How to Apply Makeup
Photo by Pawel Czerwinski via Unsplash. Step 1: Moisturize and Prime
Begin with well-moisturized skin. Make sure to do your research. Some moisturizers are mist-light, and others cream-thick. Some vanish deep in the dermis, while others leave a chalky residue. Oil-based moisturizers can be hydrating holy grails for dry skin or cystic kryptonite for oily pores. Find a moisturizer that’s right for you. Apply it evenly to your face. When dry, prime.
While moisturizer is the foundation for your look, primer is the framework that supports it. Some hydrate, nourishing dry, flaky skin. Others mattify, preventing oil-prone T-zones from ruining your look. Squeeze a dollop onto your fingertip. Tap from cheek to cheek, chin to forehead, leaving dime-sized dots. Smooth over the full surface of your skin.
At the mall for my biweekly visit, I bustle past the greeter with the scarlet lip. Her smoky eye is sculpted perfectly beneath her crisp pageboy bangs. “Welcome to Sephora,” she smiles. I watch her eyes and lips for any movement, my face angled her way. Her brows don’t bunch into a question mark; her lips don’t press into a sneer. This means I’ve done good. I can be confident that, today, I’ve applied my makeup right, despite my scars.
With a straight-backed bop, I pass through the foyer, walk Mirror Row, cut a right at the next aisle, and stop in front of my favorite brand. The display has liquid foundation bottles fat as hazard flares, thin eyeshadow palettes packed with pigments bright enough to spot on my melanated skin, and studded tubular lipsticks with names like Outlaw and Misfit. I grab a bottle of foundation — color Deep 74 Warm — and, while I’m at it, pick up the powder to match.
It’s 2018, and I’m 37. I’ve worn this shade for a decade, since I was fresh out of law school. That’s when Kat Von D’s Lock-It Foundation first dropped; when, for the first time, I saw her without any face ink. While a lightning bolt usually appeared under her right eye and a string of stars around her left, in the ad there wasn’t a speck of ink on her face. Instead, a thick brow, rose blush, and candy-red lip created the perfect promo for her new, full-coverage liquid foundation. Staring at that ad, I saw in Kat what I wanted for myself: a beautiful covering for an etched face. I raced to Sephora to cop my first bottle. At home, I pumped the first dollop onto the web of my hand, smudged the cognac-dark liquid onto my brush and spread it across my cheek. I prayed it would cover my scars the way it covered Kat’s colorful face, neck, chest, and arm tattoos. It did.
Even at $68 for the liquid and powder duo, Kat’s foundation quickly replaced the $43 Estée Lauder Double Wear that lined my medicine cabinet, each bottle turned on its head so I could use every last drop. I couldn’t afford waste. I could barely afford to eat and pay my law school loans. But unlike Double Wear, the Lock-It formula stayed in place throughout the day, even despite the oil slick that always threatened to break through.
I fix my gaze on the display, wishing I had more money for blush and bronzer and mascara and a new lip. But I don’t trip. I’ll be back in two weeks, another payday. I swivel around and step toward the cashier’s counter.
A familiar voice calls my name, breaking my stride. I turn to see my younger cousin, Alexandria, and her smooth forehead, plump cheeks, unblemished chin — the perfect canvas for her stunning beat. Arched brows stack on downturned eyes. Her jet-black hair reminds me of her mama’s, at least as it was captured
