Eyebrow Plucking Shaving and Shaping
Style Me Quirky have had a whole range of clients including men, women, crossdressers, bands, fashion designers, models, burlesque dancers, hen party makeovers, you name it, we’ve had all shapes and sizes genders and ages through the door! One topic that keeps reoccurring is that of eyebrow shaping. SmQ clients seem to have a diverse range of eyebrows styles from perfect shaping on some of the girls we see to some worryingly wet shaved, scissor cut and clipped eyebrows on male clients right through to a transvestite client who was visiting our dressing service and told us how she uses pritt stick glue to gum her eyebrows down! Please don’t try this at home! We will have to write a separate blog to describe how to use spirit gum and morticians wax to gum your eyebrows out properly another time!
Style Me Quirky Eyebrow Top Tips
- Read this whole blog first and do some of your own research before starting. If you have a loved one or friend handy, get them to give you a second opinion as you go along to tell you if you are over-plucking! Style Me Quirky takes no responsibility at all for your own eyebrow plucking attempts!
- Use good slate-tipped tweezers, available from all good chemists
- Pull the skin taught with your other hand – it hurts less and causes less irritation – and the hair comes out easier
- Pluck the hairs in the direction of the hair – also hurts less and causes less irritation
- Don’t pluck your eyebrows just before going out as you will have pink irritated eyelids!
- If its your first time, don’t pluck your eyebrows before a night out or putting your makeup on as you may be stressed or rushing and are therefore more likely to mess it up. Putting makeup straight on after plucking might irritate your skin too.
- Always pluck from the bottom up
- TAKE BREAKS – if it is your first time, do the most obvious offenders, take a break come back and get a better perspective of how the shape is coming along. If you get stuck right in you run the risk of over-cooking it and plucking your eyebrows to thin or damn near completely off which makes you look constantly surprised and pretty daft! Trust me we’ve all done it!
- Avoid plucking from the top unless there are just a couple of errant hairs – the top of your brow is where you get the shape from
- Tidy up at first don’t go straight for perfection – for men and transgender clients in particular, tidying the long ones out and the untidy ones in the middle of your brow and lower in the socket area will make you look nicely groomed rather than giving yourself thin girly brows for your next client meeting :s
- Use your makeup brushes held against your face as a guide to see where your eyebrows should start and end. A nightmare to describe check out the pictures below to see what we mean.
- Don’t use a wet razor boys! If you have a mono-brow, DON’T shave it off with your razor! within hours you will get stubble there and honestly it looks so much worse than you’re original monobrow! Pluck them out with tweezers!
- Don’t clipper or trim your eyebrows (boys and cross-dressers again). Trimmed or clipped eyebrows look nearly as bad as wet shaved ones! If you have mega lashes sticking out, pluck em out. You can tidy up and thin out your eye-brows plucking out and great big long or overly thick ones, just take breaks and don’t pull too many out from the same area so you don’t leave gaps.
If you aren’t sure, especially if its the first time you’ve done it, book in to have them done professional at hair or beauty salons that do eyebrows and ask them to talk you through it as they go. Take a little makeup mirror with you and ask if you can watch what they are doing. Once you’ve had them done once, its much easier to keep them in shape yourself with regular grooming.
Alternatively of course, book in for an appointment with us and let us know you want us to tidy them up for you and we will gladly help out!
Please comment and feel free to get in touch and let us know if you would like to see blog topics on specific subjects and we will see what we can do.
To enquire or book a quirky makeover and photography session; info@stylemequirky.com +44 7508 972648
Transgender Makeover Tips – Foundation
Here at Style Me Quirky, transgender makeovers are a bit of a specialty as our founder Pops knows a thing or two about gender bending makeup techniques from his POPCOX project. The second in a series of makeup tips and pointers, these blogs will give you a hand guiding you through the basics of transgender makeover makeup.
Disclosure! As a transgender makeover service, Style Me Quirky works in partnership with TEN IMAGE professional makeup products which are all available from our makeup shop, when advising on products hopefully its obvious that in addition to other makeup brands we are going to recommend the TEN IMAGE range as our favoured products seeing as they are the brand we use in our work!
As well as professional transgender makeovers we offer quirky fashion and musician makeovers, styling and photography. We also hope to provide useful interesting and entertaining blogs, photos, video and other content, if you would like to keep up with all things Quirky, you can subscribe by submitting your email in the box at the top right hand corner of this page.
