Makeup can have an amazing impact on your appearance – IF you apply it correctly.
Unfortunately, this is a skill that many crossdressers and transgender women tell me they struggle with.
You deserve to be your most beautiful feminine self. To begin your journey, it’s essential to steer clear of some common male to female makeup mistakes.
In this blog post, I’ll share the mistakes you need to avoid – and what to do instead!
1. Wearing Too Much Makeup
Wearing too much makeup is an easy mistake to make. Makeup is meant to enhance your best features while minimizing any perceived imperfections.
When you overdo your makeup, you end up accentuating EVERYTHING. This isn’t a flattering look, so remember rule #1: Apply your makeup with a light touch.
2. Applying Full Coverage Foundation on Your Entire Face
Even if you have problem areas you want to hide, you should avoid covering your entire face with a thick foundation. Heavy foundation can give your face a cakey and mask-like look.
Instead, opt for full coverage makeup in areas that require it, such as the beard area, and use a lighter foundation on the rest of your face.
3. Using Poor Makeup Application Technique
When it comes to makeup, technique matters. Some common examples of poor makeup application technique include:
- Clumpy mascara
- Mismatched foundation
- Harsh lip liner
- Overdrawn eyebrows
- Cakey concealer
If your makeup skills are lacking, look for makeup tutorials on YouTube or check out my free Male to Female Makeup Mini Course.
4. Not Selecting The Right Makeup Shades
Choosing the right makeup shades is just as important as your makeup application technique.
In fact, the wrong colors can give you a harsh and masculinized appearance faster than anything else.
The most important thing to consider is your natural coloring. For example:
- If you have lighter hair and skin, opt for low-intensity colors like soft brown, blue, pink, or coral.
- If you have darker hair and skin, go for high-intensity colors like deep brown, black, blue, or red.
Candis Cayne – Low intensity colors
Janet Mock – High intensity colors
In addition to your natural coloring, think about the occasion and time of day when selecting your makeup. Typically, higher-intensity makeup works better for nighttime when the lighting is dim.
Finally, your makeup shades should complement the colors of your clothing for a cohesive and polished look.
5. Not Taking Good Care of Your Skin
Think of your face as the canvas for your makeup. If your skin is dry and rough, it’s going to be noticeable.
Keep in mind that male skin tends to be rougher than female skin due to lower estrogen levels. This means that good skin care is critical.
Care for your skin by using a gentle cleanser, moisturizing daily, using sunscreen, drinking lots of water, and getting enough sleep.
Ready to learn more?
Check out my previous article, How to Feminize Your Face Without Surgery, for more male to female makeup tips and techniques.
For more in depth training, consider The Makeup Magic Program to learn all the essential makeup skills every crossdresser and transgender woman should know.
As always, I’d love to hear from you. Do you struggle with makeup or have you mastered this skill? Please share in the comments below!
Love,
Lucille
I use bare minerals make up. I don’t have a heavy beard, so
have little trouble concealing my facial hair. I regularly wear
foundation, lip color, mascara, and eye liner. I sometimes
use eye make up, but struggle getting the look I want.
I am interested in knowing how to apply makeup to the eye when all I want to do is blink. Any tips for that would be appreciated!
hey hi hun i have been working with makeup for some time,,i helped teach both daughters how to do theres,,,when it comes to mine it just dosent come out right…everyone says it looks fine or great but i know theres some more,,,more over to the one thing i do not see have addressed and that is,,men for a lot of them work out side so there skin is dark and yet there hair can be lite,,,so pink and most of said colors do not do any thing to highlighting there eyes,,,and i have found that an off shade of greens,golds,blues and a very lite orange ends up looking pinkish,,,which all of that is great for day wear,,,but have not found a really good nite look,,with out changing the tone of ,,,tone down or lighten up natural tone….and heres a tip for the bold on face hair get the water as hot as possible for you ,,keep your razor in a cup of babbyoil,,,wet face with hot water,,,stretch skin tight and if needed use babbyoil on face as well,,,and for the die hard bold i do shave this way daily and have to say this i broke out for a short time but have been doing it for years i shave the same way as above ,,but than i go against the grain,,,,oh and the last thing rinse with straight cold water,,,,,thank you lace a.
Oh! *Thank You* for the shaving tips
Sadly, I am a “bearded” lady as I cannot afford electrolysis. I *was* able to laser most of my mustache away, but the rest of my beard is colorless and cannot be lasered; blessedly it grows pretty slowly since I am in my third year of hormone therapy.
B R Blatchley,
by clicking on your name it took me to some poetry you penned. Love it, Love it, Love it.
