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Thursday, May 24, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com MICHIGAN IN COLOR
Morning Alarm
My
people
are
famous.
You see them every
day
on
the
news-
whether they are being
evacuated,
bombed,
chemically
attacked,
or drowned.
If
you
have
not
guessed yet, I am Syr-
ian.
On the day of the
Trump attack on Syria,
we call my uncle to
make sure that every-
thing is all right. As he
tells us everything is
fine, we can hear the
sounds of the missiles
in
the
background.
When
we
mention
this to my uncle, he
says, “It’s fine, Trump
woke us up for fajr
(the morning prayer).”
Knowing how unreli-
gious my uncle is, it is
at least good to know
that his sarcasm is
intact.
Fast forward a few
days later, and we hear
about another attack
that was close to where
my family lives. Up
until now, we are not
even sure who admin-
istered the attack. I
start anxiously mak-
ing some calls to my
family, checking that
everyone is all right.
After a few nerve-
wracking
minutes
waiting for the phone
to connect, I finally
get ahold of them and
ask if they are okay. At
the end of our conver-
sation, my cousin says
it was nice to know it
takes a bombing for
them to hear my voice.
Later that night as
our family WhatsApp
group chat goes back
to its usual light atmo-
sphere,
my
cousin
sends a casual picture
of
an
undetonated
bomb. Confused, my
sister asks what that
is. And so, my extend-
ed family kicked off a
thorough explanation
of the different kinds
of weapons used, the
effect of each and how
to
recognize
them
based on the sounds
they make.
That is one of the
true talents of a Syrian,
they proudly explain.
No matter how tough
the situation has ever
gotten
back
home,
they have never failed
to laugh about it and to
figure out a way to add
a touch of sarcasm.
I love makeup. I
think it’s safe to say
that makeup is one
of the things people
spend the most money
on without realizing
it. I can go to Sephora
or even Walmart with
just the intention of
gazing at the makeup
section, and end up
leaving with $30 less in
my wallet and between
one and five different
makeup products.
I wasn’t always into
makeup. In middle
school,
I
remem-
ber how many of my
friends and classmates
would coat their face
with makeup every
day just to hide their
insecurities and give
themselves a confi-
dence boost. In my
mind, makeup was
expensive,
unneces-
sary, difficult to use
and a coping mecha-
nism for not hav-
ing high self-worth.
Because of these things
I was never interested
in makeup. I decided
that only after I truly
embraced who I was
as a person and loved
how I looked, with
or without enhance-
ments, would I regu-
larly wear makeup.
My first real intro-
duction
to
makeup
was when I started
getting into theatre in
middle school. I was
one of the leads in our
school musical, “Camp
Rock,” and I had to
wear makeup so that
my face would stand
out on stage. My moth-
er would always do
my makeup before the
rehearsals and shows
because I didn’t own
any or know how to put
it on. I continued to do
theatre in high school.
I was soon at the age
where I couldn’t just
have my mom do my
makeup for my shows
anymore. Everyone in
our theatre knew how
to apply makeup them-
selves,
using
either
their
own
makeup
or the stage makeup
owned by the school.
This is when prob-
lems started to arise for
me as 1. I could not put
on makeup myself 2. I
did not own any make-
up 3. I couldn’t use any
of the school’s makeup
because it didn’t fit
my skin tone and 4.
Everyone in my the-
atre department was
white and didn’t know
how to apply makeup
on me. Due to all of
these limitations, I was
forced to teach myself
how to put on make-
up. I would sit in the
corner of our makeup
room at school, watch-
ing YouTube videos on
how to apply eyeliner,
what foundation was
for, and what the dif-
ferent types of make-
up brushes were for.
I also reached out to
my friends who wore
makeup for advice.
After
putting
on
makeup in theatre, I
started to enjoy doing
makeup in general.
As a creative person, I
always loved looking
for different ways to
express myself, wheth-
er that was through
writing, music, acting,
dance, etc. I saw make-
up as a completely new
way to express myself,
so much more person-
al than any of the of the
other forms. When you
apply makeup, your
face is the canvas and
you have so many dif-
ferent options, choices
and stylistic decisions
you can make to deco-
rate it yourself. And
even cooler is the fact
that since everyone’s
face is unique, every-
one has a different can-
vas to start out with
that you need to learn
to work with.
But my face, or can-
vas, soon started to
make it harder for me
find ways to express
myself
the
way
I
wanted to. Originally,
I would spend time
watching
Youtube
videos to understand
how to apply makeup
and get ideas for dif-
ferent makeup looks.
Most of the people that
I watched in videos
were white, but I didn’t
By EFE OSAGIE
MiC EDITOR
By RANIA DABOUL
MiC Contributor
PHOTO COURTESY OF AUTHOR
Beating your face as a Black Woman
see that as something that
mattered that much. That
was until I tried to fol-
low the videos. Anytime I
tried to do what I saw in
the videos, I had trouble
finding products to help
me. I was never able to
find
foundations
and
concealers to perfectly fit
my skin tone at my local
drug stores. Whenever I
applied eyeshadow, the
colors wouldn’t appear
on my eyelids because my
skin was too dark. The
bright lipsticks I would
see women wear looked
unnatural and unflat-
tering on my dark skin. I
became increasingly frus-
trated with the amount of
trial and error I had with
all the makeup products
I bought and how much
time I’d have to spend
looking for makeup that
worked for me. It made
me start to realize how
many makeup products
weren’t made for me or
other Black women, and
I became frustrated that
I had to work twice as
hard to find products that
were extremely simple
for other lighter skinned
individuals to find.
I soon started watch-
ing
makeup
tutorials
from other Black YouTu-
bers to help find makeup
products that were more
tailored to my skin tone.
Though it did help, watch-
ing those videos could
only do so much for me
as it was so hard to find
Black YouTubers who
had the exact skin tone as
me. So I still wasn’t able
to see how different prod-
ucts would look on my
skin tone without buying
them first.
Though it was still
frustrating, it was better
than nothing and I con-
tinued to watch Black
YouTubers’
makeup
tutorial videos to learn
which products to buy
and how to apply makeup
to my skin. Even though
I couldn’t always use the
videos to determine what
to buy, and what not to
buy, I was able to learn
multiple tricks for women
of darker skin to get
makeup to look better on
our complexion, such as
using concealer on your
eyelids to get eyeshadow
to appear brighter and
using lip liner to tone
down too-bright lipsticks.
I also took to following
more Black makeup art-
ists on Instagram, like
@somuchsimone,
@
vurrsacee and @khloe-
dosh. This gave me more
inspiration to be bolder
and more creative with
my makeup, showing me
how to use my dark skin
tone to my advantage
instead of something to
work around.
I now feel more confi-
dent in wearing makeup
as a Black woman and
know more tricks and
skills to make makeup
produced for a white
audience work for me.
I’ve even taken to doing
makeup for my friends
of different skin tones
to explore how applying
makeup differs with dif-
ferent shades and types of
skin, that I like to show-
case on my Instagram, @
looksbyefe. I used to feel
discouraged as a Black
makeup artist, but I now
embrace being a Black
makeup user and choose
to see the hardships it
poses as just challenges
for me to overcome in my
artistic journey.