When you have the privilege of full health and all of your senses it can be difficult to imagine the difficulties of ordinary daily activities. And it becomes easy to say that certain things don’t matter in ‘the bigger picture,’ Such as, why would a blind woman care about applying makeup? When really it should be, well why shouldn’t they? Makeup can be a kind of armor of sorts, a way of facing the world and yes, of feeling feminine. But more than that, if you want to wear makeup, well you should.
But for a blind person, the act of putting on mascara and blending foundation is of course not the simple task that most of us take for granted.
So esthetician Judith Woodworth decided to do something about it, and has developed a series of techniques and tips that help blind women apply their own makeup.
These tips include getting women to count to five when they are applying their powder, which helps to make sure that it’s blended properly.
For Gina Centeno, a woman who lost her vision and hasn’t applied makeup for 25 years, she feels more feminine.
The video below from a segment on the CBS news channel in America shows Judith teaching Gina her technique.
The video shows that makeup – and the choice to be able to apply it if and when you want to – can lead to self-esteem.
As Gina says of being able to apply makeup herself again, “it gives me so much confidence that I can do it.”
