If you knew me before college, you know that I wore makeup only a handful of times throughout my high school years. I wore some blue mascara on picture day one year, got my whole face done before my senior pictures, had a friend's friend put stuff on me before a school dance, attempted to do my own minimal makeup before the other school dance I went to, and I probably had some mascara or something for graduation. That's about it. Those of you who met me after 2015ish are probably a bit surprised right now.
For some reason, several factors have combined to work against me and make my under-eye area permanently purple and sunken. I've also had at least one zit somewhere visible on my face every day of probably the past twelve or so years. Without makeup, I basically look like I got lightly punched in both eyes and sometimes have the skin of a stressed sophomore. That's not a cute look. One would think that I'd have jumped on the chance to use concealer as soon as I was deemed old enough. Nope.
Teenagers these days are super lucky when it comes to makeup. Drugstore products are (generally) awesome and you can find help with pretty much any look you want to achieve somewhere on the internet. It's completely unfair that they get to skip the awkward beginner phase that the rest of us had to go through!
Makeup tutorials and review videos have become a huge thing on YouTube. In 2009, though, most of my peers seemed to be stumbling through their makeup routines and just doing their best, which usually wasn't that great. (No offense to anyone I knew back then.) Combine a lack of experience with the teenage desire to not get teased about skin issues and there were a decent number of makeup-wearing girls who looked... really unnatural in the skin department. Oh, and thick, all-around-the-eyes black eyeliner was a huge trend for a while. I was in no hurry to look like that.
An awesome friend gave me a little starter kit of makeup from her company when I was a senior. (Her own legitimate small business, not an MLM.) I went from owning basically nothing face-wise to having two eyeshadows, a blush, powder foundation, green color-correcting powder, a tinted lip gloss, and a few brushes. I still had no idea what I was doing the few times I tried stuff, but it was a start.
I had a lot of trouble applying mascara the few times I attempted that as a youth. I would get goop all over my eye region, wipe it all off with a wet tissue in frustration, and try again. Rinse and repeat. Admittedly, I still get mascara everywhere when I apply it, but I've since learned how to remove just the parts on my skin instead of starting over and also comb my lashes a bit so they aren't a big blob.
The biggest reason I didn't wear makeup before college is out of sheer stubbornness. It was pointed out to me several times that I would look a lot better with makeup on. Instead of realizing that was a logical statement because the entire point of makeup is to enhance one's facial features and correct discoloration, I got super offended. It's kind of like going up to an overweight person and suggesting that they try to track their calorie intake, I guess; I was fully aware that my face was struggling but having someone point it out was embarrassing and unpleasant. Out of spite, I decided I would not put things on my face to try to make it look nicer. Makes so much sense, right? (No. What the heck, teenage me??)
The big transformation began during my first semester of BYU in late 2013. When I started college, I was trying to be more outgoing and friendly since it was a fresh start with all new people. (That's also when I started going by my middle name. I was basically redoing myself.) I realized that I should probably try to not look quite so dead because nobody wants to date a zombie. It helped that none of my roommates knew how ardently I had previously disliked makeup, so there weren't any, "Wait, do you have stuff on your face? Huh??" comments to deal with. It's a lot easier to quietly accept that you were wrong about something than to visibly change your position and have people point it out.
On Sundays, I would struggle through getting mascara on my eyelashes, pat some of the powder foundation under my eyes and on my red spots, and fluff one of my two eyeshadow colors all over my eyelid. Of course, I didn't understand that a low-coverage powder foundation was not at all helpful for covering dark purple or angry red or that eyeshadow needs to be blended, but I was trying, okay?
Something else I didn't understand was that moisturization is important. Growing up near Seattle, I rarely applied lotion, and I mostly did it for the nice smells. I had never thought to put lotiony things on my face. When my poor skin got moved to a desert and suddenly had powders being put on it occasionally, it was not pleased. The skin around my eyes got all red and uncomfortable, and I thought I was having an allergic reaction. That's when I started putting Vaseline all over my eyes every night, though I still didn't think to moisturize my face in the mornings. Oh, nineteen-year-old Lizzie, how completely helpless you were.
