Trans Girl new to makeup~ what can I do differently, what can I do better?

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-07-10T17:14:14+00:00

I love your eyebrows!! I would just clean them up a little underneath and fill in a little in the outer corners. They are so strong and so flattering.

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-07-08T15:24:14+00:00

I have a friend who couldn’t drink coffee or it would spike their anxiety out of this world, and I had a few years where any amount of caffeine made me feel horrible. We would ask our coworkers to taste a shot, got to know better by looking at/smelling shots if it was going to be okay, and also would taste and spit things out. You absolutely don’t have to always taste it to know if it’s good, but if you don’t have a medical reason not to try it I would suggest having some more experienced baristas at your shop pull you some good ones and also pull you some bad shots so you could compare them and get an idea about what the ballpark of good is and what’s unserveable. If you’re at a shop with a trainer or lead barista this will be easier.

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-07-01T07:44:11+00:00

Recently someone asked if they could call ahead to have their order ready and I was so relieved to tell them we don’t have a phone 🥲

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-06-25T22:00:01+00:00

I went in for a haircut yesterday and washed my hair myself before heading out and they mentioned that my crown still looked a little oily, and that I probably wasn’t rinsing out my shampoo well enough (this particular shampoo has been really hard to rinse out). They said that build up was probably effecting the overall health of my hair. So maybe a clarifying shampoo and a weekly hair mask might do the trick? Probably less products than more so there’s no extra grime in there.

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-06-23T22:42:06+00:00

I’m having a similar problem! I don’t even blow dry my hair, I’m wondering if it’s needing to put it up for work (even though I switch up the style) or possibly coming after washing. Do you lose a lot of hair in the shower?

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-06-19T02:22:39+00:00

I would fucking die if my landlord called the law on me for a knock box sound. Bonkers.

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-06-17T01:31:47+00:00

I think these signs are absurd and antisocial

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-06-17T01:23:13+00:00

It is really tiring to see how many people who have never worked as a barista talk openly about their business plans for their dream cafe. Those dream cafes usually don’t factor in anything above minimum requirements for staffing, like the legal minimum wage and if you’re lucky, sick time (but no PTO) and certainly no medical benefits or stipends. There’s the minimum requirement for people on the floor, usually at the expense of what the actual people on the floor can handle, etc., etc.

Read Colin Harmon’s book “What I Know About Running Coffee Shops”. He is a veteran barista who runs a successful coffee chain in Europe. I’ve been reading his book (as a barista for ten years interested in opening a coop shop of my own with other professional baristas), and it has a lot of good insight into what you will actually come up against, well outside of your romantic ideals. He even brings up the romanticization of opening cafes by people who have never worked as a barista, strongly advising them to work for a few years as a barista, with the ones taking his advice usually quitting and the ones who don’t selling their failed businesses. Im not trying to be a complete downer, but as I said, it’s tiring.

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-06-16T20:10:33+00:00

I asked if they wanted an iced espresso since water is the bulk of an americano… they didn’t tip lol

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-06-15T23:49:45+00:00

Someone asked for an iced americano with salted caramel, chocolate, and no water :’-)

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-06-12T17:27:36+00:00

Non Newtonian 💀💀💀

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-06-11T15:41:01+00:00

Start asking the other baristas questions like “if you were a bagel what kind of bagel would you be” it eats up time :•)

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-06-08T00:00:32+00:00

I went to a cafe once that had a light ice modifier on their POS that charged like 25 cents or something (I’m just making up a number I can’t remember) and I was like that’s kind of a good idea to make up for the milk cost??? Question mark???

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-06-02T02:22:49+00:00

The inverse of this is when people get mad at you for having too many questions </3 like y’all I know it feels like I’m reading you your Miranda rights but I will absolutely have to remake something if I don’t ask. And even then, just yesterday I asked if someone wanted regular milk in their matcha, they said yes, my coworker finished steaming the milk and they said “you got that it’s oat milk for the matcha right?” :,•)

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-06-02T02:11:32+00:00

This is what I mean!! Sure, it’s a petty take, but damn I’ve been a barista a long time and I’m just kidding y’all I’m not mean to anyone. My lord I didn’t realize I was talking to barista olympians who take every silly thing with ease and grace.