Transgender Makeover Foundation
There is no right or wrong way to apply makeup, its quite apt that the professionals are referred to as makeup ‘artists’ as, apart from the obvious creativity, the technical process and techniques are themselves subjective, artistic and open to interpretation. If you have other tips, ideas and opinions, about transgender makeup foundation, please do comment under this post or get in touch. All my tips and pointers are my favoured techniques, I’m not claiming them to be right or perfect for everyone, they are however consistently the best techniques for myself and our transgender makeover clients.
Types of Foundation
The main types of foundation we use are fluids, powders, cremes and makeup sticks. Some fluids dry as a powder (clever eh?) and many are used in combination; a fluid or makeup stick with a powder over the top for example.
Makeup Stick and Loose Powder Technique
The generally most effective and common technique we use for our transgender makeovers is makeup stick and loose powder. Makeup sticks are generally professional makeup products for theatrical makeup rather than their high-street consumer counterparts. Professional makeup is preferable for the best results for transgender makeovers especially for foundation because they have a mixture of benefits like; thicker consistency, stay on for longer, stronger pigments in the colour and a whole host of other benefits. If you use a high street foundation, its quitter likely your beard area will show though even if you’ve had a close shave, especially if you are going to be photographed.
Colour Camouflage
There are various thick creams you can use to cover beard and stubble areas but in my experience so far, I’ve haven’t met a transgender makeover client that didn’t have sufficient stubble showing on their face even after a close shave that didn’t show skin discolouration. With alternative thick cremes, concealers and blemish products, its difficult to get a consistent colour or even close to a consistent colour across the whole face in a transgender makeover because of this beard area. If you apply significantly more makeup to your beard area than everywhere else there’s a good chance you’ll end up looking like Texas Pete!
The best technique in neutralising the beard shadow is to apply a camouflage concealer. The trick to camouflage is not only the right product but the right colour to use. To counteract dark colours, black, greys and browns, the colours you need to are brick red and bright orange! Incidentally, green counteracts pink and red spots, patches, blemishes and tones for future reference! I use the D 32 colour of the Dermacolour Camouflage concealer range to cover the beard area. If you search for it on google I’m sure you’ll find plenty of places that sell it. For clients and locals here in London, if you want to purchase one from me, I have spare stock from our transgender makeover kit and can sell you one via paypal if you can’t track them down on the net.
Use a makeup sponge to fairly liberally apply the brick colour camouflage to the beard area, top lip and neck. Apply most camouflage where its darkest and less where the stubble is less stubborn. Try your best to get an even coverage so there aren’t any abrupt ‘tide lines’ where your camouflage ends. Now stand back and admire the fact you now look like David Dickinson!
You can also use a bit of D32 orange (and I really mean bright orange!) camouflage on black lines and bags under the eyes although don’t put too much on as you can’t apply your foundation as thickly near and under your eyes so if you use too much camouflage the orange will show though your makeup – don’t worry, we’ve all done it, its part of the learning process!
Use the clean back of the sponge to blend in and soften the edges and remove any excess camouflage that’s overlapping into unwanted areas. Then apply loose power on a powder puff and push firmly and liberally into the skin on the camouflaged area. Use your powder brush to brush off excess powder.
Foundation Stick
Apply the foundation stick with either a makeup sponge (that’s a link to the posh sponges, cheap-seat sponges above) or a foundation brush. A word of warning, this stuff is thick and a real nuisance to get off of your brushes, personally I go for the sponge technique and then either bin the sponges or save up a load of dirty ones and then stick them through the washing machine – I’m sure the catwalk pro’s would never admit to a technique like that! Of course we never use anything other than brand new sponges for our clients but if you use good quality sponges there is nothing wrong with washing them and re-using. I soak them in a bowl of non-perfumed soap and warm water and then rinse them first to get the worst of the makeup off and then bung them in the washing machine on their own – you don’t want to get makeup on your clothes in the washing machine! Incidentally, using a foundation brush is particularly useful for getting the makeup right into your pores if you have an ‘orange peel skin’ or a pitted complexion or if you are using a cream or liquid over stubble or a short beard if you are doing an androgynous look – but that’s a different blog altogether!
When you have an even coverage of makeup (don’t forget your neck and ears), use loose powder and a puff liberally to push the powder firmly into the skin all over the foundation. Use your powder brush to brush off all the excess powder.
Hey presto! You should have a dreamy matt powdered even foundation to work on! You may also notice, you look a lot like a ghost or, if you are wearing a wig cap to keep your hair out the way, you look like a bit like a ballerina!
