The Eyes Have It

Sally Stone has kindly written a series of articles about makeup and makeup application that is specifically targeted for girls like us. The fifth installment of her series looks at our eyes.

By Sally Stone

File ID 90869742 | © Puhhha | Dreamstime.com

Eyes are hard, especially for girls like us. The other problem with eyes: they come in all shapes with all kinds of special makeup needs, so a single set of techniques isn’t going to work for all. With this in mind, it is probably more helpful if I focus on tips that help feminize the eyes and make them look larger.

My first recommendation: don’t waste too much time putting eye makeup on an area where all your hard work is going to be invisible. One example is the eyelid. I have hooded eyes, which almost completely hide my eyelids when my eyes are open. Unless I’m asleep, no one is going to see any of the eye makeup I put there. Consequently, I will often only put foundation on my eyelids leaving colorful eyeshadow for parts of my eye that are more visible.

Enhance your eyes by making them appear larger. You can accomplish this in a couple of different ways. The first is actually a basic grooming task and that is, shaping the eyebrows. A feminine arch to the brow not only helps the eye look bigger, it also helps feminize it. If you aren’t brave enough to truly feminize your eyebrows, at least groom them so they are trim and neat.

Avoid applying eyeliner on the upper lash line. It looks great on girls with naturally large eyes, but not so good on the rest of us. However, applying eyeliner and a little eyeshadow under the lower lash tends to open the eye up. You can also brighten the waterline (that area between your eyeball and the inside of the lower lash) with a white eyeliner pencil to make your eyes look bigger. Just be very careful with that sharp pencil so close to the eye.

If you want to add color to your eyes, I suggest doing the crease with a dark shade of eyeshadow, then apply a lighter shade just above the crease. With the lighter shade, follow the outside circumference of the eyelid down to the outside corner of the eye and then underneath the lower lash to a point approximately a third of the way. When finished, the crease will be dark with the outside half of the eye more brightly shaded. Be sure to blend the crease color and your chosen light color so that it’s impossible to tell where one color ends and the other begins.

I recommend only applying eyeshadow to the outside half of the eye, because, applying shadow to the inside half can actually make the eye look smaller. You’ll have to experiment with shading to determine which colors complement each another and which shades complement your skin tone.

To ensure the colored shadow you applied to the outside of the eye stands out, it is probably best to avoid applying any additional product on the area between the eye crease and the brow. I find that my eyes stand out more prominently if I leave this area natural.

If your eyebrows possess a feminine arch you can get away with applying some highlighter just below the outside half of the brow. If your brows are not arched, applying highlighter can actually accentuate a brow ridge, so be cautious. If you do have a more pronounced brow ridge, I would recommend applying a dark contour to it when you are contouring the rest of the face instead of trying to deal with it using eye makeup.

Finally, comes mascara. Apply three light coats allowing each coat dry before putting on the next. With each coating, take the time to lift and separate the lashes using a mascara comb. Building lash coverage is more effective and looks way more natural than clumping it on in one heavy coat and it is nearly impossible to separate the lashes if the comb is heavily laden with mascara.

And that’s it, ladies. As I stated in the beginning of this article, it may take some trial and error to find a set of makeup techniques that work for your particular eyes. Just keep in mind, that your main objectives should always be to feminize the eyes and make them appear larger than they really are. The basic techniques I have outlined, are the ones I have found to be most effective. It is my sincere hope they work just as well for you.

Wearing New York & Company

Chic gents attending Tuntenball

In My Makeup Bag

As a makeup maven, I try a lot of products and have some favorites that I feel confident recommending to you.

Avon Anew Clinical Eye Lift Pro Dual Eye System

I have been using this product for over two years. It is a two-part system. The tub includes a gel for your eyelids and brow bone and a cream for under your eyes. I apply it every morning after I cleanse my face. It keeps my eyelids tight/firm and reduces the appearance of wrinkles, especially crow's feet around my eyes.

Avon MagiX Face Perfector

This is a primer for the face that I apply every morning whether I will be femulating or not. It goes on silky smooth and leaves a powder soft, matte finish on my face, while hiding small imperfections, too. It is also a sunscreen. Try it once and you will use it everyday.

Smashbox 24 Hour Photo Finish Shadow Primer

Eye shadow primer is a great invention and I recommend Smashbox's version. If you use eyeshadow, but have never used a shadow primer, you should. Before I began using a primer, my eyeshadow would break down during the day and stopped resembling what I had applied that morning. Using a primer, "locked" my eyeshadow in place; it looked the same at the end of the day as it did when I applied it. I can't confirm Smashbox's 24-hour claim, but it worked for me for over 18 hours on a number of occasions.  

