How I rocked man-make-up for a day

In tandem with Cristina’s no make-up week I was conscripted into The Tab field army for journalism services. In this case go out for a day (I had a full day in the lab) wearing what Cristina would wear on any ordinary occasion and then write about my experience being dolled up.

My “normal” bare-faced self

So the day began walking into uni with my new face (and becoming increasing aware of a bit of beard under my chin I’d missed shaving) and proudly strutted into the CTL ready to face an onslaught of puzzled faces and bile-ridden criticism.

Eyeliner … a poking disaster

Nothing… zip, not a word. In a way I was almost disappointed that it wasn’t like a scene from a Western, where a new face in town enters a bar only to have all music and conversation end with only the sound of all heads turning to face this unwanted guest.

I even tried taking time out of my work to talk to as many people as possible, taking my glasses off an fluttering (my now fabulous) new lashes in an attempt to at least acknowledge, what felt to me like, a big deal.

Perfecting my pout

Getting home didn’t get have any better results as my house-mates, who already knew this was going to happen, barely began starting to take the piss before getting disinterested with each passing second of conversation.

The complete transformation

If I’m honest, I pretty much forgot about it myself and had the shock of my life half way through the final episode of the Bridge (watch the bridge) where I touched my eye and found my eyes had secreted a black fluid that had congealed onto my lashes at some point during the day. At this moment (about 10) I noticed that my face was tight and I needed to scratch every part of my eyes simultaneously just to get settled again, so I went upstairs to take off my face and thus end the day of makeup.

Experiencing the runs

Having now read Cristina’s article I cannot help but question the differences in our experiences. How had I gotten away with it with barely a raised eyebrow whereas she (even isolating to a single day) had even strangers voice their disapproval.

 First off, as you’ve probably gathered from the picture, I may not have been the best candidate for the job. I asked some course mates during the following days, some of them said they just thought I was trying it out on my own accord.  Others simply stated words to the effect of “oh”, uttered with as much enthusiasm of a man (or woman) who’s noticed the layout of the DVDs in That’s Entertainment has been changed.

Hardly a lad

Unfortunately the second (and more likely) interpretation  is that girls should be wearing makeup.  A view, in this case, mostly held by just the wearer, and while I’m sure any men reading this who look various shades of bitchin’ with some makeup on already rock it out in the open (I myself have only donned dark eyes or lush red lips for night outs  with my more liberal friends on occasion).

Those who are interested and haven’t taken the plunge out of fear might benefit from putting their own mask on if that’s what they’d like. Of course that’s entirely based on this highly representative 12 hours by one slightly flamboyant lower middle class Northerner, because after all is that not the modern function of makeup to alter, not always automatically augment, ones appearance for personal pleasure.

Like The Tab on Facebook an follow us on Twitter.