There's two things I hate about you: Your Face!

 Hello Damnlings!

Often when I'm amongst you all in the real world, I'm asked "how do you get your makeup like that?" and "how long does it take to do your makeup?". Well, lots of layers and about 2 hours!! 

I thought I'd share a bit more about the process, little tips I've picked up along the way, and the mental battle of not giving into the void to just wipe it all off and stay home. 

The first trick, to ensure a smooth face, is to leave shaving until the absolute last moment before needing to get ready. As a natural brunette, it does not take long for my 5 o'clock shadow to appear, or for speckling to occur from stubble. This is always followed by a good moisturiser. 

The general process is to "hide" my "boy face", then create a "girl face", then apply the make up to that. This begins with blocking my eyebrows - cleaning, gluing and powdering them so that they appear flat and smooth. I then apply an almost neon orange primer - "colour corrector" - to counter the blue tones of my brunette hair, directly onto my eyebrows, and my beard zone. I also put a dab under my eyes where the skin is thinner and more veins are visible (old!!).

Once I look sufficiently Trump-like, I apply my foundation creams - I use the sticks available from Primark (as recommended by Lawrence Chaney. I use 'Cool Sand' for the base, 'Ivory' to highlight, and 'Chai' to contour). These are blended out to create a heart shape on my forehead and give definition to my cheekbones and jawline. Once I'm happy that the contour is sufficiently uneven (so frustrating that I can never get it quite right) I then cover everything in setting powder and leave to "bake" for about 10 minutes - a good opportunity to start putting on base layers of my costume that won't get covered in makeup!

Once that's done, I brush off the excess, and am ready to start with the fine details of making the face you've all come to love. This starts with the powder contour to start forming landmarks and shapes. Revolution is my go to for this - dusted along my cheekbones, hairline and jawline bringing definition to the cream from earlier. Once the cheekbones are in place, I blend blush into the contour, then apply some highlight to create some sharpness. Finally I contour my nose (usually with my eye closed, hoping for the best and to get it over with!). This guides where my eyebrows will start (generally where my natural ones were). 

Having my eyebrows and nose marked out, makes it much easier to form the shape of my eyes - I use the roundness of my eyesocket as a basis for the shape, following the contour of my cheekbones to almost reach the outer edge of my eyebrows. I use black eyeshadow on a narrow hard brush to sketch the lines, and a liquid eyeliner to tidy the wings. I also use this to create a clean 'point' in the corners of my eyes. I then create my signature hellfire ember look by blending a bright red into the black. Mascara on my natural lashes before applying my ginormous drag lashes makes them look much fuller and less spidery.

I use the same pallette for my lips - a bright red liquid lip stain from Fenty, and a little known fact: The black is in fact kohl eyeliner pencil. I blend the two to give the same effect as my eye, and then suck my finger to remove any excess before it gets on my teeth. 

A heart shaped beauty spot using a black liquid eyeliner completes the look, and a setting spray stops it all melting off!

All of this requires a lot of looking at myself in the mirror; It's something I'm working on, but for the longest time, I tried to avoid making eye contact with myself. This however, led to a lot of hyper-fixating on the most insignificant flaws and blemishes - even worrying about grey hairs... I'll be in a wig!!! 

If you've made it this far, thank you again for following my blog. Next week I'll discuss the relationship between drag, reflection and mental health. Until then, be good!

Yours for a bit longer, 

Evilyn x