Oswego State’s chapter of Her Campus held a makeup competition called “Beat Thy Face” on Monday, March 19, which garnered praise from the Oswego State campus, as well as fellow chapter members.
Held in the main lounge of Waterbury Hall, Oswego State students gathered together to show off their makeup skills, learn makeup tips and techniques from each other, and compete to win prizes in the “Beat Thy Face” makeup competition.
“I thought it was very interesting because I got to see people [show] how they apply makeup….as well as their techniques and their tricks,” said Gbemi Abiola, a participant in the event.Students had roughly 45 minutes to complete their “look” in order to be judged in the competition portion of the evening. There were no requirements for what types of makeup, or what kinds of “looks” students could create.
Abiola, a senior and a business administration major at Oswego State, placed second in the competition.
“I just did it for fun, I didn’t expect to actually win anything,” she said.
The first and second place winners were voted on by the members of Her Campus Oswego, and received a prize pack of various makeup and skincare items.The Oswego State Her Campus chapter is run by Co-Campus Correspondents Katie Short and Nathalie Peña. Short has been a member of Her Campus Oswego since her fall semester of 2015.
“I did one of the admitted students days…and I was just walking around the ice rink and I saw Her Campus and it said ‘online women’s magazine’ and I literally walked and then took a step back and looked at it and thought ‘That looks super fun,’” said Short. “So I talked to the current CC at the time…and I said I really want to get involved.”
The dual creative writing and political science major became a campus correspondent in her fall semester of 2016. Since then, Short and her Co-CC Peña have worked to build Her Campus Oswego into a platinum level chapter, the second highest level a chapter can have.
Levels are determined by a point system; chapters earn points by posting stories to their Her Campus page, posting on their various social media platforms, and holding events on their campus.The idea to hold a makeup competition came from Her Campus Oswego event planner Sean MacShane.
“’Beat Thy Face’ was an event that Sean came to me and Nathalie about, I think [at] the end of last semester. He said that it was a makeup event where you go and it’s a competition, so you do a day look and a night look…and at the end the team members and the CCs judge,” said Short. “He just said it randomly one day, and I don’t think we thought it would get as big as it did, but it was still really cool to have our first big [event].”
“’Beat Thy Face’ was inspired by a friend of mine who is the CC for Her Campus at a school called Manhattanville…it wasn’t very successful at her school, but I thought it was still a really cool, fun idea,” said MacShane.
MacShane believes the reason “Beat Thy Face” worked so well at Oswego was due to the less competitive nature of the evening.
“I think our [event idea] evolved when we did it here at Oswego because it was more of a friendly competition, but it still was a competition. Working with Katie and Nathalie, we all came to the conclusion that it should be more, lighthearted, fun, [and] friendly,” said MacShane. “Just learning new tips and meeting other people while you’re doing your makeup, like a hangout.”
As one of the event planners for Her Campus Oswego, MacShane runs event ideas by the CCs before anything is planned. Together, they work out event details, and then MacShane finalizes the event and begins to push promotion on the various Her Campus Oswego social media accounts. He is also in charge of bringing any extra materials that would be needed at the event.
Looking to the future, Short would like Her Campus Oswego to hold the “Beat Thy Face” event again.
“In the fall, we’re definitely going to do that same event, maybe mid-semester,” she said. “People said they wanted it to be an every semester thing, so I was really excited about that.”