Remember 3 years ago when the world completely fell apart?!
Yeah, me too. One of the ways that I tried to cope with the changing world around me and to give me a creative outlet in a world where drag shows and performances were grinding to a halt was to start a weekly (well...weekly-ish!) post on my website called Face Friday. In it, I would paint up a look and provide a step by step visual guide documenting the steps and products used.
At some point, as things started to open up and we all tried to get back to some new, unfamiliar kind of normal, the frequency of the posts slowed down, and when I lost version 2.0 of my website (which is a whole other story) I lost all of the previous posts in the series. However, when I was clearing out some files on my computer, I found all of the step by step photos for one of the looks: a blue look with brown/gold shimmer eyebrows featuring the Star Ranch palette, which was launched early in a round of Jeffree Star Cosmetics mystery boxes.
So I thought I would repost them as a fun little flashback to the project that helped me ease some anxiety during the early days of the pandemic, and start to think about how I might bring the project back in some way.
I had a lot of fun with the Face Friday posts, and as someone who buys a lot of makeup it's nice to find ways to actually get some use out of my collection - even with most things being open and shows being a regular thing again, I've really slowed down my live appearance schedule. I love my virtual activities and I have less desire to venture out into the world than I used to. Not to mention, North Dakota is one of the Republicunt states that is trying to criminalize drag performance, so I love a good online outlet for stress!
Finally, I'm just not sure I want to commit to the step by step photo reproductions of a look. They were fun to do, but I wonder how useful they are. Seeing the before and after images at each step is nice, but a video gives you more of a sense of how I actually do the application and the constant back and forth that I have between shades, especially as I'm blending out an eye look.
I'd love to hear from you in the comments or in my DMs: were the step by step descriptions useful, or is there a better way for me to present these looks. Once idea that I had would be to have a makeup "play day" each week that I stream either over Facebook or YouTube (or both - I think there is a way to combine them, but I need to do some research on that!). I would still film the occasional Get Ratchet With Me for my channel, but this would be a more frequent day to get together and play with makeup, chat with viewers, and show the process.
Then, on Friday, the post would include the final look, a look at the products used, and some review/commentary on the products, the experience, etc. Does that should worthwhile? I'm still working through this right now, so I'm open to lots of feedback and suggestions.
For example, I wondering how you feel about this particular presentation? I've included all of the step by step images that I would have included in the old version of Face Friday, but I haven't talked at all about the application. Is this useful, or is it better to have a discussion of the steps and techniques used? I've never been the best at describing everything, talking about the tools used, etc., but I'm not sure if just seeing the step by step progress is enough.
I'm always trying to think of ways to have my YouTube content and my website work together more. I want to work on doing a better job of applying makeup in a YouTube video, but it's a challenge because my makeup process takes much longer than most people seem to be willing to sit through a tutorial! I love the GRWM series, but it's hard to film with the makeup and actually talk about anything because I have to speed through the application steps to make sure that the video isn't 2 hours long!
Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this little flashback Face Friday, and I'd love to hear your thoughts about how you might like to see Face Friday posts go in the future! What do you like to get out of a makeup application post like that: tips and tricks, techniques, just a chatty experience while watching someone put on makeup?
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little rambly post with this walk down memory lane. This wasn't one of my favorite Face Friday looks, but I think it's a fun basic blue look with a couple of fun pops and a rare nude lip for me. In terms of the products, I still love a lot of the products that I used here: Jeffree Star may be a terrible person but his eyeshadows are still bomb, the highlighters from Ofra are some of my absolute Holy Grials, Trixie blushes are always amazing, and that I Heart Revolution primer is one that I use all the time - I think I'm on my fourth tube!
In fact, the only thing featured in this post that isn't in a regular rotation with my makeup is the cream foundation/contour from Flesh that I used. It's fine, but I found it at Dollar Tree, and I remembered seeing the brand at Ulta back in the day so I was curious. I didn't change my life, and I still prefer the Uoma cream contour, but it was still a nice product if you can find it. The lashes from Glamlite are always a pleasure, and I've really been loving their new IP-collab focus lately - apparently there are several more horror collabs on the way and I can't wait!
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