klytaemnestra

Because I was thinking about it while applying my makeup this morning and moreover started Tweeting about it earlier, I figured I'd touch on the matter here instead of just flooding Twitter with it.

I'm sure every person who's played around with makeup at some point or another is familiar with the makeup artist Carmindy. Her tutorials flood fashion magazines & blogs, she's the makeup artist on the TLC show What Not To Wear, and has somehow become the makeup artist everyone seems to listen to as though her words are the cosmetic gospel. I have developed a certain dislike for her approach to makeup.

I'm not sure what prompted it, but I'm sure it comes from the same vein as my annoyance at the belief that every woman looks better with blonde highlights.

Let's start out with this quote shall we:

Real women are busy and don't want to spend that much money.

I suppose I'm not a 'real' woman then because I actually want quality cosmetics. The crap you buy at the drugstore is not quality unless you go for one of the more expensive drugstore lines & by that point you might as well spend that extra three or four dollars to get a really good product at Sephora or a department store. Makeup is one of the few things where you truly get what you pay for. I'm not saying go drop $60 on Guerlain, but if it's a $1 bottle of foundation don't expect it to do much. I've seen a lot of people complaining about E.L.F. cosmetics. They're $1, they're not going to wear like they're Dior. That said, clearly a 'real' woman has no time to spend pampering herself, much less applying that pesky mascara. It's as though she views everyone who's not a model or makeup artist such as herself to be incapable of having the time or ability to make themselves look good without her guidance.

Carmindy has been the one to show many women who how to wear makeup and I will give her that much, but at the same time I feel like every single tutorial ultimately yields the same look. Her dewy looks make me shudder especially when doing it on larger or older women. If you're a twenty-something waif the dewy look can be pretty, but for everyone else it simply does not work. Likewise her use of the same shades on everyone. Metallic pinks, golds & browns and that ghastly coral coloured high shine lip gloss she puts on everyone. I think I would be able to ignore her offenses more if she wasn't everywhere. I go onto stylelist.com and get bombarded with her beauty techniques. Every time I see an independent beauty blog people cite her techniques. 'I always put shimmery ecru shadow in the inner corner of my eye because Carmindy said so.'

Stylists & I have never really seen eye to eye. I colour my own hair. I also trim the ends when needed. My last experience with a stylist involved me ending up with a pixie cut & highlights. She cut off too much & I had gone in wanting to darken my hair. But of course, she knew best. In my experience the idea of putting a black permanent colour on someone's hair is something no colourist has ever wanted to do. I literally used to have to coax them into doing anything different.

It just seems that there's this code of rules that's being forced down everyone's throat the moment they start delving into beauty solutions and cosmetics. Carmindy is one of the most prominent makeup artists you'll come across but her techniques are not as fool proof as people try to make them appear. She just rehashes what she does on a twenty year old for someone who's sixty. There's no creativity, there's no real thought or style gone into it, it's just her putting on her 'watercolour' cosmetics & pretending that this technique suits every woman for every occasion.

I enjoy my shine reducing powders, and liquid liners, and indulging in dark red lipsticks when the occasion's right. Carmindy makes everyone looks like they're some shiny pink princess and it does not work. I don't know when classic sophisticated beauty was replaced with trying to look cute & overly youthful, embracing bobbed haircuts with pale blonde highlights. The makeup Carmindy so loves looks like what I tossed when I 'graduated' out of Bonny Bell.