Butch Makeup

QUESTION

I’ve been toying around with the idea of experimenting with makeup for years but I’m a butch and I’m worried about how femmes will view me. I certainly don’t want to look femme. Is there a way of using it as a butch?

ANSWER:

A butch who is willing to experiment with makeup is a woman who isn’t defined by lesbian norms. She is someone who is strong enough to question rules and who is confident enough to decide when to break them and when to write her own rules. I find few things more attractive in life.

The absence of makeup on women who fall to the left of the lesbian spectrum (from soft butch onward) is changing, particularly as we break into mainstream media. You want to be on TV or in a magazine? Guess what? You need to look attractive.

Most of us do not look our best without a little help from the makeup counter, whether it’s to even out the skin tone or to make eyes pop. I happen to believe that there is a way to apply butch / dyke makeup without making said woman look like Lady Gaga.

Think rock star. Imagine you had traditional-looking makeup on, fell asleep with it and woke up the next morning with disheveled hair, eyeliner smudged, but skin tone even. That’s the look you’re going for. The ‘accidentally hot’ look.

Things to avoid:

• Liquid eyeliner
• False eyelashes
• Blush
• Lipstick (instead, line with lip-colored lip liner, then moisten with Vaseline)
• Eyebrow anorexia (the over-tweezed look)

Bottom line: There absolutely is a way to wear makeup without resembling an over-waxed Metrosexual, a middle-aged housewife or like you’re in a burlesque show. Use caution, follow your gut and head on over to the MAC store (and I don’t mean computers here).

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