Even though I don't wear much makeup on a day-to-day basis, I can appreciate it as an art. I watch James Charles, Jeffree Star, and the like on YouTube pretty frequently, and I am continually blown away at how they use products to highlight their best features, create designs, and transform their face. As much as I'd like to be able to, I don't think I will ever have those skills.
Here are some of the thoughts that run through my mind while watching a makeup tutorial.
1. "This MUA has so many makeup products I don't know how they keep track of it all."
At least for the YouTubers I watch, they have beauty or makeup rooms that have drawers, shelves, and tables filled with every makeup product from every brand. I don't know how they keep track of it all and decide which products to use for that particular look.
2. "They have such nice skin the foundation doesn't even seem necessary."
Practically every MUA video starts off with the MUA complaining about their acne breakouts, even though their skin looks absolutely flawless. Sure, the foundation makes their face look better, but it also seems like a waste to cover up naturally good skin.
3. "How do you match your foundation shade?"
It seems like an impossible feat, but even the MUAs struggle too. James Charles made a video about this after receiving comments about his foundation always being too orange.
4. "The highlight just makes their face look sweaty."
Yeah it looks cool, yeah it's a pop of fun, but I will always contend that overall, it just looks like sparkly sweat.
5. "What does the 'baking' step even do?"
You apply this white powder to your face, let it sit while you do other parts of the makeup routine, then brush it all off. What does it do while it's just sitting there? Plus, to me, their face doesn't even look that different in the before and after.
6. "With all the palettes and all the colors, how do they decide which shades to use?"
Between all the palettes of eyeshadow, they certainly have dozens, if not hundreds, of purple shades. Likely many of them are about the same hue too. So how do they decide which purple shade is best for the look?
7. "That has to be the most perfect winged eyeliner I've ever seen."
And they got it on the first try.
8. "They were able to make the other eye to match."
Between the eyeshadow and eyeliner, it's a mirror image.
9. "False eyelashes look scary but also really pretty."
I'm not personally a fan of the really big falsies, but I have to admit that they look better than natural eyelashes. It's just the gluing something to your eyeball part that makes me never want to try it.
10. "Wow, the lipstick just really brings the look together."
It's always the last step, so it's not until this point that they say "the look is complete."
11. "Even if I'd put in a lot of effort, I don't think I could ever replicate this look."
The whole point of a tutorial is so the audience can try it at home, but it will never truly look the same.
