-Your lips are going to drive people wild.

-With a sleek design in lipstick.

-One day you realize you're not going to be 21 forever, yet you always want to look your best.

-Clean makeup, you look clean, and that's sexy.

-I think when I put on makeup, and I have the glitter on, and I have the color on, I feel-- when I put on makeup, sometimes I feel like I do look more myself sometimes, or the me I want to put out.

My name is Biannca Ibarra-Olalde.

Pronouns, she/her.

What else did I need to say?

I was very tomboyish.

It was like making a statement, almost, because I was very upset when I was little hearing my relatives or other people talk to me and my brothers differently.

They would always ask me, or say, "When you get married, what are you going to do?

Where are you going to have your wedding?

What are you thinking for kids' names?"

For my brothers or boys, they would never ask them that.

I would always get really upset, because I was like, "I don't want to do that.

That's not how I think about my future."

When I was little, I was like, "I'm not going to do any girly things.

I'm not going to wear pink.

I'm not going to like makeup.

I'm not going to like wearing dresses."

My mom was very upset.

It's like, "No, baby girl, you're just queer, and you didn't know how to express it.

You're also upset at the world around you."

I work as a peer mentor, and I think it helps to see an elder queer person expressing themselves in the way that they like or in a big-ish way.

It helps younger queer people to see that.

As a freshman, coming in and being on the Pride floor, and just wanting to see queer people out, because I'm from a more conservative area, it was really nice to see just queer people existing, but also having an actual style that reflected them.

I think my favorite part, product-wise, love eyeshadow.

Eyeshadow is my favorite part.

I feel like that's the most creative you can get with it, in terms of color.

Then I can also add the glitter that I want to add, or I can decide if I want to have colored eyeliner, I'm like, "Oh, I need to use this eyeshadow for this, this, and this."

I really like the amount of creativity you can get.

[coughs] Jesus Christ.

Let me see how it looks with my hair, and then maybe we'll change something.

No, I like it, actually.

Yes.

It's the completed look.

[laughs] I'm feeling kind of elfy with this look, which is very silly.

-I think I care a lot more about how I'm perceived now than I did back then.

Hi, my name is Asa Horpayak, and I use she/they pronouns.

I feel like growing up, I had a really robust art practice, because I was homeschooled by my mom.

Instead of hanging out with people, I would make art.

Learning painting before I learned makeup influenced how I liked to do makeup when I began, because it was all about color and glitter and shapes.

I think my makeup routine when I started, it was mascara, just some random drugstore mascara, top lashes only, no eyeliner, a highlighter from a brand that doesn't exist anymore.

No base, by the way.

Highlight, no base.

Then a vibrant liquid lipstick.

Back then, I was just having a lot of fun putting different colors and glitters on my face.

Today, because it's more of a routine thing, it falls more into how am I being perceived by other people.

With the way that I do my makeup nowadays, I definitely like having it be sort of a softer, sort of natural glam fit to my face that can garner attention from anyone on any gender side of the spectrum.

That perception has definitely changed how I interact with makeup now, for sure.

As life gets busier and I find myself in a lot of time of wearing makeup more often, it can definitely be very vulnerable and scary to be like, "Oh my God, I'm barefaced and nobody's going to recognize me."

Whatever it is.

I think it helps to sort of play with the outfit in that sense of like, "Oh, I don't want to touch my skin today."

If I'm experiencing a little bit of an acne breakout, I can play it up with the outfit or the opposite and be like, "Okay, well, if I definitely don't want anyone to perceive me without makeup, then I can wear an outfit that no one's going to pay all that much attention to," and just go in sweats or something.

I think that's an interesting component to have the makeup and the outfit work together like that, just as a way to sort of navigate that vulnerability in everyday life.

Part of it is a comfort thing, because if I want to go out into the world and not have to be fully exposed, I can put on a crazy outfit and I can put on a bunch of makeup and then be like, "Nobody knows what I really look like."

You know what I mean?

It's armor in a way to make me feel protected in my day-to-day life.

I also think gender is such a performance that makeup is a way to craft it.

-My name is Frida Ramos-Casas, and my pronouns are they/them.

I've been doing makeup, I'd say I started really dabbling my freshman year of high school, so when I was 14 or 15.

I think makeup is empowering.

It enhances the features that you already have, and it makes me feel a little bit more ready.

It gives me a little bit more confidence to go through the day.

I definitely got my inspiration of all the dramatic colors and everything from drag and watching Drag Race when I was little with my mom.

I was like, "Oh, if they can do it, then I can definitely do some version of that."

What we learned from our clowns is that it is your innermost self.

It's your most innocent childlike self portrayed.

In my makeup, I basically did what I normally do, but with little eyes, and I jut them out three spikes to show what eyeliner could be, but it's more of a dramatic look.

I made my eyebrows all big, but I still keep the slit in my eyebrow.

I do a lipstick and I do two cheeks, but I don't blend it out, even though some people do.

I got a big mustache for my clown makeup just to show that I'm a man.

I feel like when I have my clown makeup on, I can truly do whatever I want.

I really appreciate my clown makeup versus my normal everyday makeup because it actually feels more like me.

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