Makeup and Metal! Ain't Talkin Face Paint

 

Photo of me 2006, caption by Alli T.

Hello! So I had an idea for a (not so) quick post about the two main things keeping me sane these days, and those are Makeup and Metal! Don't close the page, just hear me out til the end!

from beautybroadcast.net, (YouTube: emilynoel83)

I watch a lot of makeup tutorials on YouTube on a daily basis, I think mostly because I live alone and having a video with someone talking in the background is comforting and motivates me to get up and get ready to go (I am NOT a morning person!). Also I think makeup can be an amazing creative outlet for someone who doesn't have a lot of room for paintings or that brush-and-color type of art medium. Every day you create a new piece of art on your face, ranging from natural and practically unnoticeable to BOLD BOLD BOLD with heavy lip color, eye shadows, or blushes! This is what I do when I'm not listening to music, working, sleeping, or practicing didgeridoo. 

from JadeTheLibra on Tumblr, (YouTube: JadeTheLibra)

I've seen a lot of dramatic looking makeup videos with a lot of varied responses posted in the comment sections. Lots of love, lots of hate, lots of threads perpetuating the love and hate. Over time I've grown to feel pretty indifferent to the negativity because of the fact that everyone is different, everyone has different taste, and there is no "good" or "bad" or "wrong" makeup look, and somehow in the wiring of my brain I came to realize THE SAME GOES FOR METAL. 

Me, 2002

For me, personally, I remember way back (in Middle School and early High School) sticking with what was familiar as far as music goes; the Anchorage Rock station 106.5 KWHL (K-Whale) and got really into Nirvana, Mudvayne, Disturbed, Godsmack, Slipknot, Ozzy Osbourne, Tool, and Anchorage-born Hardcore/Metal somewhat-celebrities 36 Crazyfists. Although my dad was constantly listening to better stuff (see my post titled A Metal Father's Day: Kreator!), I unfortunately never paid much attention to "the good stuff" until years later. 

Late High School my guy friends were into genres like Screamo, Hardcore, Emo, and "Alternative" (what a boring adult term for what couldn't exactly be identified, huh?). Let's not forget those digital cable "Music Choice" channels where I discovered many "mainstream" metal projects like Tiamat, Hatebreed, and maybe even crazier sounding bands like Carach Angren and Anaal Nathrakh, which I didn't necessarily care for at the time, but I appreciated a mainstream access point for extreme Metal when I didn't own or know of anything like that at the time. Going into college Adult Swim came out with the much loved (and missed) show Metalocalypse, which further solidified my love for, and how much I really missed, Metal. Some newer acquaintances were playing in local metalcore bands like Korupture (death/thrash metal), Sicarius (metalcore), Decepticide (death metal), and Bound by Entrails (black/symphonic metal). 

Me! Ready to see Trollfest for the 2nd time.
2014

Fast forward to my favorites now, which lie mostly in the Black Metal, Melodic & Symphonic Black Metal, Folk Metal, and Heavy Metal Categories. Let's list the CDs in my car rotation right meow: Naglfar (Ex Inferis), Agalloch (Pale Folklore), Encircling Sea (Écru), Ensiferum (One Man Army), Summoning Sickness (To End The Light), and Venom (Welcome To Hell). I don't want to leave out some Doom I've been sucked into lately, like Wolvserpent, Bell Witch, and SwampheavY. This is by no means a comprehensive list of my favorites, but it's a few examples that can relate to what I'm getting at with Makeup and Metal (EVERYTHING is going to be bold and CLICKABLE! by the time I'm done with this I swear! Haha).




I was thinking that my early stages of liking and listening to heavy music and metal is comparable to my early stages of liking and using makeup. The stages of evolving equally so! The more I learned about makeup, the more I realized I was using products that did NOT work best for my skin type, eye shadow colors that did not complement my eye color or skin color, and I was missing good detail products like a mascara that worked for my eyelashes, and primers that help everything stay in place. I liked the idea of what makeup can do, but I was uneducated and had bad taste. My makeup wasn't shitty, but I like to think it has improved!

Me June 2005

Me November 2005

Likewise, the more I learned about music (particularly Metal), the more I realized I liked the idea of Metal, but the metal I was listening to was not what I would have picked myself (ahem, marketing and promotion managers, you got me!). I liked what was available to me, and there was basically 1 (one) music store in my town at the time; pretty limited selection. In a nutshell: I liked shitty music! As with anything, the more familiar and knowledgeable you become about something, the better able you are to choose and use it!

Me(dusa) 2015, Seattle, WA

One of the best things about 

these 2 loves of mine is 

combining them! I love to go 

to costumed events and 

challenge myself to use what 

makeup products I have to 

make a fun (or brutal) look for 

whatever I'm doing. I feel 

more comfortable trying out 

dark dramatic eye makeup

for everyday wear, and 

the extreme ends of the 

spectrum of metal are no 

longer foreign noises that

make me question why 

someone would waste their 

time composing such nonsense.

Me & Elk, 2015, Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park

Calling my early taste in music "shitty" is an exaggeration because we all change, and our preferences in things change as well. That's the point of this I suppose! Mudvayne will always have a special spot in my memories (I can write about that sometime because there is a reason), and Tool is always #1 in my heart. In fact, The bright green or bright lavender eye shadow I packed on before my 1st Period Gym Class wasn't terrible, it was part of the process. Listening to Godsmack and Mudvayne wasn't terrible, it was part of my process getting to where I am today (If you're imagining a blonde girl doing gymnastics with purple makeup, metal shirts, and the Mudvayne logo branded on one ankle, that was me!). We were all awkward metal puppies at one point, so I'm choosing to embrace my past!

There is no "good" or "bad" or 

"wrong" makeup look, and somehow I came to realize

 THE SAME GOES FOR METAL. 

-Jindy

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