Making Makeup More Accessible for Hands Like Mine

I don’t know about you, but for years as a person with cerebral palsy I have found it difficult to find makeup that is easy for me to use. I have attempted on many occasions to use my fine motor skills (or lack thereof) to put on eye makeup.

This has often resulted in me heading to the makeup remover and hoping that the smudge around my eyes weren’t noticeable to people. Eventually, I just gave up and stuck to the easier options of putting on foundation and a bit of lipstick. I had been searching for years to see if there were any accessible makeup products. My searches came to nothing, until one day last year, a friend of mine sent me a news clip about By Storm Beauty.  

By Storm Beauty was created by Storm, who’s right hand had worked a little differently because of a stroke before she was born. When she broke her dominant hand, Storm found that she was no longer able to open her makeup products.  She searched for a solution and found that accessible makeup products design for people with hands like hers did not exist.  Storm set out to change this and taught herself 3D modelling. Her idea was to design grips to attach to beauty products people were already using and loved. 

This led to the creation of the Betty and Margie. The Betty and Margie are grips that you can put on your makeup. They are designed for people with tremors in their hand, as well as pain, fatigue or weakness.  On her website you can take a quiz to see what product is best for you, the Margie or the Betty. 

I have a tremor in my hands and find it difficult to grip smaller items. I have just loved having the Betty as a tool I can use to get a better grip on my lipstick and nail polish. It makes it so much easier to apply makeup. I am also tempted to start using eye makeup again to see what the result is. 

I am please that my quest to find accessible makeup has resulted in discovering the Margie and the Betty. It is nice to be given the option of applying makeup or putting on nail polish like all women enjoy doing. I am hoping as I get used to using these tools that the frustration of attempting to put on makeup and ending up with a mess on my face or nail polish all over the place will come to an end. 

If you would like to learn more about accessible grips for beauty products, I recommend you check out the Betty and the Margie at By Storm Beauty.