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 Makeovers and Photography by Style Me Quirky - Transgender makeovers and photography is one of the core the markets we service