ABOVE-THE-MASK BEAUTY

BY EMERSON LATHAM

Makeup users are ditching the heavy foundation and lip colors to focus on above-the-mask looks with eye-catching brows, lashes or eyeshadow.

It has been deemed a hard task for makeup users to express their individuality and creativity while wearing a mask to stay safe from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Social media influencers and makeup artists are taking to their platforms to create tutorials and videos on eye makeup looks that help individuals express themselves without showing the bottom half of their face.

Sydney Rebelsky, junior in advertising and event management, is the creator of the Instagram account, @sydrebel.makeup, where she posts makeup looks and takes appointments to do clients’ makeup.

Rebelsky said when she was younger, her dad took away her and her sister’s makeup after the youngest of the three smeared it all over the floor. Years later when she finally got the makeup back, she could not stop watching tutorials and creating makeup looks. Wearing a mask gives you more time to focus on your eye makeup.

“You don’t have to worry about putting heavy foundation where your mask goes because number one, no one is going to see it, number two, it’s no fun to sweat through makeup in your mask,” said Rebelsky.

Rebelsky had to compensate for not being able to see the bold red lipstick the Iowa State cheerleaders would normally wear for football game days.

“For game day when I was wearing a mask, I put on more dramatic eyelashes than I normally would if I had my red lip,” said Rebelsky.

Rebelsky said she normally does not do an eye-look for her day-to-day makeup routine but since wearing a mask every day has become the new normal, her everyday look has changed For Rebelsky’s day-to-day look, she likes to mix a lightweight foundation with a moisturizer and add translucent powder which helps the makeup stay on her face and not come off on her mask. Additionally, she adds bronzer, blush, brows and mascara to complete her look.

Hannah Sand, sophomore in marketing, said she prefers to wear disposable masks when she wears face makeup.

“Although I tend to stick to just mascara for my everyday look, when I do decide to put foundation on, I always wear a disposable mask because it gets obnoxious having to wash my reusable masks after every time I wear makeup,” said Sand.

Sand said she was not a huge eye makeup wearer until mask-wearing became a normal, everyday thing.

“I have definitely started expanding my eyeshadow collection and watching more tutorials on YouTube since the pandemic hit,” said Sand. “I feel like a bold eye look is an easy way to make up for half of my face being hidden under my mask.”

Kailee Jeffrey, operations manager at Sephora, a personal care and beauty product store, is in charge of putting out new products.

Jeffrey said she has seen an explosion in the “natural look.” Makeup wearers have abandoned the full-coverage appearance for a more unrefined, natural look.

“Not a lot of people are focusing on the bright colors. We’ve seen people sprucing up the brows or lashes. A lot of people are coming in for new mascaras, lash serum or fake lashes,” said Jeffery.

While it may seem like COVID-19 has put a damper on a lot of things, expressing your individuality with makeup does not have to be one of them.

L

SIX STEPS TO COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE AS A COLLEGE STUDENT