Twenty one year old, Cassie, lives in a flatting situation with peers of a similar age. She wants to learn to successfully apply makeup independently.
Jude Shelley, transition teacher, has been working with Cassie with this goal. In figure 1 Cassie is made-up for a night out!
Learning to apply mascara
Cassie is practising applying mascara with a clean brush. She places her elbows on the table, is holding her wrist and places her thumb on her check to steady her hand.
Cassie flicks her eyelid up and down to brush her eyelashes against the mascara wand. In figure 2 Cassie is practising applying mascara with a clean brush.
Prerequisite skills
Cassie knew how to hold a pencil correctly between forefinger and thumb. Cassie had to learn how to position and stabilise herself to apply the mascara.
Cassie had previously learnt how to apply eye shadow successfully. Cassie is applying mascara independently in figure 3.
Possible next steps
- Learn to apply eye pencil or eye liner.
- Learn to apply eye brow pencil.
- Learn to apply foundation and powder.
- Learn to apply blusher.
- Learn to apply lip pencil and lipstick.
Teaching methods and strategies
- Cassie used a pencil to practise getting the correct position for her hand.
- Cassie then used a clean mascara wand to practise using a wand and position it for the correct and safe application of the mascara.
- Using a clean, wet mascara wand enabled Cassie to feel how she was using the mascara wand without the possible mess a mistake with dark mascara could make.
Learning adaptations
- All learning had to be shown hand over hand or explained verbally rather visually as Cassie has no usable sight.
- Cassie used a pencil to learn about the positioning the mascara wand.
- Cassie used a clean mascara wand to experience the touch of the bristles and how it would feet against her eye lashes.
- Cassie wet the mascara wand with water to feel where the wand had brushed the eye lashes or if she accidentally brushed other parts of her face.
Assessment
- Cassie identified this as one of her Individual Transition Plan goals.
- Observation of Cassie when practicing applying mascara using a clean brush.
- Discussion of and problem solving issues that arose within the supervised practise sessions.
- Observation of Cassie when applying mascara independently.
Useful Links
- Taking up makeup – See/Hear newsletter, TSBVI Website.
- Discussion on Low Vision and Blind Perspectives on How to Apply Makeup – BlindHow & Youtube video.
- Beauty advice: Make up and haircare tips for people with sight problems in association with Jenny Jordan – Action for Blind People website.
- Makeup application after vision loss – Vision Aware Website.
- Applying makeup when blind – Living Blind Website.
- Personal Grooming – American Foundation for the Blind.
- How to Apply Makeup – Fred’s Head from APH, a blindness blog.
- Additional Makeup Application Tips – Fred’s Head from APH, a blindness blog.
- Eyeshadow Application Tips For The Visually Impaired – YouTube.
- Blind girl does her own makeup – YouTube.
More information
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