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Prologue : I not a expert of make up application at all. I’ve had one make over by an x-female impersonator and read anything I can get my hands on. For some out there, this is old news. For others just coming out of the closet, it might be a windfall! I pass about 80% of the time, so I must be doing something correct. Probably more to genetics than my makeup skills. Also, if you think my writing skills are bad, wait till you see my attempt at drawing and graphics…they suck *giggle* By the way. this is a very long page, but I think you’ll find its worth it. Good luck !

Preparation : I’m not going to get into the principles of daily skin care. Just keep you skin clean and moisturize once a day if you can remember. Here is what I do when I know I’m going out in the next couple of days. I do not shave the morning before or the morning of that day. Yes, I look pretty scruffy. This accomplishes two things. One, allows for a very close shave the night I’m going out. Two, it pleases my wife into thinking I’m growing my beard back and Cindy will be out of commission for a while *grin* The night before, I give my face (including my lips) a good scrubbing with a buff puff to get rid of any dead skin. Moisturize heavily and go to sleep. That’s about it. This is a good time also to check for those few stray nose and ear hairs. Lets face it, Cindy Crawford wouldn’t look appealing with a couple of giant nose hairs sticking out either, that goes ditto for us. The morning of, I moisturize again and I do not wear any after shave or cologne. Brut and Obsession do not smell well together. Believe it or not, you can shower and still smell like your wearing men’s cologne. It does not wash of with soap and water ! Shave twice. Once in the direction of your beard growth, the second time against that direction. That doesn’t always mean up or down. Hair on your neck grows different directions. If you do this correct, you will not end up with any bumps or razor burns. Also, use a good shaving creme or gel. Soap might be a good lubricant for other things in the shower *wink* , but its horrible for a close shave. Moisturize again and let your face rest for a couple minutes. You have just shocked the hell out of it, by shaving twice. After a few minutes, take a paper towel and blot off any remaining moisturizer.

Tools needed : Makeup Brushes, wedges, tweezers, q-tips, Your own makeup ( mascara, eyeliner, eye shadow, blush, 2 shades foundation, Medium color or transparent loose setting powder, lip pencil, lipstick or lip gloss ).

Makeup brushes… buy some ! They will give you much better application and control. You do not need to buy an expensive set either. A $20.00 investment will pay off big dividends. All you really need is a extra large dusting brush, stiff blush or contour brush, angled eye shadow brush, and a fine lip brush. Yes, you do get what you pay for in brushes. Expensive ones are a little better quality than cheapies. But, if your like me, you only get a chance to use them once or twice a month. So save some money.

Loose setting powder : This is different than pressed powder. Loose powder is messy and gets everywhere, but it is necessary for a proper makeup job. I own two types. Transparent and medium tone colored powder. If you can only afford one type, opt for the ones with color. They will give you a more even finish on your face. Pressed powders are fine for touch ups when your out, but nothing else.

Foundations, liquid, cakes or combination : This choice is up to you. What ever works for you is fine. I use the first and the latter. I use Revlon Color stay as a light base instead of a Concealer. I use a combination powder/liquid for my final application. By the way, do you know the difference between a $9.00 drug store stocked brand and a $29.00 mall kiosk brand. Well, the quality is about equal, just $20.00 more. There are actually only 3 manufactures of makeup in the world. Makeup companies apply their label and tell you its different or better !

Lip sticks and pencils : Any kind or color is fine. The wetter the look, the easier it will come off. For most of us, stay away from super bright red colors, unless your wearing red. Red draws attention to your mouth area, and with our male chin and jaw size, it will get you read easier. Plums and berry based colors are more subtle. If you have feminine lips and facial features, then by all means go red. Some advise to wear a dark pencil color under your lipstick or outline with a darker color. Not true. It looks stupid, so don’t bother.

