Shopping En Personne

A dressing room selfie.

If you plan to try on the clothing before purchasing it, shopping en femme is better than shopping en homme because en femme, you get a better idea how the clothing will fit and look.

En homme, the clothing may not fit at all depending on what shapewear you wear en femme. And even if the clothing fits en homme, you still will see a "man in a dress" in the mirror and may reject purchasing the item because you don't like the way it looks. More than once, I tried something on en homme that was borderline, purchased it anyway and was very glad that I didn't reject it because it looked great on me en femme.

When I try something on in the store en homme, I always ask a salesperson if it is OK and I have never been turned down. (The worst thing that ever happened to me was back in the Dark Ages when a JCPenney saleswoman asked me to use the men's dressing room to try on a girdle.)

When I try something on in the store en femme, I always ask a salesperson where the dressing room is located, even if I know where it is. I always ask in order to protect myself in case someone complains about a male in the women's dressing room. If that ever happens, I can respond that the store gave me permission. FYI, I have never run into this problem.

I think that is good advice, but I don't always follow it. If I am feeling absolutely gorgeous and passing with abandon, I just sashay into the nearest dressing room without asking for directions. (Why ruin the mood!)

Another FYI, I shop in Connecticut; your mileage may vary depending on where you shop.

(Caveat emptor: This post is a combination of previous posts.)

Wearing Finderskeepers jumper and Alice + Olivia sweater.

Charlie Chaplin (center) in the 1914 film A Busy Day The Masquerader.

Bonding

Wearing Alice + Olivia.

South Korean pop star Heechul.

Your Face's Crowning Glory

This is the seventh in a seven-part series of posts written by Femulate Contributing Editor Susan King of Transitioning into Tomorrow fame. Susan describes how to determine your face shape and then, how to put that information to good use.

Some of us girls are lucky that we can use our own hair when out. I am not one of them.  I have the worst case of male pattern baldness which started while I was in my 20's.. So I am destined to be a wig wearer.

Once I put on my hair, I see my feminine self. My wig makes the outfit and overall look. You can use your hair to change the frame of your face. Wearing the correct wig style with the correct face shape in a must.

Below is a great infographic that shows how different hair style work with different facial shapes. And here is a short and concise video that does a very good job of explaining hairstyles based on your face shape.

New York City street style, Fall 2016.

Scott Baio does his makeup in an 1983 episode of television's The Fall Guy.

Best Brows for Your Face

This is the sixth in a seven-part series of posts written by Femulate Contributing Editor Susan King of Transitioning into Tomorrow fame. Susan describes how to determine your face shape and then, how to put that information to good use.

The correct eyebrow look can make or break the feminine face. An easy male vs. female marker are
the eyebrows. Of course, an Adam's apple and your voice can be easy giveaways, along with poor eyebrow maintenance.

In the 1990's, I did not have the money (raising children) or the time (children dance class and work) to have an electrologist work on my beard, so I had my eyebrows done. Within one year, I had my eyebrows permanently arched.

No one said anything while I had this done. Years later, my youngest daughter stated that she hoped to have eyebrows like mine when she grew up. I just smiled and told her, she probably will.

I really like my eyebrows and use an eyebrow pencil to define them. The correct eyebrow style will define and feminize your face. Matching your eyebrows with your face shape has a tremendous impact.

The chart above shows the best eyebrow shape for your face. Some of the differences are small but its worth it. This short video also does a good job of explaining eyebrow types based on the facial shape.

Wearing Ann Taylor.

This image is from a womanless beauty pageant, probably at the high school level. I posted this image because it reminds me of me at that age. I was overweight and feminine in high school. As a result, I was rejected by females and derided by males. I escaped from that world by visiting the closets of my mother and sister to release the girl in me. If my school had a womanless pageant, I might resemble the girl above and enjoy every minute of the occasion just as she seems to be doing.

Too Good To Be True

2016 Miss Trans Star International Beauty Pageant, Barcelona, Spain

I was fooled again!

Yesterday's post about an aunt decking out her nephew as her niece on an episode of a Spanish language television show was too good to be true. (Read the comments to that post to see where I went wrong.)

Usually, I am able to see through such fakery, but in this case I had little to go on besides the word of the perp who posted the video clip and called it "boy is dressed as a girl by her aunts."

Thanks to my readers who cleared up the mystery.

To pay you back, I offer you something that is true: an Associated Press story about last weekend's trans beauty pageant in Barcelona, Spain, where 28 women representing as many countries competed to be crowned Miss Trans Star International in Europe’s largest beauty pageant for transgender women.

Here is the link to the story, which includes a nice selection of photos. Also, check out the pageant's Facebook page for more photos as well as some videos.

Enjoy the view!

