Let me explain . . . I’m a white female who loves using rich, deep lipstick colors. I’ve always been slightly dissatisfied with the choices in “white” makeup lines because the shades I like don’t like me. They’re too bright and very heavy and thick on the application. Deep lipgloss shades often turn out not to have too much pigment in them and they run all over the place.
I’d often seen makeup lines geared toward women of color and the colors were really beautiful. I’d never bought anything because I thought they’d disappoint me again. But, a week ago, I saw some liquid lipsticks from Black Opal on sale, so I thought I’d give them a try. Boy, was I surprised! They were everything I ever wanted. The colors were rich, sophisticated but not garish. One coat covered my lips and stayed in the boundaries. I could build the coverage gradually and these lip colors just got more opaque. They didn’t change color after a while and they really lasted. My favorite colors were Violine and Red.
What about the rest of you? Have you discovered great products that work for you?
Sorry, Anaamika, in my own clumsy way I was trying to point out a DUH! moment I had. I shouldn’t have passed over the makeup just because it was marketed to a different demographic than me. I was trying to be inclusive because anyone who had a darker skin tone could have worn this makeup.
The African-American woman at the counter where I bought my lipstick referred to it as a line for “women of color” and I use that phrase sometimes myself. I don’t remember what product line it was, but I did like the results.
Is Black Opal a department store line or is that something I can pick up without breaking my budget? I am tired of cognac and natural lipsticks too. I did find a really pretty true red at Chanel, but it didn’t have staying power.
When my hair was cut to curl, I used a product that some of my students recommended that was found on the shelves with products for African-American hair care. I can’t remember the name of it, but it was in a red and yellow plastic bottle. It really did encourage the curls and it had a wonderful fragrance.
Yeah, I do this. I have an olive complexion and in the summer I get very tan. Foundation makeup intended for caucasian women is often too chalky and pale for me, blushes are too pink and let me not even get started on eyeshadows that all turn grey-ish on me. I did finally find a foundation makeup that is a decent match for me that I suppose falls into the caucasian-intended color family (boy, is THAT a messed-up description) but I still prefer blushes and eyeshadows that are marketed specifically to black women. I think the stuff they market to “women of color” is more saturated in tone, and just seems to show up better on my skin. I will say that it’s only in the last few years that I’ve SEEN makeup that is marketed to women who are not “white.” I think cosmetic retailers are just catching on.
I am another white chick checkin in to say that my relationship with makeup needs therapy.
I have always been envious of women who put on a face every day and it looks good or enhances. Y’know, girly girl stuff. But, that’s not me. I am low maintence more or less. ( High Maintence for my husband. He needs a challenge. )
I, too, love the bold bright colors and look like some dime store floozy when I try them on. I have never really found foundation or lipstick that I like and I have stopped buying them all together. I go towards tinted lipbalms now. I suppose if I went to the upsale makeup instead of the Revlon/max Factor’s of the world, it would probably be different, but Make Up Nazi-Androids scare me more than Freddy Kruger.
Secretly, I have always envied Indian (Native & Hindi), African, Asian women for their coloring. Yeah, the hair color is a bit the same, but ooooooooooooooh…you can wear reds and oranges and purples without coming off like some technicolor screw up.
Here is what I use and highly recommend for natural beauty cause I am of the belief of playing up your good points:
[ul]
[li]SPF 30 moisturizer. Every day. All year long. The sun is your silent enemy. It hates you.[/li][li]A good concealer. Skinlights illusion wand by Revlon ( about $8) works very nicely for under the eyes damage control.[/li][li]Origins Pinch Your Cheeks. Just a teeny tiny bit of this 1 oz $10 tube goes a long way to putting a natural blush into your cheeks. Noncomedogenic.[/li][li]Revlon Colorstay is the best freeking mascara I’ve found. It is a 3 day mascara. Hell, I probably put it on every couple of days, layering it. It doesn’t come off. When it does, you need the mascara remover and my lashes look anemic.[/li][li]Merle Norman’s Eyebrow Thingie I have had this little compact that is eyebrow filler since my wedding in 1993. It lasts for ever and helps bring out your brows. [/li][/ul]
In contusion, I have just placed my first order with a company that is apparently hugely popular in Japan and over here now. DHC CARE. They have a money back guarantee, when you place an order you can also order up to 4 free samples and they don’t test on animals. So,I thought I would share it as if I am super happy with my purchase ( I loved the free sample that I got with their catalog that I never ordered, it just showed up with these samples.) I will try some of their lipsticks. I am getting giddy as i speak. I am such a tool.
I have the opposite problem of everyone else in the world; I can’t find makeup made for people who are as white as me. I’ve bought the absolute palest shade available in every line of foundation sold at Wal*Mart and Target, and they’re all too dark for me. The only company I’ve found that sold a foundation light enough for my skin was one of the really uppity cosmetics-counter places at Macy’s, so having spent $60 on a tube of foundation, I no longer wear makeup except for the most formal of occasions, except on days when I feel I can get away with just putting on eyeshadow and lip gloss.
My taste in colors tends toward the deeper and brighter ones, but with my skin so pale I look like a clown if I wear anything like that.
I have a terrible time finding makeup that looks good. I’m really, really white. When I find something that looks good I tend to stick with it. Even the stuff that Mary Kay puts out that is supposed to go well with all skin tones is no guarantee for me.
