I know next to nothing about putting on women’s makeup…brands, colors, shades, textures, they’re all a mystery to me.
I need to learn more about it; I’m dressing as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz this Hallowe’en, and I want to look perfect.
More generally I have some other crossdressing ideas, so this is a skill I need to acquire.
How can I go about this? I think it would be weird to go to a salon or Avon representative about this, and I doubt any college’s adult education program extends to this sort of class.
I have female friends I could talk with, but I would guess their expertise would be limited to making up their own faces. Maybe I’m wrong about that.
How much cross-dressing do you plan to do, and is it always going to be in a costume party capacity? The reason I ask is because “fun” make up requires one type of skill, “stage” makeup where you actually look like a woman is a bit more involved.
Well, you’re in Atlanta, a fairly large town. It’s got a large gay community and there’s probably a large transvestite community as well. (I am not saying all transvestites are gay, I know many aren’t but the two communities often share some overlap). I’d start hunting around the net for transvestite communities. See if you can make friends with someone who woud like to help you out. Look in Creative Loafing too. Larger towns sometimes have people offering to teach you how to “pass”. In fact, I just cruised though the Creative Loafing personals and saw this ad:
That might be worth a try. You can get make-up lessons at most upscale beauty salons too. If you ask around, you might be able to find one sympathetic to helping you pass…
I just looked up cross dressing in Atlanta and found Sigma Epsilon, a group for het cross-dressers. So if you’re het, check this out. You can probable meet people who’ll be able to help you out…
Applying make up to a man’s face has some important differences than a woman’s face. Firstly, and most importantly, hiding the beard. I don’t know how much facial hair you have, and what steps, if any you’re taking to remove it. However, covering it up is a bit tricky. Female friends may be able to help a bit, but as you surmised, usually women are pretty good at putting on their own makeup, but not necessarily that good at other peoples.
That would probably be your best bet - a broad range of items are typically covered, from stage makeup, day makeup, costuming, etc, etc. Secondly, there are quite a few male makeup artists, so you wouldn’t have to feel uncomfortable (if you would) being one of the only men in class.
Actually, on closer study I don’t think the link alice_in_wonderland gave would be helpful to me; it’s a school for professional makeup artists (and it’s expensive!), but I just want to know how to do my own makeup (and not spend much money in the effort).
The reason I suggested the school was that you would be taught how to do your own makeup for every occasion (which is what I thought you wanted).
How about this then:
It’s a place that sells cosmetics, but it looks like the owner has some training and is willing to help customers.
Perhaps if you call ahead you can book some of her time and she can get you kitted out with the stuff you need for your Dorothy costume as well as other stuff.