I hope this transgender makeover tips blog has been useful, please comment and get in touch with comments, requests and feedback. If you would like to join our mailing list for news, tips, entertainment, events and specials from Style Me Quirky, you can simply add your email address in the subscribe to newsletter box at the top right of every page on this site.
If you would like to book your very own Style Me Quirky transgender makeover with full bespoke styling and professional photography, visit our Style Me Quirky Transgender Dressing Service page for more details, prices and to book.
Until we meet again, may the Quirk be with you!
Pops and Team Style Me Quirky
xxx
Transgender Makeover Tips – Skincare – Shaving and Moisturising
Here at Style Me Quirky, transgender makeovers are a bit of a speciality as our founder Pops knows a thing or two about gender bending makeup techniques from his POPCOX project. The first in a series of makeup tips and pointers, these blogs will give you a hand guiding you through the basics of transgender makeover makeup. I expect you will be probably eager to jump headlong into the more exciting bit of actually getting your slap on and making yourself look pretty but skincare, shaving and preparation is really important to get the best results from a transgender makeover.
Disclosure! As a transgender makeover service, Style Me Quirky works in partnership with TEN IMAGE professional makeup products which are available from our makeup shop. Don’t forget as well as professional transgender makeovers we offer quirky fashion and musician makeovers, styling and photography. We also hope to provide useful interesting and entertaining blogs, photos, video and other content, if you would like to keep up with all things Quirky, you can subscribe by submitting your email in the box at the top right hand corner of this page.
Transgender Makeover Tips – Skincare, Shaving and Moisturiser
Shaving
Have a close shave using a good quality multi-blade razor. The trick is to use water as hot as you can take (don’t burn yourself though) and soak the razor in the hot water before you start. Shaving after having a shower is a good idea as your pores will be open and your stubble softer from the steam in the shower. Use a good shaving foam, gel or oil and make sure you shave slowly and rinse the razor frequently after every one or two strokes. You can do a full downwards shave, re-lather and then do a sideways shave over the top. We don’t advise shaving upwards, while its the ultimate close shave it can ruin your skin on the day and the long term effects can be the orange peel like pitted skin; yuck!
Moisturiser
After shaving you must use a moisturiser. It soothes your skin and preparers it so that your makeup will adhere better. After-shave balms and moisturisers are much better these days but many are perfumed so you might want to opt for a more neutral moisturiser, there are loads available, look for all the natural ones without perfumes and other nonsense they put into them. Don’t be scared to use girls products either, I don’t care what the marketers say, a moisturiser is a moisturiser! Cheap high street options include Boots No 7 and Olay who both do value for money beauty products that do the trick. Of course we recommend our partner makeup and beauty partner range TEN IMAGE and their moisturising cream which is oil-free, hydrating and matt-finish. We like this one because its a quality product, applies well, feels refreshing and it isn’t greasy. The matt finish is important to us as a makeover service too as we need a non-greasy matt finish to apply makeup to.
After washing your face or having a shower generally, you should consider using a moisturiser and separate eye cream or gel – why not stave off those smile lines and wrinkles as long as possible? Frankly we find them nice and refreshing too and a help to those pesky dark lines and bags under the eyes that show everyone just how rock and roll your lifestyle is!
Eye Serum
Before putting your makeup on, it is also a good idea to use an eye serum, we use the TEN IMAGE Eye Contour Serum. Different from the eye cream you use as part of your skincare regime, an eye serum is a product designed not only to contribute to reducing wrinkles with vitamins, it ‘Contains soft-focus properties, which reflect light, while hiding expression signs and providing uniformity to the face’. In basic terms, it helps hide your extra eye baggage dark shades and lines and reflects light through your makeup which, not only makes you look fabulous but makes a big difference when you are having photographs taken off you especially when using a flash whether in a studio on a professional shoot or just out with friends on a night out.
That’s it for this part of the transgender makeover makeup tips and advice blog series, please do comment and give feedback to say if you found it helpful and if you would like to see more and on what topics.
For now though,
Keep it Quirky,
Pops x
Transgender Makeovers and Photography by Style Me Quirky - Transgender makeovers and photography is one of the core the markets we service
Read MoreThe Trannyshack event gallery is up for you to see and share with friends. OK so its actually been up for weeks now but admittedly its taken us a while to to put the site and its sister gallery site stylemequirkygallery.com together and get everything working! You can visit the gallery of photos taken at Trannyshack on Wednesday 16th November 2011 by visiting the Trannyshack London 15th November 2011 gallery. Please feel free to click the thumbs up and thumbs down buttons that appear when you hover over the main photo and share with friends. You can also make comments and share with your friends.