Mascara : I have no idea what types are best. Volume filling, lengthening, curved or straight wand ? Heck I don’t know. I do however, know this item will go bad faster than about any other makeup item you buy. For this reason, I buy trial size mascara. Drugstores always have little bins of these things sitting around. Trial size items are great little bargains for part time crossdressers.

Eye brows : You don’t need little petite brows to pass. In fact, most women would die to have our brows if properly trimmed. This should be done a day or so before going out. Check out the pictures to the right verses left. This is the basic shape a feminine eye brow should look like. It should start at line ”A” a line from the edge of your nose up past the inside corner of your eye. The brow should end in a line ”B” from you nose to the outside corner of you eye. You should clean up as much hair as you can outside these areas. The arch should be at its highest point on a line ”C” from the edge of your nose through the outside edge of the iris. If you can’t pluck your eye brows due to uncontrollable circumstances, at least trim them shorter. A slightly thinned eyebrow is better than nothing. Just a note: People at the office probably won’t notice much change if you do a little work at a time. Try spreading it out over a couple weeks. The same does not apply to your significant other however. They will notice one hair missing! Hell, if your just sitting there thinking about it, they’ll read your mind! So, if they ask or comment about it, just tell them the truth… Aliens abducted you and tweezed your eyebrows ! *smile*

Warning : You must be aware of what make-up can do. Make-up is harmony between shadow and light, that fashion the different areas of your face. Shadow hides an area while light gives it prominence. You want to highlight you best features. Makeup can not create something that is not there.

Beard camouflage : Take some cheap red lipstick and smear it over your beard area. For most, over the mustache and chin area will be good enough. Others with heavier beards will need to cover most of their face and neck. If it looks like you over did it in a tanning bed, then you got it perfect. Let this set for a couple of minutes. This red tone will help cancel the ”blue” shadow of a beard under foundation.

Foundation : This is an important step you will not find in other makeup tip areas. A man’s face is a different shape than a females face. Yes, I know that is obvious, but no one takes the time to tell you how to change shape. For this, you will need two different shades of foundation. One, lighter than what you normally might use, The other, the correct shade for your skin tone. Now, with a make up sponge, apply (dab, don’t drag) the LIGHT foundation in these places: Down the middle of your nose, between your eye brows up and out on your forehead (should look like a fan), from the outside of your chin halfway back along your jaw, a line about even with your outer eye. Also on your top lip and mustache area. Now apply loose powder with puff to help set to skin. You want to put on loose powder like you used to see in the old movies. After you have it on, go back and press it into your skin. DO NOT WIPE. PRESS ! Like you would press against your cheek, if you had a tooth ache. Anywhere you put the powder, you must press it in. This helps set it into the skin and foundation. Let set for a few minutes. There will be times through out this session were you must let your make up ”set”. Make the most out of this time and by putting on a few femme garments ( stockings, panties, no bra or forms yet. You’ll get powder all over them) Now, you can take your large makeup brush and dust away any loose powder on your face. If everything is correct to this point, you should look like a Klingon *grin* You will now repeat the above with your foundation that matches your skin tone. Do the whole face and half way down your neck. The only place you should ”wipe on the foundation”, is down from below your jaw line to the bottom of your neck. This will help blend your natural skin color if your planning on wearing something with a low cut neck line. Apply powder again, let set, then dust off like above. Now you can put on your bra and forms.