Foundation of Your Face

This is the fifth in a seven-part series of posts written by Femulate Contributing Editor Susan King of Transitioning into Tomorrow fame. Susan describes how to determine your face shape and then, how to put that information to good use.

Foundation is an important makeup requirement for most of us. As males, we probably did not take care of our skin, plus we have facial hair and large pores. I remember learning how to apply beard cover and trying to match the correct foundation color to my skin. It was difficult, time-consuming and required a lot of practice.

I began wearing foundation in the early 1990's with the help of a Mary Kay representative whose husband was a crossdresser.

In the last few years, I learned how to contour and highlight my face to give it a less male look. Contouring requires adding darker tones, while highlighting requires adding lighter tones to your foundation. It helps create a certain appearance that either reduces male traits and/or accentuates female traits.

Applying foundation, blush and contouring is done based on your face shape.

The picture shows how contouring, highlighting and blush should be applied to create a more feminine look.

Below is a more detailed description for each of face shape. Once you review what is best for your face shape, then practice...practice....practice.

Incorporating some of these items into your makeup routine will have a big impact in your appearance. If you feel comfortable, try a makeover at a department store makeup counter (M·A·C or Clinique), a store (Ulta Beauty or Sephora) or a salesperson from Avon (Stana!) .

I have had two makeovers in the past 12 months One at a Clinque counter and second one at Ulta Beauty. I learned a lot from the Ulta lady as she was younger and showed me how to highlight and contour using difference foundation colors. This technique slightly reshaped my face and looked amazing. I now use two different foundations and I like the new look.

Round

• Contour: Apply to the edges of the face, from the temples to the jawline and in the hollows of the cheeks
• Highlight: Apply to the center of the hairline to the center of the forehead, down the bridge of the nose, the cheekbones under the outer corners of the eyes, and the center of the chin
• Bronzer: Apply to the edges of the face, from the temples to the jawline
• Blush: Don't apply blush on the apples of your cheek; this makes your face look wider, but instead sweep upward to give your face a lift, do the 'duck face'

Pear

• Contour: Focus mostly on the sides of the face from about the ears down
• Highlight: Apply under the eyes to the temples, bridge of nose and under your nose, forehead (but instead of going vertically, apply your highlight in horizontally) and chin 
• Bronzer: Apply to your jawline to slim jaw 
• Blush:  Apply blush along the cheekbones toward the temples or fuller area of the cheeks

Oval

• Contour:  Apply lightly along the hairline and temples and under the cheekbones
• Highlight: Apply to the center of the forehead, down the bridge of the nose, from the brow bone to cheekbones in a C-shape, and the center of the chin 
• Bronzer: Apply bronzer in the shape of 3 at the sides of your face 
• Blush: Don't apply blush on the apples of your cheek; this makes your face look wider, but instead sweep upward to give your face a lift, do the 'duck face'

Oblong/Long

• Contour: Apply to the entire hairline at the top of forehead, hollows of cheeks (make the 'fish face' to find) and bottom of chin 
• Highlight: Apply above cheekbones (a little higher than where you put blush)
• Bronzer: Apply bronzer to entire hairline at the top of forehead and on your jawline 
• Blush: Apply blush to apples of the check and blend toward the ear, almost create a horizontal line across the face

Heart/Inverted Triangle

• Contour:  Apply to the temples, the sides of the cheeks, and the chin 
• Highlight: Apply to the center of the hairline to the center of the forehead, down the bridge of the nose, above and below the outer edges of the brows, the chin just below the lower lip and to the sides of the mouth
• Bronzer: Apply to the sides of the forehead and slightly lower your cheekbones 
• Blush: Avoid applying blush too high and instead apply it slightly lower than the cheekbones or you can apply a small amount on the apple and blend it out, but remember to leave a gap at the cheekbones. 

Rectangle/Square

• Contour: Apply to the temples and from the hollows of the cheeks to the jawline
• Highlight: Apply to the center of the hairline and the center of the forehead, above and below the outer edges of the brows and the center of the chin
• Bronzer: Apply to the sides of the forehead and jawline 
• Blush: Don't apply blush on the apples of your cheek, this makes your face look wider, but instead sweep upward to give your face a lift, do the 'duck face'

Diamond

• Contour: Apply to the sides of the face starting at the temples moving down to just pass the hollows of of cheeks, no further 
• Highlight: Focus on the forehead, the cheekbones under the outer corner of your eye, and chin (apply highlight horizontally)
• Bronzer: Apply to the outer edges of the cheeks and temples, avoid the middle face 
• Blush: Apply to upper most part of your cheeks and blended toward your temples

And most importantly, feel beautiful because you are beautiful.

Wearing Fate.

