Your face is the first thing people notice about you, therefore feminising your face should be the basis for your feminine transformation.
To feel the part, you must look it. You want your face to appear feminine, and, as a trans women, you must therefore focus on your facial features, because it is where there are clear, physical differences between women and men.
This is about your entire face and the impression it makes, rather than individual details. We all have particular physical aspects of our appearance we fixate on, but for this transformation, you must build the complete picture.
There are specific gender cues ? higher cheekbones, larger eyes, smaller noses, bigger lips ? that make a face more feminine. By working on the contours of your face you can create illusions that shrink certain features or enlarge others. You can even draw the eye?s attention to the traits you want to accentuate.
Contouring is a skill with which you can transform your face and feminise it. Even where you have individual features that might not obviously conform to an ideal, such as a big nose or square jaw, if the overall impression you create with your face works, you will still look feminine.
Key makeup elements to mask or modify your features include false lashes, mascara, blush, eye shadow, eyeliner and lipstick.
Here are the different facial features you will need to work on to create the overall impression of a feminised face
1. Forehead Fringe
The forehead is a dead giveaway when it comes to gender.
Men?s foreheads tend to be higher and wider than women?s.
They have a bony ridge running across the forehead above the eyes, compared to women?s smooth foreheads. This male forehead feature is known as a brow bossing.
Men tend to have backwards-sloping foreheads, while women?s foreheads are more vertical.
The Feminising Fix for Foreheads:
The best feminising fix is your hair. Go for a wispy fringe (or bangs, as the Americans say), to hide your forehead but also soften your other features.
Avoid a very clear-cut fringe, as this creates a horizontal line across the top of your face, emphasising angular features.
Also, ensure your fringe is long enough to cover your brow ridge.
2. Raised Eyebrows
Men have thicker eyebrows than women, but there is more to it than this.
Men?s eyebrows are a straighter shape, compared to women?s more arched eyebrows.
Male eyebrows are also lower, sitting below the orbital rim, whereas female eyebrows sit above it. (The orbital rim is the outer edge of the eye socket.)
Change your eyebrows and you change how your entire face appears.
The Feminising Fix for Eyebrows:
First, have someone professionally shape your eyebrows. Thinning and reshaping them will give the illusion of them being higher.
Do not overpluck them, otherwise you risk them looking overexaggerated, which can then sabotage your appearance.
After reshaping, you can maintain them yourself using makeup to create perfect arches.
3. Enhanced Eyes
The eyes are where people look first. They are what they will notice about your face immediately. You must have beautiful, feminine eyes.
Men?s eyes are naturally more deep-set than women?s because of their brow ridge, and their eyelids are slightly more closed, giving a narrower look.
The Feminising Fix for Eyes:
Enhance your lashes to make your eyes appear bigger. An eyelash curler will make your eyes look bigger and make sure you invest in the very best mascara your budget will stretch to.
Eye makeup is an art you really must master. The only way is to practice until it feels entirely natural.
4. A Contoured Nose
Male noses are longer and wider, female noses are shorter and narrower.
Men?s noses tend to be different in shape, either straight or arched. In profile, women?s noses are more concave.
The Feminising Fix for Noses:
Without resorting to a nose job, the best way to downplay your nose?s prominence is to highlight other features.
Enhance your eyes, lips and cheeks to make your nose take a less prominent role.
Contour your nose using makeup. It is not always easy, and it can look too blatant in daylight, but it works a treat for evenings, or in photographs.
5. Fuller Cheeks
Men generally have flatter cheekbones, while women?s are more prominent.
Women also have more facial fat than men, so their cheeks naturally have a more rounded, fuller appearance.
The Feminising Fix for Cheeks:
Apply blush, but in the right way. A common mistake is to apply a stripe of it across the bottom of the cheekbones, but this highlights a more angular appearance.
Instead, apply blush to the apples of your cheeks. These are the parts of your cheeks that raise upwards when you smile.
Applying blush here will create the illusion of a fuller-looking face and give you a feminine glow.
The other thing you can do is go for an injectable face filler. Obviously, this is a more expensive option, but treat it as an investment. Face fillers last up to a year, enhancing your facial feminisation, and giving your cheeks a lift in the process.
6. Feminine Lips
Does anything quite signal femininity like a pair of luscious lips?
Men?s lips are usually thinner than women?s, especially the top lip, and in men the distance between the base of the nose and the top lip tends to be greater.
The Feminising Fix for Lips:
A cosmetic lip plumper can give your lips an instant boost. The hyaluronic acid in the plumper draws moisture to the lips, which then plumps them up, temporarily.
You can enlarge your lips with makeup, using lip liner and lipstick to enlarge the overall figure of your lips. These bright colours and outlines can help you achieve the feminine smile you are looking for.
Avoid dark lipsticks, because they will make your lips look thinner.
Another fix is to use an injectable lip filler,? but keep it subtle, because you do not want to end up looking like a fish.
7. A Subtler Chin and Jawline
Male chins tend to be longer with a flat base, and often there is a sharp angle between a man?s chin and jaw, creating that familiar, square-jawed look.
Female chins tend to be shorter and more pointed, and women lack men?s wider, heavier jawline.
The Feminising Fix for Chins and Jawlines:
Choose a hairstyle that is shoulder-length to soften the effects of the lower part of your face. Wavy, layered hairstyles should help to gently conceal the jawline.
Avoid short or chin-length hair if the chin and jawline are problem areas for you.
Use makeup to contour your jaw, softening the angles.
The Complete Feminised Face
Remember that what will make the most convincing, impressive transformation is the complete appearance of your face, rather than individual features. Look at all these tips, and see how you can apply them together, to give you the face you desire. You may also find this article useful that covers Beard Colour Neutralisation
Looking for Help?
If you?re not entirely confident in feminising your face, we?d love to offer you our support. You can book a makeup lesson with Paul here.