Most of my clients arrive at my Maryland MtF makeover studio with visible beard shadow even if they have a perfectly smooth shave. Facial hair sits below the surface of the skin, giving it a blue-green cast that foundation alone will not cover. To get a traditionally feminine look, it’s critical to get the closest shave possible and then neutralize beard shadow color with makeup. Today, I describe the step-by-step process of creating a neutral canvas that’s ready for the makeup colors of your choice.
Prepare your Face for Makeup
Shave your face and neck: Make sure that you have the closest and freshest shave you can get. Shave both with the grain and against the grain. Sometimes you may need to shave in four or more directions. Use a hand-held mirror to inspect under your chin and on the sides of your face to find any stray hairs. Also rub your face in multiple directions with your hand to determine if any hair texture remains. Open your mouth and make sure you get around all sides of the lips. Under the nose is easy to miss as well. Keep a styptic pencil or powder handy just in case you nick yourself to encourage rapid clotting.
Cleanse and Exfoliate: Cleanse your entire face with a face wash or a lightly exfoliating scrub to help remove dead skin.
Moisturize: Apply moisturizer to your entire face and neck, which will help your face look more radiant and smooth than if you skip this step. Let dry. Apply an eye cream below your eye and into the crow’s feet area if desired.
Prime and Mattify: Next, apply foundation primer all over face and to your neck in areas where you have beard shadow. Like paint primer, foundation primer fills in the little cracks and crevices on your face, smoothing out your skin and helping the foundation apply evenly. If you have oily skin in all or part of your face, then consider using a primer that also mattifies such as the MAC Pore Refiner stick.
Neutralize Beard Shadow Color
Color Correct for Beard Shadow: Next you need to color correct your beard shadow. Most beard shadow has a blue-green undertone. Peach and orange are the opposite of blue-green on the color wheel and will typically neutralize the beard shadow color. If your beard shadow leans green, try a red color corrector. If it leans blue, consider an orange color corrector.
Apply a color corrector such as LA Girl Peach, Orange, or Reddish Concealer with a makeup sponge and stipple it into the skin to build the coverage. Peach works well for ivory and beige skin and many shades of beard shadow. For ivory skin, you’ll need to lighten the Peach with White color corrector. Orange often works well for bronze skin. Reddish works well for ebony skin. I often mix the color corrector with white color corrector to lighten it to the color corrector mix to the level of lightness/darkness of skin tone.
Experiment with the Peach, Orange, and Reddish shades to see which one provides the best beard shadow color correction for you. Then lighten the color corrector with White as needed.
If the LA Girl color corrector doesn’t provide enough coverage for your beard shadow, consider a heavier color corrector such as Mehron Creamblend or Ben Nye. My go-to colors are Mehron Soft Peach, Pastel Orange, Light Auguste, Ruddy Bronze, and Red. For ivory to light beige skin tones, I mix soft peach and pastel orange in varying ratios. Medium beige skin tones often use pastel orange. For bronze skin tones, a mix of light auguste and ruddy bronze can work well. For ebony skin tones, red does the trick.
Set with Powder: After applying the color corrector, set it with a powder that matches your skin tone. This forms a barrier between the color corrector and your other products and starts to cover the peach color so that you need less concealer. Mehron color correctors are full coverage and require full coverage concealer to cover them prior to applying foundation. LA Girl beard shadow color correctors may benefit from full-coverage concealer especially for the Orange and Reddish hues.
Apply Foundation and Setting Powder
Apply Foundation: After that, I stipple a medium to full coverage buildable foundation over the beard shadow area and use a sweeping or stippling motion over the rest of the face to even out skin tone. If you’re using a lighter coverage foundation, you’ll need to stipple with full coverage concealer before adding foundation. Some people also benefit from dusting on a setting powder after foundation.
Prime Eyes and Lips for Makeup
Prime Eyelids and Lips: You’ll want to prime your eyelids with an eye primer such as the MAC 24-hour Extend Eye Base. You can use your fingers or a concealer brush to apply the primer from your lash line to your eyebrows. It should dry clear. For lips, you can apply a lip primer like the MAC Prep & Prime Lip to smooth out your lip texture and reduce feathering and bleeding from your lipstick. You can apply lipstick directly to the lip primer or use a lip liner first.
Complete your Makeup Look
After these steps, you’ll be ready to add makeup colors to your face like eye shadow, blush, bronzer, and lipstick. Check out my online makeup tutorials for ideas and instruction.
Ready to take the next step? Book a hands-on makeup lesson with Elizabeth Taylor today
Learn how to do your makeup including how to neutralize beard shadow with a hands-on makeup lesson with Elizabeth Taylor at her male-to-female transformation studio near Washington, DC in Takoma Park, Maryland. In the lesson, Beth will apply makeup to half your face and you’ll apply it to the other half. At each step, she will coach you on what you’re doing right and how to improve. You’ll leave with a list of your colors and formulas along with step-by-step notes of how to apply your makeup.
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