Yasumasa Morimura

Aunt Transforms Nephew into Niece

UPDATE: Thanks to some knowledgeable readers, I now know that this video clip was too good to be true. The boy, who was supposedly transformed into a girl, is really a girl. No aunt transformed her nephew into her niece. By the way, the clip was taken from a Mexican television show called An Angel in the House (1998-1999).

ORIGINAL POST: A few weeks ago, I found this short video from a Spanish language television program. I wonder if anyone knows its source and what is the plot of this particular episode of the show.

YouTube suggests the source might be Mexico. The short description accompanying the video reads, "boy comes home dressed as a girl by her aunts. His father is frightening and terrified"

My take is that the boy's aunt took her nephew shopping for a female outfit. Looks like she even took him to a beauty parlor to get his hair done and his face made up.

The short clip shows the aunt and nephew returning home after shopping to reveal the boy's new look to his family. His mother and brother seem very pleased, but his father, not so much.

My Spanish is not good enough to interpret what is said in the video. Anybody have a clue?

Don't you wish you had an aunt like this lucky boy's/girl's aunt!

(Susan King's series on determining your face shape and what to do with it resumes tomorrow.)

Wearing DressBarn.

Aunt transforms nephew into niece in a Spanish language television show.

Top Off Your Look With a Hat

This is the fourth in a seven-part series of posts written by Femulate Contributing Editor Susan King of Transitioning into Tomorrow fame. Susan describes how to determine your face shape and then, how to put that information to good use.

I do not wear hats because I must wear a wig and I think that the circumference of my head with a wig is too big. But I have learned that the opposite maybe true, if you wear the correct hat (style and size). As in the previous post, its about the shape of your face. You can change the shape of the face, feminize your face by adding a hat with curves/movements and you can add to your overall image and style.

I have very limited knowledge of hats. Here is a great article about hat styles and their history. Seventeen different styles are discussed in a very concise format.

Here is a short video on how to measure your hat size.

Lauren Valenti from Marie Claire describes the best hat styles for the major face shapes.

The goal is to slim the forehead to make it appear more narrow. Any brimmed style that is medium in length will achieve this.

You'll want something with a little width and a shorter crown that will balance out the length of your face. A medium-sized floppy, cloche, crusher, or bucket style would work best.

You can pull off pretty much any style. Go for something cool and more fashion-forward like a fisherman cap or boater style.

The goal is to create length, so something with a tall crown will give you that height you need. Look for medium to long brim fedoras, porkpies and trilby styles. Avoid anything low to the head and rounded — this will only accentuate the roundness.

You'll want to soften the angles. So anything with a curved silhouette will do the trick. Floppy's, cloches, or bowler styles will help to round out your features.

I am going to try some hats next summer. This summer was so hot and I need to find cover from the sun. I hope you add a hat or two to you wardrobe.

Happy shopping!

Wearing Scarlett (top).

Femulating South Korean pop star Kangnam

Loving All Earrings

This is the third in a seven-part series of posts written by Femulate Contributing Editor Susan King of Transitioning into Tomorrow fame. Susan describes how to determine your face shape and then, how to put that information to good use.

I love wearing earrings because they feminize, add color and balance my face. It's fun trying to match the correct style and color with my outfit.

I used to wear clip-on earrings only because I could not pierce my ears. Then a few years ago, I learned how to wear pierced earrings without piercing my ears and how the shape of your face can assist you in choosing the proper earrings.

I now wear colorful stud earrings without pierced ears. I even have a few dangling earrings. I cut off  the stud from the earrings and use nail glue to attach the earring to my ear lobe. It works great as ou can see here.

I still buy earrings based on color and design and now I have so many more choices. The only determining factor is the shape of my face. This past Friday I wrote a post about determining your face shape. Mine is oval, but it's changing due to my HRT. My face is thinning which is changing my shape from oval to oblong. 

Based on the two earring guides below, there is not much difference in the choices for oval and oblong. The first guide has a few differences and the second guide does not include oval, so I consider oval in the oblong group.

In the second guide, the "Oblong and Rectangle" group represents my current pierced earring styles. Again, I cut off the stud and glue the earring on my lobe. Once I remove my earring, I can wash or rub off the remaining glue.

I found this nice storage bin at Goodwill and use it to hold my chip-on earrings. I still use them, but I mostly use my stud-less pieced earrings.

I love shopping and wearing earrings that match or highlight my outfit and the rest of my jewelry. The right jewelry can enhance that outfit. 

Go shop and have fun.

Wearing Neiman Marcus.

Jai Rodriguez femulates on a 2011 episode of television Harry's Law.

SaveSave

Two Trans Passing in the Night

Wearing Intermix.

Tim Smith of The Prancing Elites