By makeup artist Meg Hall

The art of makeup goes beyond fluttering eyelashes and perfectly glossed lips. It is also a tool to enhance the kind of shape and feel you want for your face. As a professional makeup artist with a feminine to more masculine fluidity, I’ve experimented and adapted makeup to suit my personal needs as well as the needs of those with masculine-of-center or genderqueer identities.

As with clothes, it all comes down to shape. When sculpting and shaping a “feminine” face you are striving to create the illusion of the perfect oval face shape; applying your blush, lipstick, and even eyebrow products in a way that accentuates curves and soft round shapes. To sculpt a more “masculine” face, you are striving for strong, chiseled features, and looking to create a more square shape. This is absolutely possible when you know which products and techniques to use when applying makeup.

STEP 1: COMPLEXION PERFECTION

You will need:

Primer
Recommended: MAC Cosmetics Prep+Prime Natural Radiance (all skin types) or
Too Faced Primed & Poreless (combination-oily skin)

Tinted Moisturizer
Recommended: Laura Mercier tinted moisturizer

OR

Sheer Water Based Foundation
Recommended:  MAC Cosmetics Face & Body Foundation

You want to begin by creating a good canvas to work on. Following your usual skincare routine, apply a primer. Once primed, you want to apply your foundation or tinted moisturizer. I recommend going for something lightweight, like a tinted moisturizer or sheer water based foundation. Tinted moisturizer or foundation should be applied before concealer to save you from over concealing.

STEP 2: CONCEAL & BRIGHTEN

You will need:

Concealer
Recommended: MAC Cosmetics Pro Longwear Concealer, or
Tarte Maracuja Creaseless Concealer

Eye Brightener
Recommended: MAC Cosmetics Prep+Prime Highlighter

If you see any areas or spots that your foundation didn’t cover, now is the time to conceal. I recommend using a lightweight and/or liquid concealer to help maintain a “no makeup” look. 

Following concealer, use an eye brightener to make yourself appear naturally awake and refreshed. Apply a small amount under the eyes and blend in with a brush using circular motions, going around the outside of the eye and over the brow bone.

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Anonymous asked: Hi, I love your blog! I could us some help. I recently cut my hair short (I used Emma Watson's short haircut as a reference) and since then I have had trouble styling it. I have Garnier Fructis extra hold hair wax, but all I've been able to do so far is make my hair look like Trunks in Saiyan mode from Dragonball Z. I googled short hair styling tips, but came up with little I could do. Any tips? Any help you could give would be much appreciated.

I consulted with my hair stylist, tMas of Escape Salon in Boston’s South End for this one. He says, “It sounds like they are using either too much product, applying product too close to the scalp, applying product on dry hair (creating too much texture) and/or using a product that has too hard of a hold, or all of the above. With short hair styles a little bit of product goes a LONG way since there is less weight to bend, flex and ultimately weigh down so it stretches for the sky. I would suggest using a softer more pliable product such as a paste. Waxes tend to be stronger and cause the hyper texture they don’t sound like they are looking for. Also applying it softly by dragging it through the ends will be more than enough product to complete a style. Waxes generally are used to show texture not reduce it. In the end I would advise this person to use a softer styling product. Bumble and bumble Sumotech is great. I am pretty sure Garnier Fructis makes a paste as well.”

Bumble and bumble Sumotech, available at Sephora for $26

Like tMas’ Facebook page: Hair by tMas