Eyes : I use just two colors for the eyes. Well really three, but you will see that later. I always use earth tone colors too. Again we will be using dark and light colors. I also use a small brush instead of a sponge applicator. You can control the amount applied and blend easier with a brush. Start with your dark color and apply to the outside area of your lid. Dab it in place, then brush toward the center or your eye lid along the eye lash line. Your line should get thinner as you brush toward the inside of your eye lid. Repeat this step in the crease of you eye. I tend to bring my blend line just up on the blow bone. Now I take a large brush and sweep from the center of my eye toward the outside point of my eye brow. You might not want to do this, but I like the effect. I think it adds a sexy, sultry look to the eyes! Now use the lightest color, and I mean LIGHT. In a line above you pupil, apply the light color shadow on the outside half of your brow bone. More should be near the eye brow than at the bottom of this area. Take the large brush again and sweep a couple of time outwards to help blend line. Remember, blending make up lines is crucial. Time to frame your eyes with a liner. Black-brown, or brown colors work best. If your over 30 years old, be careful with black makeup. Black can create a harsh or chiseled look. Something most male crossdressers do not need. Personally, I like pencils, or cream sticks. Liquid is hard to work with although when done correct is outstanding! Start in the middle of you eyelid. Draw a dotted line (as close to you lashes as possible) toward the outside of you eye. Do the same for the inner section, but stop just before you get all the way in. Now retrace you your dots into a solid line. Always start in the middle! Notice how your eyelid look like a little hill when you look straight into a mirror. We are going to change that a bit. You want the line to get thicker as you move toward the outside of you eyelid. So add 3 or 4 more lines to the outside area. Stop at an imaginary curved line continued up from the bottom of you eye.

This should work for anyone, but the bottom of the eye is different. The basic rule is this. Large eyes can go end to end, but never connect the lines on the inside of your eyes. Medium size eyes three-quarters to half the outside of the eye. Small eyes the outside quarter or no line at all. If you have small eyes, going end to end will make them look smaller. The idea of eye makeup is to ”bring out” the eyes. They are usually the focal point of the female face. Any length you decide on should be wider as it moves toward the outside eye area. Just as we did for the eyelid. You should take a Q-tip and smudge these lines also. I sometimes use dark shadow to line the bottom lash area. Remember, blending is key! While you have you liner out, check your eyebrows. They probably look a little pale from all the foundation and powder. Go ahead and fill in some color with your eyeliner. NOT WITH BLACK, unless you have black hair. Eye brows should be a little darker than our hair, but stay away from black eye brows. Make small angled lines across the brow, not one solid line. Almost done with the eyes. If you do not have an eyelash curler, get one. They work wonders on opening the eye! The last step is adding mascara. I only do my upper eye lashes, not the bottoms below the eyes. Apply the first coat on top on the lash. Apply two coats under the lash. You want to apply the mascara with a back and forth wiggle motion as you pull it out over your lashes. Not just out and up. It will help get better coverage between the lashes. A couple of tips here. First, gently wipe or roll the mascara wand on a sheet of paper towel or Kleenex. This will remove clumps or excess mascara before you apply it. This is especially true to the tip of the wand. Second, if you get some on your eyelid or cheek, donYou will only smear it worse. ’t try to wipe it off! Take a Qlittle foundation over the spot. Use the other end of the -tip and dab on a Qmistake best. -tip to dab on some setting powder.

Blush or Contour : This is harder than it looks. You should apply blush with a brush not a sponge. Blush is going in other places than just below your cheeks. I use two colors of blush also. Both are tawny based colors, one medium, the other slightly darker. One color can work as well as two. Start at a intersecting point outward from the tip of your nose and down from the center of your eyes. Or suck in your cheeks like a fish and put the blush between your cheek bone and the sucked in area, but start at the line in the center of your eye. Make three to four dots at a diagonal from this spot up toward an area between your ears and temple. Do this to both sides. Now sweep your blush dots back and up in one motion. The line should have a slight curve around the cheek bone and end up near the temple. Only sweep in the direction of the line, not up and down. To help blend, use short horizontal sweeps toward to side of you face. We’re not done yet with the blush. Remember where we put the light foundation on our forehead ? LIGHLTY apply blush to your forehead where the light foundation WAS NOT applied. This will be over your eyebrows. Sweep it up and back to your hair line. Also, with a small brush, apply LIGHTLY to the sides of your nose. Sort of like a triangle, thicker by the nostrils, thinner up by you eyes. Also, brush a little up in the inner eye lid, up to the brow bone (this is the 3rd color for the eye I was talking about earlier). Just the inside area, you don’t want to mess up the outside makeup on your eyes. This next one is optional. I also apply blush LIGHLTY up on the back of my jaw line ( where it hinges) and a little under where I put light foundation near my chin. The reason for the light foundation and blush is to ”thin” the face to appear more feminine. If you have a large square jaw line, be careful with this step. If done wrong it will make things worse. Remember, light in the middle of our face will ”come out”. The blush (dark) will help hide or recede areas of our face. It really works well if done correctly! If you ever see a female impersonator up close you can see what I am talking about. They do this all the time. You can’t change the shape of your face with makeup. You can only accent or camouflage certain areas. OK, now you can get totally dressed before doing the lips. Wait, how do you slip on your favorite dress or top with out getting makeup all over it ? Simple, find a old pillow case, roll up the opening and slip it over you head. Then put on your dress. Roll off the pillow case and Ta Da! You did not mess up your makeup or get anything on your clothing *big smile* Damn, now my wife is going to know where all our pillow cases disappeared to *giggle*