Me too. The best match I ever found was a $28 bottle of Prescriptives, and in fact they had colors for paler people than I. boggles
Mary Kay is good color-wise, but it has this…smell. Puts me right off. I did finally find a little foundation by Maybelline (less than $7!) that works.
Well, in the summer I sometimes turn into a "woman of color,"and I’m Caucasian (I guess, anyway, though I have an identity crisis every time I have to use that word to describe myself, because to me it means "from the Caucasus,"which I’m not.) I’m of East European Jewish extraction, and I tend toward the olive-complected.
IME even the expensive drugstore lines of makeup are geared toward people much paler and peachier than me. The colored items (eyeliner, eyeshadow, some lipsticks) usually work OK, but anything meant to match/complement skin tone (blush, foundation, sometimes concealer) just looks wrong. In a typical line, there are maybe 1 or 2 colors of blush that don’t completely disappear on me, and then they are usually toward the orangey, brownish, or peachy tones, which make me look jaundiced. I don’t wear foundation anyway, but the other stuff is annoying. And I find it’s usually worth it to spend the extra cash for the department store makeup; I need to use less of it, and it stays on longer and generally looks better (especially eyeliner; Almay is OK of the drugstore brands, but most of the others are so hard that you could poke your eye out trying to put them on, and my eyes tear at the drop of a hat anyway).
I hear Shiseido, which was originally marketed toward Asian women, works well for women with non-WASPy skin tones. Anyone else tried it? MAC has some fun colors, too, and not such a narrow spectrum. Things that look good on Latina women tend to look good on me. When I was the only non-woman of color at my old job, I tended to wear brighter colors (and more makeup), and they looked fine on me, but either my tastes or my enviroment have now changed - it’s rare that I’ll put on lipstick at all, and my bottle of foundation hasn’t been touched in several years and really needs to be thrown away. These days it’s generally eyeliner (my one must-wear item), mascara, and a bit of blush.
I haven’t tried it and in fact have never heard of it, but it sounds like it would be RIGHT up my alley, color-wise. I get asked if I am Asian almost daily. Where is this line sold, do you know?
I have the ‘too pale for words’ problem as well. Mostly I just give up on trying to wear makeup for everyday stuff. But I play around with it other times, seeing just how dramatic I can get without looking like a tramp. Or making bruises and other such things.
I’ll echo the problem that others have identified - finding makeup that is pale enough for my year round pale pale pale complexion. Okay, well if I spend much time outside in the summer I freckle, but that’s it for pigment and me.
I finally found one shade of foundation that is light enough for me. Most anything else that is labelled as being for fair skin is just way too dark.
I also resolved my blush problems as in “how not to look like a clown” by buying eye shadow that is a matte sand colour from Revlon in one of their larger pans and using it for blush. Works well, giving a subtle highlighting effect, and has the added benefit of being one half the price of blush. Sometimes I even use it as a base eyeshadow emphasizing with a slightly darker colour in the earth tones in appropriate eye lid areas.
Does make you wonder eactly who they make the standard make up for.
You should be able to get it at Field’s or Carson’s. An Asian former friend loved it.
I don’t have that much trouble finding makeup. Base can be kind of challenging, because I’m half of Irish extraction and half of Eastern European Jewish extraction and my resulting skin tone is a little unusual - I’m very pale, but slightly olive. As in, the undertone is more yellow than pink, so a lot of the stuff intended for pale skinned people is too pink on me. But I make do okay. Always with the help of the salespeople, though, I am much too retarded to pick stuff out on my own.
This is me, as well. I don’t bother with foundation because they’re all too dark on me. Origins has a powder that I can use that matches semi-decently. It’s called “Cloud”. I’m the whitest white girl around here. I praise Og that I don’t generally have problem skin, because covering up blemishes means that I have a light brown smudge on my face instead of a red dot, which isn’t a very good improvement. Shirley Ujest, could you let me know how the DHC stuff is? I have extremely dry skin, and my boyfriend has oily, acne-prone skin. Both of us were considering ordering from them. The money back guarantee is certainly nice, though!
I’m very glad I discovered the kind of cheap lipsticks that are blue, white or green in the tube, but change to pink, red or peach on your lips, due to the skin’s chemistry. The colors are amazingly strong, deep, yet pretty, and they easily last DAYS. Yes, one application will yield a transparent color that lasts through make-up remover, meals, kissing and washing, for up to two days.
They last me longer then Max Factors Lipfinity, which is a pretty longlasting lipstick by anyones standards.
The only drawback is that you can’t predict what color the lipstick will turn on *your * lips, but it’s fun to try them out.
I’ve found most Afro make-up stores carry them. I’m pale white, but the deep pink one (yellow in the tube) is my favourite.
Have you girls checked out make-up artists books like the ones by Bobbi Brown, Kevyn Aucoin?
Have you done a test to see what color-season you are? I find these things help tremendously in choosing colors for make-up.
Will do. I am going to be watching my mailbox for the delivery like an excited child. You should see if you can order just free samples. They are good for one or two days and can give you a pretty good feel for the product, but not enough. It’s a teaser, man.
I’m glad to see you’ve taken it upon yourself to smack yourself.
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