I’ve been feminizing for about 5 months now: doing my hair and makeup, dressing up, wearing high heels, training a feminine voice, and practicing my feminine behavior, and I’m getting better at it every day. The only thing I still struggle with its concealing my 5 o’clock shadow, and although I try to shave as close as possible, unfortunately it’s still lightly visible. I need to try to get myself a good concealer to hide my 5 o’clock shadow very well. Does anyone have any good suggestions, hopefully one that’s not too pricey?
Well, I stick to the age-old trick: apply red (or, better, orange) lipstick on the area of the 5 o’clock shadow first, and use an opaque foundation afterwards. Seriously! The first time I tried it out I was shocked with all that redness, but the truth is that it covers everything perfectly! You also don’t need to use oodles of lipstick, either — just enough to cover the area rubbing your fingers. I usually put several “blotches” with the lipstick point first, then rub them together, and use some toilet paper to get rid of the rest.
You’d be surprised at how well that works. Let it dry a bit before using a foundation, though, or you risk mixing colours together.
As for the foundation… I used Dermablend for years until they stopped selling it for a while in my country (I understand that it’s back). Then I moved to Clinique’s competing product… until it stopped being produced. Nowadays, I’ve found out that MAC’s concealer is great for the “trouble spots” — but it’s expensive, so the rest gets finished with their liquid, opaque foundation, which works wonderfully in the winter.
Why not in the summer? Well, I perspire a lot, and my perspiration is terribly corrosive. Seriously! When I was very young, my mother told everybody never to offer me anything in silver (it’s customary to give small children — both genders — some very simple bracelets or necklaces) because it would get corroded in little time. The modern alloys used on jewelry get very quickly tarnished as well (but I buy them cheap and replace them often!). So you can imagine what the perspiration does to any foundation 🙂
Fortunately, there is a solution: Kryolan’s TV Stick. It was designed to resist the strong (and hot!) light in TV studios. It certainly works awesomely well. It’s opaque, easy to apply, and you don’t get any “cakey” look. There is a trick: you shouldn’t use it “too much”. The temptation to apply it all over the face (because it’s a stick… like a huge, thick lipstick…) is big, but the results will be awful. The best way to apply it, IMHO, is just to use your fingertips, rub a bit of the top, and apply it like any other solid foundation. I also got another tip from the nice lady who sold me the product: buy it in two shades. They blend very well together, and you can use it to do shadows and highlighting.
Still, I found that even the TV stick cannot cover the 5 o’clock shadow; I still rely on the old faithful red/orange lipstick for that…
When applying foundation on top of the lipstick (or, well, several layers…), it’s important that the upmost layer does not get “rubbed in”, or it will mix together with the colour beneath (which, with the lipstick, you certainly wish to avoid!). The trick here is to “pat” it on your face, like gentle slapping (hey, it’s fun!), and resist the temptation to rub it around. Like anything else with makeup, it takes some practice, but it’s easier than it sounds. Nevertheless, I hate the waiting period between applying two layers 😛 It seems such a waste of time really, but I guess that short of electrolysis, you’ll always have some 5 o’clock shadow to cover (I’m lasering it off, and curious to see what happens once I finish it…)
I understand that Dermablend is excellent for this, but I have not tried it myself:
http://www.dermablend.com
Thank you so much. 🙂 I’ll definitely look into trying these suggestions out.
Jesus, that will work on your face if you get the right blend, good luck.
HRT has helped soften my face. Had electrolysis done years ago. Use bare minerals makeup. Stay away from blush. But do use a lot of mascara. Use a pinkish pale lipstick. Bare minerals doesn’t hide everything , but evens out complexion.
I don’t know whether or not this lipstick was too red, but I’m not sure if my hair falls under the “Dark” or “Light” category, being a fairly neutral brunnette. Anyone know what to call it for the purpose of this article?
I have these questions too. you look not Cool, not Hot…but Warm. Maybe middle intensity?
lol, I’m dying to find out.
I know how to do make up looks better then when I first before and wen I started my transition I did a video on my youtube channel hoe I used to do it but I do it much more simpler now works better looks better for me now séance I have bean on HRT over 3 years now but I can still get better with doing my make up I hardly were make up now except lip gloss I were the most séance I look and am female except for SRS though well other then that I want to get better especially eye make up and kind of blush properly using make up brushes witch I still have to get instead of using what the make up came with well hear is the link to my two video what do you think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7vnzwMOGA0%5Bimg%5D610135_11.JPG%5B/img%5D
I’m afraid to be discovered I am a male. I don’t look like a female at any point. I don’t want to be embarrassed or embarrass anyone especially my family. I have my wife’s permission and she even buys me clothes and gives me hers. I can dress conservatively out but no breast forms and no heels or dresses. Slacks, Blouse, unfilled bra, panties, nylons and shoes are ok.
