Home made basic Facial for crossdressers

 There’s nothing better than getting a professional facial, but they can be expensive. To maintain your healthy skin between professional treatments or to do them yourself, try this basic at-home facial once a week. This basic facial works on oily, dry and combination skin.
And don’t worry, I’m not going to make you whip up a batch of egg-whites and oatmeal, but you will save money if you do your own mask. I list a bunch of organic, natural Homemade Face Mask Recipes for every skin type. But if you don't want to whip up your own, you can buy a great mask at health food stores or even your local drugstore.

Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 25-30 minutes
Here's How:

Cleanse the skin
You’ll want to wash the face, neck and ears with a good facial cleanser to remove any grime or dirt. I recommend some great options in my list of thebest cleansers.


Don't forget to remove makeup with a makeup remover. My hands-down favorite is Clinique, butNeutrogena's eye makeup remover is a great drugstore option.

Exfoliate
Using your fingers, rub a gentle exfoliating facial scrub in a circular motion on your face. Concentrate on the areas around your nose and forehead or if you have combo skin, work harder on the areas that tend to be "greasy." Rinse your face well since exfoliating scrubs tend to be drying.

Steam
There are several ways to steam your face. You can fill your sink with warm water, dip a washcloth in and press to your face repeating 2-3 times or you can take it further by boiling water over the stove, then turning off the stove and putting your head over the water with a towel over your head, letting the steam seep into pores for a good 5 minutes. My favorite steam trick is to actually use my clothing steamer. I turn it on, put a towel over my head and put my face a good foot above the steamer. Works like a charm. But be careful: Do not burn yourself.

The mask
For oily skin, use a clay-based face mask. For dry skin, go for a hydrating gel or cream mask.
Apply the mask, avoiding the areas around the eyes. Keep it on for 10-20 minutes (or, according to the directions on the product). Rinse completely. You can even make your own face mask.


Moisturize
Smooth on a soothing, basic moisturizer over your face and neck. See my list of the best facial moisturizers.

Tip: Stay away from strong moisturizers containing retinols or acids. These will over-exfoliate your skin.

What You Need

Gentle cleanser
Exfoliating scrub
Warm water & a washcloth
Clay-based or cream facial mask (based on skin type)
Basic moisturizer

Very Important Killer Crossdressing Makeup Tips

When you are just learning how to cross dress, the idea of sitting down at a makeup counter in your local mall is intimidating. You don't need to out yourself to learn to cross dress in style. If your goal is to learn to pass as a woman, these makeup tips are a definite start.

Wash Your Face - You should always begin applying makeup with a clean face. Be gently, and don't rub your face. Use a good cleanser and rinse well to remove it all. Apply a toner to refresh your skin after washing.

Shave - Use a good quality razor and shave as close as possible. Be careful to avoid nicking your skin. Shave first in the direction of hair grown, lather again, and shave in the opposite direction. This will insure that you get the closest shave possible.

It is best to shave immediately following a hot shower so that the pores are open. If you do not plan on showering first, wrap a hot towel around your face for the best results. Rinse your face with cool water after shaving to close the pores back up. You should wait at least 5-10 minutes after shaving to apply makeup. You skin needs time to recover from the razor.

Consider using a kaolin clay mask in addition to cleansing and shaving. Clay masks will draw out the impurities in your skin and provide a smoother surface for applying makeup. A smooth surface is the most important aspect of good looking and easy to apply makeup.

Moisturize - Dry skin will soak up your foundation fast and ruin the effects of applying makeup. Make sure to use an oil free variety. Moisturizing will provide your foundation with a base. Make sure to wait until the moisturizer is soaked into your skin before moving on to applying foundation.  If you are not allergic to scent, consider a moisturizer with a nice, feminine smell.

Apply Foundation - If you are using a liquid foundation, apply it to your hands and spread it to your face that way. Make sure to smooth foundation out with a sponge without pulling or stretching your skin, Be extra careful and gentle around your eyes where the skin is very thin.

Set your foundation with a loose powder. On hot days, foundation will require periodic touch ups.   Concealer should go on after the foundation.  You may need a heavier foundation if your facial hair tends to grow quickly.

Conceal 5 O'clock Shadow (Stubble) for crossdressers

Stubble is the regrowth of shaven hair, when it is short and has a rough, abrasive texture.


Facial


During the 1980s, facial stubble on men became fashionable. This was also known as designer stubble and was groomed, shaped, and maintained as a regular beard. Electric clippers can be used to maintain stubble on the face as a men's fashion style. 


The companies, Wahl and Philips, manufacture trimmers that are designed to maintain facial stubble. Removing the guard from most trimmers will give the user a stubbly look.




The term five o'clock shadow refers to beard stubble that is visible late in the day on men who have shaved their faces that morning. The term can also refer to a visible stubble of underarm hair regrowth on men or women who shaved their armpits that morning.




A study in the United Kingdom found that women rated men with facial stubble as tough, mature, aggressive, dominant, masculine, and as the best romantic partners, either for a fling or long-term relationship.[1]

Solution for Concealin 5 O'clock Shadow (Stubble) 

I have used a number of products and methods to remove/reduce the appearance of beard shadow.

Firstly, without close shaving no cosmetic product will work very well....