2014: In my second semester at BYU, I took a stage makeup class. Don't ask me why I thought that would be useful. I had no intention of pursuing a major in theater or art or anything of the sort, but I decided it would be a cool class to take. This is where things (and by things, I mean my makeup skills) start to get good.
Along with stuff like special effects and injuries, we spent a lot of time learning about general makeup. Where to put highlights and shadows to achieve different effects, putting moisturizer on before makeup helps your skin not hate you as much, the fact that filling in your eyebrows is a thing, and this neat revelation that you can use more than one color of eyeshadow at once! I'm pretty sure at least one or two of the guys in my class knew more about makeup than I did when we started the semester. Man, that was helpful.
At this point, I was a lot better with mascara and had started buying some more eyeshadows and lipsticks so I had more to work with. Makeup became a daily thing instead of being only for church. I'd also found a few concealer-ish products at the two stores I had access to (The Creamery and BYU Bookstore... oof) and was doing a lot of trial and error. I hadn't quite learned that a bold eyeshadow look with bold lipstick tends to be a bit overwhelming, but I'd started experimenting and finally had a way to cover the purple under my eyes.
2014/2015: My second year at BYU saw a lot more experimenting and improving. I learned that eyeliner was not for me, used concealer almost all over my face to even things out, and discovered a love for dark lipsticks and purple eyeshadow. That was the year I got engaged, and my makeup looks surprisingly not terrible in the engagement pictures considering how new I was at the whole thing. (There's an Ulta at/near University Mall in Provo and I remember driving by it, being vaguely aware that it's a makeup store, and thinking that it might be fun to look around in there. Oh, man.)
Summer 2015: While planning my wedding, I decided I'd do my own makeup to avoid the hassle and cost of finding someone to do it, especially since the wedding was on the other side of the country from me so doing a trial run was impossible. That was when I remembered that foundation exists, so I went to Target and bought the exact foundation that my mom uses because I still didn't think about trying to find reviews or anything. Miraculously, it worked on me, too, and I stopped using concealer as a base. Huzzah!
2016: I finally thought to look up something makeup-related online and my eyes were opened to the magical world of reviews, tutorials, and the ability to know something about a product before just buying it and seeing what happens. No more flying blind! I was also becoming noticeably paler than my foundation, so pictures from this period always make me a little uncomfortable.
Towards the end of 2016 is when I placed my first online order for some makeup from e.l.f. and began regularly watching makeup videos. Makeup had officially become a hobby instead of just a thing I did to fix stuff on my face.
2017: I went to a Sephora to have their magical machine figure out what foundation matches my skin. The only one it came up with was $35, really drying, and from the brand of a terrible person. I tried my luck at Ulta and the employee who attempted to match me said that he didn't have anything pale enough and I should try getting a white mixer. Once I started adding white into my foundation, my face finally matched my neck again. Thank goodness for that Ulta guy's suggestion!
A year (and probably too many makeup purchases) later, I'm doing things like watermelon-themed eyeshadow, as much shimmer as I can get away with, and other things that would make my younger self roll her judgmental, bare, bruised-looking eyes at me. Well, guess what, past self? I do look way better with makeup on. Plus, it's fun to apply, dang it. This is one of the few forms of art I have any sort of talent for. My face is my canvas and there are so many awesome colors waiting to be used on it. Just brush some happy little highlight on your cheekbones, blend some phthalo blue into your crease, and relax.
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| What my makeup desk currently looks like |
Yikes, that was a lot more writing than I was planning on. When I'm passionate about something, I develop a magical ability to talk about it almost endlessly. I can do this kind of thing with the Marvel movies, Nancy Drew, Harry Potter, Jared, and all the other stuff that I love a whole lot. Posts here will probably be shorter than this one for the most part, but I'm not making any promises.
Love,
Lizzie
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