Makeup by itself isn’t going to make your face look more feminine. It’s going to make your face look like you have makeup on. The makeup expert videos you may have seen? Where they can seemingly transform a face into something completely different? That is a difficult artistic skill that takes a lot of study and practice.

Please don’t let that discourage you. Because it’s a skill, you should expect results that you think are disappointing at first, but the more time and effort you put into it the better you’ll get. Finding the right products for you is also important, so experiment away!

Mascara can be a good start. Longer thicker lashes look feminine. And if you can handle it try eye liner. A pencil is easier at first.

Also try growing your nails a bit and use nail polish. And wear tight female pants or those pant leggings or whatever they’re called. That way from your personal perspective you can look feminine! Shaving legs can be nice too.

And honestly it’s a hit and miss for me. It’s more about maxing out the chance of things feeling right. And you know one day someone will see you that way too and that feeling will resonate back and forth and become powerful.

It takes time to figure it out. There are loads of videos on YouTube and Tik Tok talking specifically about feminizing makeup for trans fems. The key is really to learn about where to place concealer and color corrector, how to blend foundation, if you have hooded eyes where to apply highlighter and eyeshadow and eye liner. It’s a lot to dig into. I’m very much still learning makeup myself, but I try and break things down into bite-size bits that I can work on. Coming out at from “I do not know how to do my makeup” and having a direct goal of “I want to know how to do my makeup” was too much for me, personally. Instead I try and research individual things, like eyeliner and how to best apply it for my eye type. Learning what concealer patterns look best on me has been a big one lately.

Buy what you can at the drug store, not that they’re usually very cheap anymore but still. Get into it, find content creators who talk about makeup that you like. I love watching get ready with me and get unready with me style videos because it shows you the whole process of makeup application from beginning to end. And there’s soooo many creators out there making.that kind of content, loads of trans fems as well.

I completely feel you on the discouragement of putting on makeup and seeing that it didn’t do exactly what I wanted it to, that I didn’t look like how I imagined I would. But thats where learning comes in, where getting interested in it comes in, where practice comes in. Keep at it, and make changes and see what other trans women do and with enough work you can get it too :)

I’ve seen a girl use make up to make herself look exactly like Nick Offerman, so I can’t believe it’s not simply a matter of technique to not get literally any desired look you want with makeup.

I took makeup lessons from a pro makeup artist, if you can do so, i highly recommend. Youtube tutorials can also work, but having someone walk you through it can be so helpful.

There are certain techniques, Beard shadow can be mitigated with a color corrector under your foundation. with a little bit of contour powder over the foundation & setting powder, you can help adjust the shadows on your face to imply a more feminine shape (little shadow across the cheekbones, and you kinda put your blush over that, tapering near the upper corners of your forehead near the hairline, and some shadows starting just above your jawline under your ear meeting just under the chin to make your face more angular). those alone go a long way to helping feminize your face.

So I just started practicing makeup a few weeks ago. Honestly I found that eyeliner makes the most radical difference for me. It definitely helps me pass, and look even younger. For context I’ve been on HRT three years and getting electrolysis hair removal for a few months. Very happy with my body right now, but my face still makes me dysphoric.

That’s not to suggest eyeliner is the secret to passing, but rather how discovering and perfecting even one thing can make a huge difference. You don’t necessarily need to master everything. Like I tried foundation, blush, lipstick, eye shadow and liner for a ‘complete look’, and it’s a nice look, but I don’t really need most of that.

Every face is different, makeup will definitely level you up once you discover what works best. Having an AFAB friend to help you out is invaluable.

My advice is start subtle. Don’t think of it as covering up your face, or becoming someone else, but rather matching your skin/face’s natural qualities. Less is definitely more.

Thanks everyone for the replies! I know they were a bit short since I’m kinda tired, but I really appreciate it

Seconding what Elise wrote. Nail polish and clothing do it big time for me, but as for make up I also appreciate differences around my eyes the most. Per trial and error, and help from my more makeup-experienced friends, I started out with a pencil eyeliner and used it to water line my lower eye lid primarily (pretty easy and forgiving) and practicing making small wings. I then gradually added eye shadow, liquid liner (which I now use for upper lid, wings and drawing small cute hearts on the side) and finally mascara. Really, really makes a big difference, especially if you’re prone to exhausted looking eyes. I can also recommend a liquid shadow if you find the powdered stuff to be messy, just got one from a friend the other days and applying it is a breeze.

Though in general, if you don’t feel like makeup does a lot, try to apply more/it in a more extreme way - just for practice, can always remove it instantly. Getting used to what you might consider ‘overapplying’ could be what’s missing :3 Kinda like when you learn juggling, you’ll often either move too much forwards of backwards while practicing, so overcompensate the other way to and eventually even it out.

And lastly, though I haven’t tried anything like it myself, traditionally male/masculine faces often have a different composition when it comes to jawlines, bones and such - so you could experiment with highlights and shadows. You’ll eventually land on something you like <33