So you’ve gone out and bought everything from the Transfem Makeup Starter Kit, and you’re ready to get started. What now? Now, we invest in some basic, achievable looks that will get you started. But before we get to what to do, we have to cover what NOT to do. What Not To Do You’ve got all your makeup and you’re excited. You want to put EVERYTHING on. You want to stop holding back and get fancy. But friends, that is the path of pain. Don’t reach straight for the bold eyeshadow and the liquid eyeliner. The draw of the hyperfemme is strong, especially when you’ve been denying yourself all these years, but overdoing it without experience will work against the feminization you’re looking for. Learning makeup is about subtlety. You can absolutely achieve the beautiful, stunning, runway model looks of your dreams, but no-one gets there overnight. Tamp that urge to go straight for the brightest colors and the boldest looks, because without the experience to actually make them, you’ll just upset yourself when you get it wrong. And everyone gets them wrong at first. With that out of the way, let’s cover a basic look you can do right now, with simple tools. Remember to prep your face first – cleanse, moisturize, and clean any sleep or gunk from around your eyes. The Basic Cleanup For the first look, we’re going to do something very simple you can use to get out the door, or jump on a video call. What you’ll need: Blending sponge Thin eye brush Concealer Black eye pencil Contour Nude / natural lipstick or lip gloss Bronzer (optional) Steps: Apply a little dab of lighter-colored concealer to the inner corner of the under-eye, on the bottom half of any dark circles or bags, and another near the outer corner. Wet your blending sponge a little so it’s damp, and pat down and around to spread it, focusing on the bottom half of the under-eye, and lifting and extending outwards and upwards beside the eye. If you still have visible facial hair roots, do the same again around the mouth, but with a slightly darker color concealer (or color correcting concealer). Apply selective dabs, less is more. Blend out with the sponge around the area marked in red. The idea is not to have a sharp line where it finishes, and let it smooth out into your natural skin color. Draw a thin line with your contour around the jaw line, and blend down. This will subtlely soften the jaw line. Apply eye pencil to the eye, starting thin and getting thicker towards the outer corner. At the edge, go in slightly to the outer under corner. Soften gently with the thin eye brush. If you want to smoke out a little more, you can blend it out more. Add more product if the blending has taken too much of the color away. If the areas with concealer still look too bright, apply some powder bronzer that’s close to the color of your natural skin shade. Remember to pick it up with the brush, then dab on the back of your hand to remove excess product, and build as necessary. If your skin has natural redness, you may need to use some blush here as well to match your cool undertone. Finally, you’ve almost certainly gotten some concealer on your lips during all this, so apply some lipstick or lip gloss to bring your colour back. Less is more here too – don’t overdraw, especially at the corners of the mouth. Go less far than you think you have to, you can always add more. Apply a setting spray, setting powder, or finishing powder to lock it all in place. Here’s a diagram, numbered for steps. I’ve only drawn the under-eye and eye makeup on one side each, to make them more easily visible. There! You’re done. When you get used to this, it should only take 5 – 10 minutes and can be thrown on in a hurry. It’s a simple routine you can use to clean up and feminize your face without taking a lot of time and effort. Stay tuned for more as we dig into some more advanced techniques, and some fancier looks.