In terms of shaving, we all have different levels of beard growth. I found that wet shaving was the best solutiion for me. The routine I developed was as follows with a twin or triple balde safety razor:-

1) Apply shaving cream and shave normally down your face with the hair growth
2) Wash off and scrub with a fine skin exfoliator (the anti-spot cleansing type with small beads is best). This prepares the skin and helps stop nicks and cuts.
3) You can either leave the exfiloator on, or re-apply shaving foam as you preffer  
3) Carefully (and I mean carefully), with short upward strokes, shave up the face against the hair growth with light downward pressure on the razor. Initially you may get some redness, but with practice this will go away and you can increase the downward pressure with care.

You will probably still have to shave twice a day but the the hair will have been cut clloser to the skin.


In terms of cosmetics....

You can also use a product by Mac Cosmetics called a "Paint Stick" in
the color orange. The color orange somehow hides the dark hair better. It's a Pro
product so you cannot buy it from the Mac counter, you have to find a professional
makeup artist to get it.


Mac also has a foundation called "Full Coverage" that is sold at the Mac counter (or online) that is lighter
than Dermablend and works almost as well. It feels and looks great. You can also try "Studio Tech" which is
about the same but photographs better. Both need to be matched to your skin tone and coloring. 




 However please note the following hints:

1) It is quite expensive and you may struggle to find the right colour for your skin
2) You need to by the Dermablend Fixing powder to go with the colour to fix it
3) If you have greasy skin it tends to make your skin sweat underneath
4) Invevest in a good make up remover, this stuff can really clog your pores and cause spots if not cleaned off properly

BUT.... If you have perfected the art of shaving closely, or have finer facial hair, there is a really great product in the "Rio" Brand called "Skin Camoflage". This retails at about £30/$60 and is a complete kit complete with instructional DVD.

The kit contains a set of colours to blend at home, brushes, pads and fixing powder. Because the kit has multiple colours (4) you can even contour the shape your face with the product. Dont worry if the tubes look small, the coverage is fantastic from only a small blob on your finger.

The result is half way between dermablend and a normal foundation, but it can be worn all day, and is resistant to water. The only thing you need to ensure is that you have a good make up remover, as it will resist soap and water (and clubbing ).

  

5.Whiten teeth for crossdressers using Photoshop

5. Whiten and fix teeth

Add a Hue & Saturation adjustment layer by clicking on the Create a new fill or adjustment layer icon in the layers palette and selecting Hue/Saturation.... Move the Saturation slider all the way to -100 and click OK. This has turned your image into a gray scale image, but we're going to fix that in Photoshop by pressing Ctrl + i (Command + i on the Mac). What happens is that the mask (filled with white), which was automatically added (and active) when we added the adjustment layer, was inverted and is now filled with black. A black mask means that none of the desaturation will be applied to the image underneath that layer.

Rename this adjustment layer to Teeth by double clicking on its name in the layers palette.

You're now going to paint on the mask to reveal that particular area that needs desaturated colors, which are the teeth. First press the letter D on your keyboard to make sure that the foreground color is white:  

Make sure before you do that, that your mask is still active; it will have a double border and there will be a mask icon  in front of your layer.

Continue by zooming in on the teeth to about 400%.

Grab the Brush Tool  in the tool bar and in the options bar click on the button marked with A.

Enter a Master Diameter of 5 px and a Hardness of 0%:

Make sure that the Opacity is set to 100% for this brush in the options bar of Photoshop. 

Now comes the tricky part; paint over the teeth that need to be desaturated, but avoid the gum and lips. Don't paint on the darker areas between the teeth, but only focus on the teeth.

You made a mistake? No problem, press Ctrl + Z (Command + Z on the Mac) to undo your last step. But more important; you can always fill the painted (white) areas in your mask with black again by painting on them using a black brush. A quick way to do is by pressing the letter X on your keyboard. This will switch the back- and foreground color. Needless to say that you have to press X again (switches the foreground color to white again) if you want to continue where you left off.

Return to the Hue & Saturation adjustment layer when you're done by double clicking on its thumbnail 

Set the lightness to +40 and click OK:

Set the Opacity of this layer to about 40%:

.

You might consider to use a higher value for opacity, but be careful that you don't make it too high; the result will look unnatural. That's why it's so important to turn this layer on/off (click on ) to see the difference.

Tip: You can color the layers in the layers palette by using that same icon; right click on the  icon (Control + click on the Mac) and select the preferred color in the window that pops up (in this example Yellow is selected):

Lock the Teeth layer.

You might have noticed that one tooth seems to be a slightly turned the wrong way:

Because of this we also see a slightly distracting highlight on that same tooth. Let's see how we can fix this in Photoshop. Add a new layer by clicking on the Create a new Layer icon  in the Layers Palette. 

Rename this layer to Tooth.

Zoom in to a value between 500%-800% and fix the tooth with the Clone Stamp Tool . Select a Clone Stamp brush with a size of 2 or 3, hardness of 0% and use an opacity of around 30% (can all be selected in the options bar). To set the source (like we did in our previous step), use the area to the right of the highlight as seen in this screenshot:

Lock the Tooth layer.

It's not as difficult as it seems. Just remember; be patient and don't try to take huge steps, meaning that you shouldn't go for a higher opacity than 30% or use a larger brush just because it "takes so long". Also remember that you're working on a separate layer so if you're making a mistake you can always go back.


Next: Increase defenition of Eyes.
Eye Makeup for Crossdressers using Photoshop