Makeup 101 with Muthoni Gitau of Asili Vlog

Anyone that knows me knows that I am not a make-up person. For the larger part of my adult life I have mostly had lotion and lip balm on my face. Once in a while I wear eye shadow, foundation and mascara and lately I have taken to wearing lipstick daily. Still, I am not adventurous in my colour choices and tend to stick to greys for eye shadow and a tame maroon for lipstick, so I was pretty excited when Muthoni Gitau and I hatched a plan to have her do my make-up for her YouTube channel, Asili Vlog. My mantra for 2017 is, ‘Do the damn thing’ and I couldn’t wait to try out a new look.

I got to her house in the afternoon and she set up the lights and camera. I wasn’t intimidated by the camera and lights coz it’s one of the things I do for a living, but I was nervous about getting my face beat. First of all, I have to say that Muthoni is DIY goals! She has beautiful art pieces on the walls that she created and even has the niftiest DIY storage boxes for her make-up. And it is quite a lot of make-up! Girlfriend has over 10 brushes and a whole lot of eye shadow, among other products.

Muthoni sensed my anxiety and set me at ease by talking me through everything she was doing and the reason behind it. I first cleaned my face with a wipe then lightly moisturized with coconut oil. She then applied a primer to my face and the glam up began. It took almost an hour to get everything done and I have to admit I basically kept asking her every few minutes, “You’re not done?” The most fascinating part of the process was the contouring bit. I have seen tonnes of make-up videos online where they try to explain what the process is but it always leaves me confused and intimidated as there seems to be so much going on! Muthoni explained that contouring and highlighting is basically using makeup to sculpt and shape the face in a flattering way.

After the contouring was done, she worked on my eyes. She has 3 huge MAC swatches! I told her I’m usually not very experimental when it comes to eyeshadow so she decided to push me out of my comfort zone by using pinks. The final look was new for me and I spent the better part of 10 minutes staring at myself in a mirror wondering if it was too much, with Muthoni insisting that it was not. For lipstick, we went with a bold red that tied the look together perfectly. We left out the false eyelashes but we’ll revisit the possibility one of these days when we do this again.

Has this made me more open minded when it comes to make-up? Yes. Will I try new looks more often? Absoloutely. Will I start slowly buying products to achieve a glam look? Yes. Is it a little intimidating when I think of all the products I need to buy? Yep. But I know it’s a journey and I’ll buy a few things at a time till I get there. My first batch of shopping will include a better foundation, primer, powder, mascara and an eye shadow swatch.

I was glad I had somewhere to go after getting my face beat. I attended the Kati Kati Film Premiere.

Check out the video below of my first time wearing glam makeup and subscribe to Muthoni’s Asili vlog!

http://www.asilivlog.com/beauty/makeup/first-time-wearing-makeup-ft-mwende-ngao/