I would do anything to be able to dress up and try makeup in my own bathroom. The other point is, how do you find anything pretty in a 42B bra that does not cost an arm and a leg. Do not want to spend $35.00 for something worn once a month.
I really love my wife, and her love is worth not being able to freely cross dress. Would prefer to go all the way full time, but would probably get fired. LOL.
But you ladies are blessed that your wives let you do anything. However, I did convince her to let me start HRT a few years back. I think it has helped with my anger problems and made me a better listener that she likes. It made me a 42B, which is nice. So I guess I am lucky there.
🙂
Now that’s interesting; I have read that several CDs have permission from their wives to dress, but no heels, no breastforms, no padding. Sometimes, like you mention, no dresses either.
While this is not related to the article in question, I wonder why that is. My own wife is also not comfortable with me going out, but allows me to do it very late in the night (or early in the morning, before the sun is up!) to avoid being seen by neighbours. She always complains that I overdress, of course, but I’m used to her complains. But my point here is that, like you, I don’t look nowhere near female (the only redeeming feature are my lips, who are naturally big and quite feminine — something I hated when I was a kid, but now they are quite useful!), and the only way I can just look very vaguely as having something near to a feminine shape is to use all that padding, and clearly feminine clothes (not androgynous ones), which obviously includes dresses and heels (not outrageous heels from the CD shops or fetish shops, just regular heels bought from everyday shops, with contemporary styles).
It’s the combination of all of the above (padding and clearly feminine clothes) that helps me to present myself as looking vaguely female. I simply couldn’t look presentable otherwise.
Today I made a simple experiment to prove the point: I put all my padding beneath my usual male clothes, and I have to admit that they certainly shape my body so that, at least from the front, it’s clearly and unmistakably very curvy. But i wore a (male) jacket on top of everything, and while I could certainly “see” what was beneath — some bulges here and there which shouldn’t be there in a male (no wonder, I wear D cups…) — the truth is that nobody noticed. I was even at the office for a short while, and my colleagues didn’t notice anything unusual. Of course, if I took away the jacket, they would be very surprised, but my point is… without my female clothes, even with the padding, I simply don’t look “believable” as a female. The reverse is obviously true as well (there are hardly any dresses, no matter how they’re cut, that can disguise my belly… only a good corset can do that!). So… my guess is that in your case (which, as said, it’s not the only one I’ve heard about!), your wife might fear that you “overdress” or go for the “drag queen” effect which will certainly spook people, and thus her restrictions. On the other hand, it will also mean that all these nice tricks in our “arsenal of feminization” are not available to you, and it will be hard to “pass”. I wonder if that’s deliberate, i.e. by forbidding you to wear some characteristically female attire and accessories, your wife hopes to discourage your crossdressing…
But that is obviously merely a thought, I have no idea if it is her case or not. And there are a few things that she might allow: one thing is to wear flats, the other is to wear outrageous 5″ or even 6″ heels, but you can get awesome results (merely in the way you walk!) with a 2″ heel… If you can get a corset, it will do wonders (really! — just make sure it really fits well, which is something not easy to figure out) as well, even with a blouse and slacks. And breastforms can be overrated, specially if you are long and thin — you can get those styrofoam-enhanced push-up bras, even without any filling, and use the old taping trick to create some awesome cleavage on a blouse unbuttoned just to the right spot 🙂
Of course, if you’re big framed and tall (like me, unfortunately…) it’ll be way, way harder. Skinny types have all the luck. After all, runway models are often very tall, skinny, and almost flat-chested, and anything looks great on them…
Keep trying, little by little: “Desensitization is a GOOD THING” for you and those around you. Gradually subtract male gender cues and add feminine ones, noting what helps you feel your most authentic self. You may find that something that feels good is really scary because you can’t”pull-it-off” with your current presentation, if so, wait and as your total presentation advances, you may find it “works for you” later. All the elements of our gender presentation are synergistic: they build-up and support the greater whole. And as you progess you will become more at ease with yourself, expressing your true self without always being self-conscious. THIS is the secret to being recognized as your true self: mindset, movement, how you occupy space, how you react, your voice, how you dress, makeup, interests, ALL these things add together.
Some sat that gender is “doing,” but when gender is “being”(yourself), then the “doing” becomes your natural, relaxed expression.
I’ve found all this has worked powerfully and wonderfully over my five-year gradual, gentle transition through androgyny to where I am today, living as myself, a woman, for over two years now.
I’ve been cross dressing since high school almost 50 years ago. I enjoy it and so does my wife but a passing woman I’m not but I can dream can’t I? NO matter what I am just not going to pass as a women. The legs, feet, hips all the way up to the head could pass but then my ugly puss gets in the way but I am happy to do that much.
Thanks,