How many times have you let your disability stop you from doing something you wanted to do? Growing up, this was an aspect of living with a disability that I struggled with and I know I’m not alone. Tasks like opening doors that didn’t have automatic buttons to styling my hair a certain way, doing my own nails, and applying my own makeup among many others, seemed very difficult and time-consuming to even contemplate doing on my own especially my makeup and nails. When it comes to makeup it can be hard to stay motivated after making the decision to learn how to do it for yourself. When I struggled with it, I was frustrated but determined so I started scheduling practice time to improve my makeup skills and you should too.
Wondering if you read that last part correctly?
Yes, I created a practice schedule to practice my makeup skills. It sounds a bit weird I know, at least the scheduling part does anyway. In order to tell you why I started scheduling time to practice and improve my makeup skills and explain how it can help you too, I need to first tell you about how I fell in love with makeup in the first place. Maybe your story is something similar and if you haven’t decided how you feel about makeup yet, I hope this blog will inspire you to at the very least give it a chance and have some fun along the way.
My Makeup Story
I fell in love with makeup and fashion during high school, but I remember playing in my mom’s makeup a few years before that, I liked looking at everything and imagining the looks you could create. During my high school years, my mom taught me how to create simple looks, and by simple I mean foundation and eyeliner, she would help me with it in the morning, at the time that was enough.
When I realized how difficult it was going to be for me to learn to apply makeup on my own, I turned my attention to fashion. I noticed people would come up to me and comment on my shoes, handbag, or some other part of my outfit, sometimes they would ask about my wheelchair or my disability, other times we just talked fashion. It was so interesting to me how in discussing this passion we had in common, questions about my wheelchair were put on the back burner. This inspired me to give makeup another shot or at least make more of an effort than foundation and eyeliner required.
I practiced, but it was frustrating to know what I had to do and still struggle so much. I wanted to learn these skills, but the question remained, would determination be enough to learn how to apply makeup on my own? Is determination enough? I’ve come to realize that determination gets you far. Yes, there are certain things, having a disability may stop you from doing, but most things are adaptable. Like the adage goes where there’s a will there’s a way. So, how was I going to learn to do this in a way that works for me and my capabilities?
The Idea: Scheduling Time To Practice Makeup Skills
The approach to improving my makeup skills had to be different. I wanted this to work, I wanted to be able to practice makeup and have fun in the pr1ocess. While I was practicing my basic skills, I was having fun and happy because I liked the way my makeup turned out. When I would try something new that I saw on Instagram or Youtube I could spend nearly 2 hours trying one thing over and over and each time it wouldn’t look how I thought it should, I would get more frustrated and my hands would get tired and my skin didn’t feel so great after constantly wiping away the product and starting over. One day I finally came up with an idea, create a schedule.
I started writing things down trying to come up with ways to stay motivated to practice. I decided to write down that “for this hour or so today I’m going to practice makeup”. Next came the makeup skills to focus on in that hour. The day after that I got to work and I had some fun too. This wasn’t part of a routine, at least not at first, but every once in a while I would watch Youtube videos and study the technique or just play in my makeup collection and practice.
I eventually came up with a plan. I wrote everything out, what I was going to practice, the videos or blog posts I would read, techniques I needed to try from the video and possible ways to alternate it to work better for me. This new plan was immensely helpful, but I also discovered some additional positives to creating a practice schedule.
3 Ways Scheduling Time To Practice Your Makeup Skills Can Help Improve
(And How It Helped Me)
- Practicing makeup skills gets you out of a makeup slump
- Helps manage the time dedicated to the practice
- Helps you to track improvement over time
Practicing Makeup Application Gets You Out Of A Slump
When you have a routine that works, it’s easy to find your comfort zone and stay there. However, you can get stuck there, otherwise known as your makeup slump. Practicing makeup skills forces you to try something new, whether it’s a technique or new makeup look that you’re not used to. Especially, because you don’t want to practice the same makeup look over and over again. There’s no telling how long it would take you to master a different technique or specific aspect of a makeup look. When I switched things up a bit, I had fun trying new looks and even discovered some new looks to try. Change things up a bit if you don’t already, you might be surprised.
Helps Manage The Time You’ve Dedicated To Practice
Practicing and changing things up during your makeup practice sessions is great, but it’s hardly the only benefit to creating a practice schedule. When you dedicate a certain amount of time to honing your makeup skills, (I was honestly getting tired of typing the word practice, I mean I’ve said it some much already,) it helps, especially if the makeup look isn’t turning out how you wanted and you get frustrated. Scheduling a time means that after sticking with it for a while, you can move on to the next aspect of your practice session and focus on a new task. This way, even if one aspect of your practice session didn’t work like you hoped you still practiced and who knows, maybe one day you’ll be able to master both skills without a second thought.
Helps You To Track Your Improvement On A Skill Over Time
Part of the frustration with learning a new skill is your focus on getting better, it can be hard to see how you’ve improved at something even after a couple of weeks. Taking notes and/or photos after each practice session or every few sessions lets you see how much you’ve improved. Once you’ve mastered the skill and see the results, the sense of accomplishment is amazing. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t celebrate the journey of getting there, meaning only 3 wayward lines of eyeliner instead of 5, or your foundation looks better blended than last time, or only accidentally overdrawing your bottom lip instead of both, you get the point. The journey is worth celebrating. Whether it’s makeup or another thing you’re passionate about or just something you want to learn to do for yourself, create a practice guide for and get to work.
I have to put this disclaimer here: Be careful: If there is a chance of hurting yourself when trying this new thing, please ask someone to be there when you’re practicing. You want to learn something new, not get hurt.
Makeup is supposed to be fun, it’s supposed for you to show your personality or maybe even your mood. However, having a disability can sometimes make things doing things or learning new skills difficult and the fun part can get lost along the way. This scheduling guide helped me embrace my love of makeup and remember why I fell in love with it in the first place. I am really good at certain skills while I know I still need to work on a few things like contouring, highlighting, eyeshadow looks to name a few. I am a work in progress, but that’s okay. I’ll get there eventually.
Want to use the same practice schedule template that I used to improve my makeup skills? Fill out the form below and sign up to my email list to join The Sitting Beauty Squad and get the practice guide template sent to you.
~Kimberly
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