Lips : this area is a basic ”no brainer”. Again, remember the two shades of foundation. The light one was on the top lip, the regular foundation was on the bottom lip along wit a dash of blush. Women have puffier lips than men. The lighter foundation on the top and the darker blush on the bottom will give an illusion of puffy lips. Why not light foundation on the bottom lips ? Lights shine from ceiling to floor or wall to floor. Get it ! OK, back to lips. Since we covered the lips with foundation, we can draw our lips larger than they really are. The foundation on our lips will also give a good base for the lip color to adhere too. With a lip pencil (matching or slightly darker) Draw a dotted line JUST OUTSIDE your normal lip line. Don’t go out to far or you will look like a clown. The highest point on your lip line should be below your nostrils, or a little inside of those points. I can not recall that little curve in the middle of the top lip… Cupids bow ? Oh well, don’t draw that in with your lines. You want your top lip to come together in the middle like a ”m” more than a ”u”. Reline the dotted area and fill in the entire lips with the pencil. Next with a lip brush (very important) cover your lips with the lipstick or gloss. Get as close to the line as possible without going past it. The pencil line will help stop ”lip stick bleed”. I use Revlon Color Stay lipstick. Not only does it not bleed, it almost won’t come off when you want it too. What I don’t like about it, there is no glossy look to it. I apply a very thin layer of vaseline or clear gloss to add some shine. I always but a little shine to my bottom lip. Again it gives the illusion on larger lips.

Well, that about it. I hope this work as well for you as it does for me. Seems like a lot of work. Well, beauty has its price. If I’m pressed for time, I can do this in about 35 to 40 minutes. I don’t like to do that though, because I enjoy getting ready as much as going out. Also, if you only have one tone of foundation, you can create the same effect with contour powders. Does it seem like a lot of make up? Yes it is. But what about the ”less is more” makeup motto. One words… BULL !

Those models on Cosmo, with their natural look are plastered in makeup. Sounds like a oxymoron, but it takes a ton of work and makeup to look natural *laugh* Besides, this isn’t for shopping at the mall on Saturday. This is for looking and feeling feminine at a nightclub! You could use the same method, just use a little less and a more neutral color palette. The results would be about the same. The ”less is more” is a look, not always the way it is applied. Heck, I never said I was an expert. I’m far from that. It does take a little practice and experimentation. But that half the fun ! If you do ever get the chance to have a professional makeover… DO IT ! I learned more from the one time I had one, than I have reading 100 magazine articles. I would like to do it again one of these days. I was having so much fun, I probably missed some important tips. If possible, Tape your session for review later. Ask as many questions as you can. Makeovers can be expensive and you might as well learn as much as you can. I only posted this section, cause so many people have asked me to do so. I have e-mailed a smaller version to about 10 or 15 people. They loved the results. If you try it, let me know the results. If you have a better idea or a makeup tip of your own, let me know. I’d be ecstatic to try it myself or post it here. The neatest thing I can say about the Transgendered community; we are always willing to share ideas and knowledge.

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