Taking me down a peg

When it comes to doing makeup, my confidence is not easily shaken. I've been putting on makeup for years...since I was 12 and doing the ill black liner on my lips with gloss in the middle. Ya'll remember that look?

I reference that to say...last night...was hard. The hardest class I've taken thus far and I'm not going to lie, it rocked my cockiness a bit.

Last night, we started learning foundation. Deciphering a client's undertones, mixing colors, creating a flawless base, and contouring. Let me break it down for you...

Undertones:
Everyone has a color under their actual skin color. Most black people are yellow or red. Some are a combination of the two. However, depending on your race you could have a yellow or red or green or purple...so on and so forth. For example, have you ever been to M.A.C. to buy foundation? They may hand you a studio tech that says NC45...well the NC stands for Neutral Cool and is for people with yellow undertones in their skin.

Anyway, our instructor told us the easiest way to decipher skin undertone is to look at the inside of the ear or on the chest area. Whatever color you see in there...is usually your undertone.

Mixing Colors
Most folks skin color is not out of the bottle. Meaning the majority of folks can't go out, buy foundation, slap it on and BAM it matches. That's where mixing comes in. Basically we had to pick 2 or more foundation colors and mix them to come up with someone's perfect shade.

And cue horrific story music....

So I have my model sitting in the chair in front of me. Light skinned chick. I take a foundation and swipe some on her jawline (that's how you pick a color btw)...too light I think. I take another shade and swipe again...too dark. I pick a 3rd color and swipe...still very very wrong. So I say...okay lets mix some colors. And I do. (Now in my defense the lighting where I was was bad and I think I got the bottles mixed up..lol) So I mix this color, looks right to me I say...so I start spreading it all over my model's face.

And her face turns white.

Like white white. I'm talking...baby powder in the hand...slapped across the face...been pimpin since pimpin been pimpin...WHITE.

Okay so the first rule of makeup (or life in general) never let em see you sweat. So I don't say anything. I'm thinking, I can fix this. So I, Harrison Ford frantically, start mixing all types of darker colors together trying to salvage the mime mess I had on this chick's face. When all of a sudden I hear from across the room...Damn girl, your face is whiiiiiiiiiiiite. Spot, officially blown up. Thanks.

My model hops off the chair and runs to the mirror, screaming what did you do to me the whole way. In an effort to diffuse the situation, I'm like, "calm down chick its just makeup" but in my head I'm like..."wow she looks baaaaaad."

Whatev. I wipe it off and start over. And with the teacher's help I mix a more appropriate shade of foundation and finish with powder. This chick's face was looking good. Flawless base. Oh but we're far from done, because then I had to highlight her face with lighter powder. Again I picked a color that looked right to me. So I start hitting all her "sunspots" with highlight powder to give her face some life. Ya'll her face started to turn gray. I know you think I'm exaggerating, and I wish I was. Nope. Cheeks started turning charcoal gray like I threw ashes at her. Totally screwed the flawless base I had achieved. At that point I was done. Sooo over it. The instructor told me to wipe it off and start over but by that time class was nearly over. Plus I had neither the energy nor the heart to begin again.

This saga is far from over...please stay tuned for foundation day 2. LOL.

-Keke