Prom Makeup: 2013 vs. 2019

Hi, friends!

It's prom season! Facebook is about to remind me that six years ago, I was just as awkward as usual but extra sparkly for a night.

Here's my natural hair color, for anyone who's forgotten.

Back then, I had absolutely no idea how makeup worked. If it looks like I'm barely wearing any in my prom pictures, it's because that's true. I was thinking the other day about how different I'd look if my current self were the one going to prom and doing my makeup for it. Since I still have my dress in my closet, I decided I might as well see how that would've looked!

I don't have any close-up pictures of my face from that day for comparison. There will be several recent pictures to compare in this post, though. Almost all of them were taken with natural light from a window and also a small ring light that clips onto my phone, so that should be fairly consistent.

2019 picture #1: Bare face

Nothing on my face except its natural discoloration and dryness.

This is what I was working with as a base. My skin has been behaving pretty well recently!

2019 picture #2: Replicating what I did for prom in 2013

This is more of a "no makeup" look than an "I'm going to prom" look.

Six years ago, I used some powder foundation under my eyes, put mascara on only my top eyelashes, wore some sheer lip gloss with a bit of a tint, and put one peachy eye shadow all over my eyelid with no blending whatsoever. It didn't exactly look great, but that was all I could do at the time. I'm not sure where I got the idea that having invisible lower lashes was better than using mascara on them.

What I did:
- Powder foundation isn't something I use these days, so I used an eye shadow that's approximately my skin color instead. That probably covered my dark circles way better than the powder foundation did, honestly.
- I use better mascara now than the classic Maybelline Great Lash in the pink tube with the green lid. To simulate the effect of a mascara that doesn't do very much for volume or length, I used a nearly-dried-but-still-usable tube that I'm about to throw out.
- Sheer, very slightly tinted lip glosses are pretty common. It wasn't hard to replicate that.
- I actually still have the peachy-pink shadow that I used that night. (When it comes to powder cosmetics, my philosophy is that it's still fine to use as long as it isn't acting funny. If it's been contaminated or it starts to look or smell different, it's time to chuck it. Powder products hardly ever go bad by their expiration date, though.) It was difficult to resist the urge to blend it. I'm just glad the shade I used was soft enough that it wasn't super obvious where I'd simply stopped putting the color.

This almost makes me look like a misguided Avon lady.
"Blending? What's that?" - 2013 Me, probably

2019 picture #2.5: Replicating my prom makeup and the state of my skin from 2013

The flattering lighting makes this appear better than it did in real life. I promise the redness was real.

As one might expect, my skin has improved in a few ways since I was eighteen. The redness in my face is less intense and I don't get nearly as many pimples. I also moisturize my face now, thank goodness. To make my replication more historically accurate, I used some red eye shadow to create faux blemishes and I spread some pink blush across the middle of my face. It felt bizarre to look in the mirror and see my face being overly flushed and dotted with "acne" again.

2019 picture #3: What 2019 Me would've done to the face of 2013 Me

Oh hey, I do have lower eyelashes. There they are!

My dress still fits! Would've been rather awkward to get this far and then not be able to zip it up, huh?

If my current self went through the quantum realm with a Caboodle of products and did the makeup on my former self for prom, this is what I would've done. I kept it fairly simple while still making it flattering.

What I did:
- Better mascara that I put on all of my eyelashes, using two coats on the top. It would've been better if I'd used waterproof mascara that could hold a curl, but I wasn't quite dedicated enough to this project to put myself through the process of removing that.
- Still just one shade of eye shadow all over my lid. This time, though, I used a shade that matched my dress more and I also blended the edges.
- Real concealer to cover the under-eye darkness and red spots! So much more effective than powder. No foundation, though, since 2013 Me wouldn't have liked that.
- I filled in my eyebrows a bit so that they wouldn't just fade to nothingness from certain angles. ("You can put makeup on your eyebrows?!" - 2013 Me, probably)
- I stuck to a sheerish lip gloss, but this one is pinker and has some sparkles in it.

2019 picture #4: 2019 Me's version of prom makeup

More pink! More sparkle!!

I decided to wear the jewelry I had on that night for some extra fun. That makes up for having boring, non-fancy hair, right?

If there was some sort of prom for married couples and I wore my uber-sparkly pink dress to that, this is one of the types of makeup looks I'd consider for that night. I'd probably do some experimenting to find something appropriately glamorous. My instinct was to go monochrome and stick to pinks on my eyes and lips. I could've also done silver somewhere in my eye shadow, maybe turned this into a smokey eye, worn some metallic pink lipstick, added pink glitter somewhere.. There are so many possibilities! I could've even put on false eyelashes if I was feeling extra fancy (and felt like spending way too long struggling with the darn things).

A closer look at the pink eye shadow. There's a lot of sparkle going on, even if it's a little hard to tell here. I'm still figuring out how to take good pictures of makeup. Also, I promise I didn't get foundation in my hair, haha. The lighter section of hair on the side of my face is part of my undyed roots, which are considerably lighter than the dark brown hair above.

A lot has changed in six years. My inability to figure out how to pose is not one of those things. Also, the bracelet on my left hand is what my corsage was originally attached to. Super neat!

I wish I'd been bolder and gone for the over-the-top glitter or something. Jared commented that the finished look is "surprisingly tame." This is essentially my normal routine but with an emphasis on pink and sparkles. We went grocery shopping and picked up some Domino's tonight while this was on my face and I didn't feel weird about it at all. (I was wearing regular clothes for that, obviously.) Maybe that just means my everyday makeup style is fabulous enough for formal events even though my clothing style is lame. Glitter and t-shirts go together, right?


Overall, it was a lot of fun to do this! Hopefully it was entertaining for you, too. It's wild to look back at pictures of my squishy, reddish face with its neglected skin now that I'm so used to seeing myself with an evened out skin tone and fun colors in strategic places. Thank goodness for YouTube tutorials and practice! I'm thinking about redoing my wedding makeup, too, since I was still kind of figuring out what to do to my face when I did that. Stay tuned to see if that happens someday! :)

Love,
Lizzie