Lancome Artliner Liquid Eyeliner

I admit that I am relatively new to liquid eyeliner, so I have not tried a lot of products, but after trying Lancome's version, there is no point in trying anything else. It's like butter! It goes on so smoothly that it makes applying liquid eyeliner an easy task!

Lancome Hypnose Drama Mascara

Like their eyeliner, Lancome's mascara is like butter. It goes on smoothly and it's intense, black volumizing characteristics create full-body, high-volume lashes. Unlike other brands I have used, a single stroke of Lancome mascara is enough; a second stroke is like carrying coals to Newcastle.

Any questions?

Wearing Bebe

Professional femulator, New Orleans, circa 1970

Weekend Wearing Womenswear

Zoe alerted me to a Huffington Post article about a youngster who will dress up as his hero for Halloween. His hero happens to be Bob the Drag Queen and the boy's mother and uncle are lending a hand putting his costume together and making it as authentic as possible.

It is a nice story and I think you will enjoy it.

∞ ∞ ∞

Lost my eyelash comb somewhere, somehow. I didn't realized how much I missed it until I made up my face Sunday afternoon. So Monday, I bought a new one (this one).

A long time ago, a queen told me to use an eyelash comb with metal teeth. At the time, they were hard to find, but I managed to get one from the Vermont Country Store, of all places! So I was a little upset when I lost it. But these days, the metal-toothed combs are more common.

The function of the comb is to separate and unclump your eyelashes after applying mascara. The plastic teeth are just too thick to fit in between the lashes you are trying to unclump, whereas the metal teeth are just right to do the job. So go metal.

By the way, the metal teeth are very sharp, so be very careful or you'll poke your eye out!

∞ ∞ ∞

Beauty expert, Louis Licari, wrote about blurring on Huffington Post... not gender blurring, but age blurring. It is an interesting blog post and includes tips on how you too can blur your age and look "young" despite how many birthdays you have celebrated (or not).

You can read Mr. Licari's post here. Enjoy!

∞ ∞ ∞

Helen of Haute Business fame and I have such a similar fashion sense that you'd think we were separated at birth! I am so enamored by some of her outfits that I decided to replicate one to wear to work on Halloween.

Will you be en femme at work for Halloween? I hope so!

Wearing Veronica Beard.

Eugeniusz Bodo femulating in the 1937 Polish film Piętro-wyżej.

About Mascara

Of all the cosmetics I use, I find that mascara is the most problematic. Not so much applying it; most of the time, I get it on without a problem. Rather, I have issues with the product itself.

Mascara is very inconsistent from brand to brand. Some mascaras are too thick, some are too clumpy, and some are just right. And the few that are just right have shelf-life issues, that is, they dry up or go bad (get clumpy) too quickly.

I was glad to see Daily Makeover's recent post "10 Mascaras That Will Not Clump (No Matter What)." Nice thing about the list is that some of the 10 recommendations are not expensive ($10 or less), so a purchase won't put a big dent in your purse.

By the way, I have been an Avon lady for 18 years and have seen a lot of Avon mascara products come and go. I have tried most of them over that time.

Early on in my Avon career, I did not find any Avon mascaras I liked --- I would try them once and swear them off after that initial use.

Things changed for the better and over the last half dozen years or so, I have been very satisfied with Avon mascaras and they are what I use almost all of the time.

But your mileage may vary.

 

 

 

Wearing JustFab.

 

 

 

Rocker Jai Brooks femulates for the Real Girls Eat Cake music video (2014).

How To Do Mascara

Makeup maven that I am, I still do not feel completely comfortable or confident applying mascara.

In my makeup routine, applying mascara is the last thing I do when making up my eyes. I am very good applying eye makeup up to that point, but when I pull out the mascara wand, I hold my breath that I will not ruin the masterpiece I just created.

Too often, my mascara gets away from me and I have make repairs. Other times, I am too careful applying mascara that I end up not applying much at all and it looks like I am not wearing any.

On Saturday, Daily Makeover had "6 Mascara Mistakes We All Make — And Shouldn’t," which is a quick, but helpful read. I was aware of some of the "mistakes" they mentioned, but it is good to be reminded.

I also found a primer on mascara application by the Makeup Geek, "How to Apply Mascara Like a Pro," that is also helpful.

So bat those lashes, ladies! 

 

Actor Rod Steiger femulating in the 1968 film No Way To Treat A Lady.

 

Wearing Metrostyle.

Lush Your Lashes While Aging Gracefully

Girls like us need all the help we can get! Two sources that this girl depends on recently posted some excellent information that I want to share with you today.

