The objective of this post is not to provide guidance on how to use makeup to cover up for injuries resulting from domestic or any other form of violence. If you're being abused (either physically or emotionally), please seek support and report the abuser to the local authorities. Don't let anyone convince you violence is justified or acceptable!
I have already discussed a somewhat related subject in my #metoo post, but what I have never opened up about before is the fact that I had once been involved with a short-tempered, distrustful and insecure individual who put me through a lot of suffering. So I know what it feels like to be abused and I completely condemn any act of violence against women.
So what happened?
Several months ago, my brother got a puppy. At the time we were living together, so the little guy got really accustomed to me. In the meantime, my brother moved out. Last weekend, I came visiting and the dog got really excited to see me. Not paying much attention to him as I was in the middle of a discussion with my mother, he started jumping around me. Still talking to my mother and looking sideways, I leaned forward to pet him. At that very instance, he jumped to "kiss" me, but actually hit me with his nose directly above the left eye, earning me a huge bruise on the hood. On the plus side for the puppy, he's black, so there's no way to tell if his injury is any worse than mine. ;)
Why this post?
I was planning to write another kind of makeup post that weekend, but the injury obviously spoiled my plans. Initially, the bruise wasn't the only problem I had to face: my eyelid was swollen for a few days, looking as if it was melting down. Luckily, the swelling disappeared quickly. Two days after the bruise broke out, I had to show up for work, preferably not looking like an abuse victim or a drag queen. Also, as the bruise was changing colours each day, I had to come up with a different makeup tactics to use from Monday to Friday. And the nature of my job restricted me to using only light, daytime makeup. This was a huge challenge for me, but it turned out I did very well and no one noticed the injury - so I thought I might share my experience with you.
Like I said, the most obvious solution - using dark, heavy makeup - was out of the question. I had to find a way to completely disguise the bruise, yet to maintain a soft, fresh and natural look.
The basic problem I encountered was the constantly changing bruise colour. The rainbow over my eye went from redish, to purplish, to greenish, and finally to yellowish. So the solution I applied one day certainly didn't work for the next.
So basically I applied several tricks, listed below:
- instead of using concealer, contrasting colours or dark eyeshadows, I simply attempted to imitate the bruise colour on my healthy eye.
- as the days went by and the bruise colour changed, I first used a lot of burgundy shades, then plum and pink shades, and finally earth and brown shades.
- I used very bright colours on my upper lid and browbone, which significantly added to the fresh and soft look. I was able to do this because, luckily, my particular bruise only affected my hood, not the upper lid or browbone, allowing me to apply very bright shades on these parts.
- on my injured eye, I only used small amounts of eyeshadow, mostly for colour correcting and blending.
- on my healthy eye, I used way more eyeshadow, imitating the colour of the bruised skin above the other eye.
- where impossible to nail the exact colour, I used small amounts of black matte eyeshadow.
- I applied the rest of my makeup as usual.
By the way, if it means anything, the look I'm describing in this post was created on the fifth day of the injury occurrence (before and after doing my eyebrows), when the bruise went purplish and yellowish. You can probably tell from the photo below that my left hood is quite a bit more yellow than the right one, but I only fixed it after taking these photos.
The eyeshadow palettes I used are again some of those featured in my previous post, Testing Drugstore Makeup:
- Kik: Nr. 2 Palette in Warm Nudes
- Max Factor: Masterpiece Nude Palette in 03 Rose Nudes
- 8:33 pm
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