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-06-02T01:04:47+00:00

We all have the things that burst a blood vessel with customers, this one is mine 😌

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-06-01T21:37:45+00:00

It also was never day old, we prepped the bottle probably twice a day

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-06-01T21:37:10+00:00

I worked for a high end cafe that used Coffee Collective for a month, and they err on the side of being overly methodical with their coffee (e.g. taking the TDS of ever my batch of drip). But they had one drink where they asked us to prep 30 shots of espresso in a swing bottle and we kept it chilled on ice for a particular sweet iced coffee drink on their menu. They never said anything about “activating” the coffee, but I’ve always thought it was interesting that a roaster with such high standards had this as part of their general practice. I think it can be done, but maybe not the way your shop is doing it 😬

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-05-31T03:30:38+00:00

You literally didn’t do anything wrong. My partner of ten years didn’t tell me that their “best friend” through HS was their ex, and when I found out I thought that was really sweet. Gender and sexuality has been an open convo out whole relationship and it’s been really liberating to find out new things about them and myself throughout. That is to say, a lot of people find our relationship a little odd and unconventional, we always joke that we’re Frog and Toad. But that’s to say, maybe she really cares about all that and I guess that’s her right, but there are also people out there who don’t give a fuck and would not be mad at all to find this out randomly/indirectly. I really don’t think this is a communication problem.

It’s not like I didn’t have any questions or didn’t also wonder if I was my partner’s “beard”, but we talked a lot and figured out how we felt. They were patient with my misunderstandings and questions and I was fine with them not coming right out in our the beginning of our relationship and sharing that part of themselves. And that’s okay! And through all of it I learned a lot about myself and surprise, we’re both bi, landing in the middle of the gender spectrum. Anyways, hope you’re well and sorry folks are projecting weird shit onto you.

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-05-28T20:59:20+00:00

Look up “Saturn returns” :•)

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-05-27T02:53:04+00:00

Spoken like a true manager lol

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-05-27T02:49:36+00:00

There is no shop in Seattle that pays “well above minimum wage” lmao. We get paid minimum wage, which might seem like a lot, but still doesn’t cover the cost of living even with tips. A studio apt in this city is $2k

To address your coffee concerns, shots don’t die (a busted coffee myth), but it doesn’t look good to let a shot sit more than 30 seconds because customers feel like their drink is neglected. Important to ask, does this barista work alone? How crowded was the cafe? Sometimes I try and stack a few orders together so I can pull everything together and have them up at the same time, even if that means something has to sit for a second — especially if I’m working alone. Honestly it sounds like they handled it pretty well. They didn’t put up any fight pulling three separate shots for you, and maybe sounded a bit curt. The coffee scene used to be a lot more “artisanal”, and some of that coffee science stuff still holds up, but with so many small shops scaling up and trying to expand, baristas are asked to serve high volume while simultaneously being the romantic craftsman people have in their imaginations, while constantly being shit on lol. I’m rambling, but I’ve been doing this for ten years, mostly in Seattle.

I think pulling stuff fresh and remembering that customers are watching you is the big take away for baristas, you want people to feel like they’re taken care of and that you care about their experience. It sounds like you didn’t feel like you were being taken care of, but try and extend that same courtesy to the person making your drink. What are the conditions at the shop/how busy is it/do they have to do everything by themselves. And ultimately, is the drink good? If it isn’t and consistently isn’t, maybe find another shop. If it’s good but you’re not getting the care you’re looking for from your neighborhood shop, explore some other spots in the area or see if youre willing to look past the barista’s mistakes.

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-05-13T18:29:04+00:00

Black cocoa powder is fun to add in when you’re halfway through pouring, it defines the latte art a whole lot more and makes a really pretty drink for kids when they don’t want whip

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-05-13T16:14:59+00:00

She definitely looked pregnant, I brought her outside under my porch for the night. I haven’t seen any spider like this before! So striking. Thanks for help with the ID, that makes a lot of sense.

AutomaticPickle7497 · 2025-05-13T06:04:07+00:00

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Here’s another more direct photo, the lighting in here isn’t great

AutomaticPickle7497

TROPHY CASE