"If mascara were one-size-fits-all, there wouldn’t be so many to choose from. But with limitless types of wands and formulas out there, how do you find the best mascara for you?"

Daily Makeover has put together a "handy guide to help you get your lushest, longest lashes ever."

Meanwhile, Total Image consultant Ginger Burr addresses the age-old question "how do you make peace with aging gracefully?"

The Eyes Have It

After seeing my visage in yesterday's post here, Patio asked me how I do my eyes.

I am happy to share my makeup regime, so here it is eye-wise.

First things first: I cleanse my face and apply moisturizer.

Now concentrating on the eyes, here are the steps I follow:

1. I use a concealer under my eyes to hide my eye baggage.

2. I apply an eyeshadow primer on my eyelids and brow bone, that is, between my eyelids and eyebrows.

3. While the primer dries, I tend to my eyebrows plucking strays and trimming longs.

4. I use a light brown eyebrow pencil (Anastasia Perfect Brow Pencil's "Soft Brown") to outline and fill in my brows. I have been femulating Keira Knightly's eyebrows (see photo) and I think I have been successful.

5. I curl my eyelashes lashes for at least 30 seconds per eye.

6. I use a large eyeshadow brush and apply a light beige eyeshadow all over my upper eyelids and browbone.

7. I use a small eyeshdow brush and apply a dark eyeshadow (purple, brown, dark gray, etc.) along crease between eyelids and brow bone.

This is tricky to describe, but let me try.

Using the eyebrow brush, I pick up a tiny bit of dark eyeshadow on only one side of the brush. Then I bring the shadow side of the brush up to the center of the brow bone along the crease and move it towards the outer side of my eye to deposit most of the shadow on that portion of my eye.

Then I use a windshield wiper-like motion to go back and forth along the whole crease. My goal is to make the outer portion of the crease and brow bone darker than the inner portion with a smooth transition from light to dark; the wiper motion blends the shadow to create the smooth transition.

Overall, I try to use less shadow for daytime femulations and more shadow for nighttime femulations.

8. I reapply some light beige shadow just below my brows and blend it with the darker shadow below. Sometimes this will lead me to reapply the dark eyeshadow until I get it just right (or nearly so).

9. I pick up a tiny bit more of the dark eyeshadow and apply it to the outer third of the lid and use the windshield wiper motion again to blend the shadow on the lid.

10. I use a second small eyeshadow brush to pick up a tiny bit of a light eyeshadow (light beige, light gray, white, etc.) and dab the color near the center of the lid, then blend it with the dark eyeshadow already on your lid.

11. I use black eyeshadow as my eyeliner and apply it using an eyeliner brush intended for powder eyeliner. I find it less prone to error than using an eyeliner pencil or a liquid eyeliner.

I dab the tip (not the side) of the eyeliner brush in black eyeshadow and apply it to the upper eyelid as close as possible to the lash line. I start in the center of the lid and work my way out to the outer part of the lid, then I work my way in to the inner part of the lid. I go back and forth until the line is consistent (no breaks or fades) and as dark as I want it. At the outer edge of the lid, I extend the line beyond the lid, making it narrower until it comes to a point. Sometimes I give it a little curl upward, sometimes not.

12. I dab the side of the eyeliner brush and swipe it along the lower lid as close to the lash line as possible, then I use a cotton swab to smudge the line and blend it so that it is consistent.

13. I am always experimenting with different mascaras. Since I am an Avon Lady, I always try their latest mascara offerings, but for what it's worth, lately I have been using Rimmel brand mascara. I apply it once to the upper and lower lashes and let it dry. Then I use a metal lash comb to separate any lashes that are stuck together.

I always apply a second coat of mascara. Sometimes I will apply a third coat.

By the way, my eyelashes are amazingly long, so that augments the overall look of my eyes. I have been using the Avon's Anew eyelash growth serum religiously every morning for nearly two years and it has had a profound effect on the length and thickness of my eyelashes. Sorry to say that Avon discontinued the product, however, there are competitive products that may work just as well if you have sparse and/or short lashes.

After doing all the above steps, there is always some touch-up and clean-up involved. To help avoid messy clean-ups, use a brush to apply some loose face powder below your eyes. When you are done doing your eyes, simply brush away this loose powder along with any eye makeup crumbs that may have landed there.

All this sounds very complicated and I will admit that doing my eyes takes longer than doing the rest of my makeup, but I think the results are worth the effort. And the more you do it, the more quickly you will do it!

If you have any questions, I will try to answer them.

Womanly Yours,

Stana