I wear makeup daily, and I rarely think about it very much. On the other hand, my girlfriend, Madeline, has never once worn a stitch of makeup (besides whatever rubs off of my face onto hers). Anyone who knows Madeline knows that she would never seriously wear makeup, but one day she put the idea into my head that I should put a full face of makeup on her just for fun. I just so happen to love putting makeup on other people, and was just as curious to see how it would turn out as she was. After joking about this for weeks, we were finally bored enough to make it happen.
The first step was to take a “before” photo of course, so here she is!
I know what you’re thinking. She’s already beautiful! She doesn’t need makeup! Rest assured, there will never be another occasion in which she will ever wear makeup.
The second step of the procedure was to taunt our friends. This is part of Madeline’s text conversation with our friends (and fellow Her Campus writers!) Hannah and Jessica.
As I put makeup on Madeline, I decided to give her gradual updates throughout the process and let her look in the mirror. Her thoughts on the products varied widely. The first thing I put on her was foundation, which she thought made her look powdery. She already had clear and even skin so it didn’t do much for her, plus it was in my skin color instead of hers, so it truly was a bit odd.
After that, I contoured her cheekbones and jawline which made her ask “Do I have facial structure that can be contoured? Do I have facial structure???” The answer to this question is of course, if you have a face, it can be contoured.
Next was blush and highlighter, and since Madeline hates glitter and is exceedingly ticklish, the application was an uphill battle.
After this point, I decided to keep the mirror away from Madeline so the most dramatic part of the look could be a surprise.
Worse than the highlighter though was the eye makeup. She could NOT sit still. Not only was she terrified of getting makeup in her eyes and constantly stopped me to scream “IT’S IN MY EYES! I SEE IT!” when it definitely wasn’t, I had to sit on her to make sure she didn’t wiggle when she got tickled by the eyeshadow brushes. Eyeliner actually went easier than I thought because the brush wasn’t tickle-inducing, but mascara was a bit frightening for her.
The last step was lipstick, and although I was surprised at how well I was able to apply it (I usually suck at putting lipstick on other people) it was the part that made Madeline giggle the most.
When I was finally finished after about 45 minutes, I let Madeline look at herself. When she looked in the mirror she immediately started scream-laughing. The first intelligible words out of her mouth were “WHO IS THAT????”
Thereafter she started talking in a girlish tone and snapping like she was the leader of a mean girls clique in a high school while my suitemates showered her in compliments. At one point I ended up pinning her hair up too, which only added to the effect.
Then of course, it was photoshoot time. And boy did she play it up. We kept joking that she was in drag.
And what do you know, she’s beautiful with makeup too!
Madeline then sent images of herself to Hannah and Jessica after the long wait of anticipation.
At this point Madeline had stared at herself in the mirror too long and began to have a mild identity crisis (and I’m sure the comment from Hannah saying that we look related didn’t help). She really did look different!
But then I excitedly asked if I could add a scrunchie, and cheerleader Madeline came out. She was really feelin’ it. Jessica, on the other hand, was not.
The part Madeline hated even more than applying the makeup or looking like an entirely different person, was the removal process. It took me about four cotton pads of makeup remover to take off the dramatic eye look I put on her, and then she got soap in her eyes as she washed her face. This was by far the most traumatic moment for her.
All in all, the experience went much differently than I expected. I honestly anticipated putting the makeup on to be a lot easier, and I thought that Madeline would instantly want to take it off (though she did only wear it for half an hour tops, I thought it would be more like ten minutes). Despite the inevitable identity crisis, putting makeup on someone who has never ever worn any was a lot of fun and definitely an interesting experience. In the end, though we did this as a joke, I think we ended up understanding more about each other. Madeline saw my side of things first-hand for the first time, and I further understand her desire to never wear makeup. I would never have forced Madeline to put on makeup if she hadn’t been an accomplice in the plan, just as she would never try to persuade me to stop wearing makeup, even though she would never put it on herself. What I feel this experiment really shows is that everyone’s experience of gender and presentation is different, and ultimately deserves to be respected.
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