I know I say that every time but it’s true! When I bought Bitter, I didn’t have the Primer Potion - it hadn’t been released yet. The Bitter was still incredibly bright but when I bought eyeshadow base and wore it? There was an appreciable difference, y’all.

Last night I bought a color called Blue Calm. It’s like Electric Eel, but with shimmer. I bought it and the Penultimate liner pen and knew they were meant to be together. Which is why tonight, I’m wearing the Blue Calm and the liner and very little else. I added a little Sky Blue to the brow bone - Blue Calm doesn’t sheer out the way Bitter does - as a blendable highlight.

This blue is not particularly calm, not matter what they name it.

Don’t be afraid of brights! Even if you’re just getting into makeup and you feel like your technique is a little shaky, you can wear them. That’s all there is to it.

I like my face. I think it’s pretty. I THINK IT’S PRETTY!*

Contrary to popular belief, wearing makeup isn’t a sign that you feel self conscious about or hate the way your face looks. I wear makeup because I like my face. I wear it because of the morning ritual.

That’s right. One major reason I wear makeup is that my morning ritual is basically me staring at my own face. The messages I get from this, as I care for it through skincare and makeup, is that I have a pretty face and, dammit, I like to be reminded.

One of the beautiful, liberating things about buying makeup is that it’s likely going to fit. It doesn’t need to be hemmed. It will always fit just right. It’ll never show whale tail when you squat to pick something up. It’s the kind of shopping that you can do with anyone else who digs it. Lipgloss does not carry with it the social weight that shopping for clothing just might.

Now, you don’t have to wear makeup, or pay lots of money for the right cleanser and moisturizer to do this. You *could* do this as a confidence builder–sit in front of your mirror and look at the beautiful things in your face. Because it is beautiful.

For me, makeup is not only something to make my face stand out, but it’s something to do while I’m doing my morning ritual.

*Yes, this is a Cabaret reference.

I woke up today with a fierce desire to pluck my eyebrows; I didn’t get a chance to tend to that bit of maintenance until I got home from work.

Work was a doozy today, not for any particular reason - just a regular Monday. The problem is that I work 9.5-hour days and, especially on Mondays, I am super tired when I get home.

It’s easy, when I’m that tired, to collapse and do nothing for the rest of the night. But tonight I found my mirror and my tweezers and I spent 10 minutes plucking stray hairs and keeping the shape of my brows from going too crazy. And when I was done, I felt better.

Makeup, and things like plucking my eyebrows, is self-care for me. I kind of hate that term, self-care, because it sounds a bit too “I’ve been in therapy for a long time” but I can’t think of any better way to describe the group of things you do simply to take care of yourself, the things you do because they make you feel good.

Plucking my eyebrows means I have to sit down and be still (I’d hate to poke myself in the eye!) and look at myself in a mirror. I avoided mirrors for a very long time - classic fat girl mirror avoidance, I tell you. But when I started doing my makeup, I had to look. And you know what? Looking at your face in the mirror should not be a terrifying prospect. I got used to my face, I got used to my fat cheeks and the way my eyes crinkle up when I smile and the wrinkle in my forehead that apparently only I can see. And once I got used to my face, I got to know it. And I come to like it.

If you don’t wear makeup because you think you don’t deserve it, spend some time, every day, getting to know your face in the mirror. Learn about the way your upper lip bows in the middle or the way your hairline has a widow’s peak or the way your nose turns down. Learn these things and you will stop being afraid of them. Maybe you’ll want to wear makeup and maybe you won’t, but you’ll know a lot more about yourself at the end of a month’s time.

This is MAC eyeshadow in Velvet Moss, Bitter, Sharp, and Chrome Yellow.

So I was crying in the parking lot one day. I had just gone for a job interview with my company (for a promotion) and I thought I had done a terrible job presenting my ideas. I felt horrible about myself.

That was when I decided that I had to toss the fear and just visit the makeup counters at Saks Fifth Avenue. I had always wanted to stick my fingers in the cool eyeshadows and play with the lipglosses at the higher-end counters. But I had always been too afraid.

That day, I just went in and I looked a mess from crying. The Stila artist behind the counter simply asked: Would you like me to do your makeup? I can show you some cool looks. She remained my artist friend for years following.

Since that day, I’ve been to amazing makeup counters of all kinds. This is because that makeup artist, Theresa, taught me these points about getting rid of that fear:

1. You are the customer. They want to make money. Guess who really has the power.

2. Get what you want and no more.And don’t let them pressure you. Just say, “I don’t need it.” That is your mantra at the counter for when you DO NOT WANT.

3. There is nothing that you cannot learn with practice and a little instruction. Nothing.

4. There is no mystical makeup force to be had. Not only can you learn it, but you can master it.

5. You know it looks good….because YOU THINK it looks good. Or, you don’t. It is YOUR CALL.

I love makeup. For shizzle.

Yo.

But, for far too many women for far too many reasons, makeup can be a stressful burden. What are the rules of makeup? How should things be applied? What the hell IS a primer, anyway? Makeup, to those who feel intimidated or just plain overwhelmed, can seem more like alchemy than fingerpainting. The goal of Makeup Chicken is to take some of the mystery out of the products, the application techniques, the color choices, and encourage an attitude of fun and adventure. After all, it’s only makeup.

Another night spent playing with makeup.