Middle School Makeup - What to Wear

six middle school girls of various skin tones wearing natural makeup outdoors, smiling

I've gotten to work with so many young girls over the years and it's one of my favorite things to do!  My first official capacity was working with a Girl Scout troop in Queens which is where we did an exercise - I had them write down three words they'd like their personality to be described as - who they were, not what they looked like.  "Unique", "caring", "honest", and "sparkly" were some of the words that came up.  We used each girl's list to create her makeup "look" and, as such, it was rooted in who she was and what she wanted to be communicating, as opposed to something that would cover something up or make her "prettier".  We all loved it and I've used it with all ages ever since!

I'm also a big fan of having people share their favorite feature - it's all over our Life Lessons Series with grown ups! - as I think we need all the positivity we can get.

I LOVED getting to spend an afternoon with these local middle school girls - here's the words they chose and how we interpreted it with their makeup:

fair girl with long blonde hair, named Maggie, in 8th grade

WELCOMING - SMART - FRIENDLY
Maggie's Favorite Feature: Her Hair and/or Eye Color
"Eyes are the windows to the soul" so we wanted to pull people in and feel welcomed, per Maggie's first word, so we lined them with our Onyx Cream Liner and applied our Matcha Mascara to bring you into her beautiful blues.  The only other product we used was our Tinted Lip Balm in Flushed - a tiny bit on her eyelids, a bit more on her cheeks and full out on her lips - how fun is that?!
shop maggie's picks - images of onyx eyeliner, matcha mascara, flushed tinted lip balm

young tan woman with long brown hair, smiling with dimples, named Kelly, 6th grade

KIND - LOYAL - FUN TO BE AROUND
Kelly's Favorite Feature: Her Hair
A dancer, sweet Kelly wanted a natural look but we dipped into the "fun" aspect of her word choice with our Magic Dust as a highlight on the cheeks - so pretty!  We did some Matcha Mascara on her lashes, Tinted Lip Balm in Crushed on her cheeks and our Fruit Smoothie Lip Gloss in Earliglow for a sheer shimmery shine.  
pictures of the makeup products worn by Kelly

tan young woman with curly hair who is smiling - named Reina, 6th grade

KIND - FUN - CRAZY

Reina's Favorite Feature: Her Hair

When asked what future astrophysicist Renia meant by "crazy" 😅, she shared that she wanted to do the unexpected - which is exactly what she did when this no-makeup-wearer chose our strawberry shade of Jewel in our Fruit Smoothie Lip Gloss.  I love it on her!  We used our Tinted Lip Balm in Flushed on her cheeks to continue in the warm undertone, along with Matcha Mascara and a little Fairy Dust for a highlight.  

pictures of the makeup products worn by Reina

young african american woman with black and hot pink braids, smiling - named Trinity, 6th grade

SWEET - SMART - CREATIVE 

Trinity's Favorite Feature: Her Skin

I was inspired by Trinity's pink twists for her word "creative" as our Fruit Smoothie Lip Gloss in Eros matched perfectly!  We also used our Tinted Lip Balm in Flushed on the cheeks (I almost fell over I loved it on her so much) and Matcha Mascara on the lashes of this future history teacher who is a beam of sunshine.  

pictures of the makeup products worn by Trinity

young woman with smile and highlighter, med length brown hair - named Naya, in 7th grade

NICE - GOOD FRIEND - UNIQUE - ARTISTIC

Naya's Favorite Feature: Her Hair

Naya loves art but prefers to keep it to the page and wanted her makeup look to be soft and clean so we focused on keeping the "unique" part of her products to Magic Dust which we applied as a cheek highlight and as an eyeshadow shade.  We also used our Blushed Tinted Lip Balm, a soft pink, on her cheeks and lips and finished with Matcha Mascara.  Her perfect brows frame everything beautifully!

pictures of the makeup products worn by Naya

young fair woman with bangs and long blonde hair, smiling, named Grace in 7th grade

SWEET - KIND - SHARING - CARING

Grace's Favorite Feature: Her Lips and/or Hair

Softball player Grace wanted to keep her makeup light but we leaned into flushed cheeks which, to us, felt both "sweet" and "caring" with our Crushed Tinted Lip Balm.  Her naturally pink lips got painted with our Fruit Smoothie Lip Gloss in Earliglow and lashes got a hit of Matcha Mascara.

pictures of the makeup products worn by Grace

 six young girls of various skin tones, smiling

After talking with the girls we all agreed that we wanted their looks to be fresh and intentional.  Most of them don't wear makeup everyday, just for special occasions, while Naya and Maggie wore it about once a week.  I wanted to stay away from complexion products - foundation, concealer, etc - and even eyeshadow as I just didn't want to load them up with to-do's.  Instead, we went with lashes, cheeks and lips for the most part, focusing on a pop lip shade, some highlighter or an eye liner to give it a little oomph.  We all agreed, we wanted the girls to look like girls and not grownups 💚.

Erin - adult - smiling and taking a selfie with the group of six middle school girls

We had lots of fun!


7 comments


  • Erin's Faces

    Yay! Thank you so much Marian! Maggie is beautiful inside and out :) xoxo


  • Marian Naughton

    Lovely pics girls 😍


Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published

This site is protected by hCaptcha and the hCaptcha Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.