Among the other comments we women are subject to in today’s world, the topic of makeup seems to come up quite a bit. When we wear makeup, we’re told that we’re wearing too much, and when we wear none at all we’re told that we look unwell or that we don’t care for ourselves. Newsflash, we don’t wear makeup to receive looks or cat calls on the streets. We wear makeup for ourselves.
Makeup is an art. OK, for me it is. I haven’t actually perfected the art yet, but I’m working my way there. Some girls spend five minutes doing their makeup in the morning and others can spend five hours doing their makeup in the morning. There is nothing wrong with either.
Sure, makeup can be a nuisance at times when one eye looks great, and the other eye looks like a raccoon. Other times your foundation isn’t exactly the right shade and you wind up looking like an orange or as pale as a ghost. It’s a love/hate relationship. There is so much upkeep that goes into keeping a fresh face of makeup that people just don’t understand. To keep the foundation on you need primer. To keep the eye shadow on you need primer. To keep the powder fresh, you need a setting spray. When I walk into Sephora or Ulta it’s like a choir of angels is playing in the back of my head. I have entered the promised land. A land free of judgement and harsh comments from guys about the type and amount of makeup we wear.
I most certainly do not wake up in the mornings and think to myself “I’m going to wear blue eye shadow today because it matches the crystal blue of Zac Efron’s eyes.” I don’t think any of us do. Come on, haven’t we moved past the era of women doing things just to impress guys. I’m going to wear whatever color eye shadow, eyeliner, blush and lipstick I want because I absolutely can. When I look in the mirror after applying all of that makeup I am damn proud of those results. Nine times out of 10 I feel like a Disney princess, and that totally rocks!
Like I mentioned before, people get on our cases if we doll ourselves up too much. “You have so much makeup on, you’re just sitting behind a desk all day.” Yes, we may only be sitting behind a desk if that is what our job entails, but I can guarantee that if we showed up to the office with no makeup at all then you’d deem us unprofessional. We can’t win, so we do what we want when it comes to our makeup routine.
Why do we even do it? Why do we continually get all glammed up if we claim it’s just for ourselves and our own satisfaction? Because it’s fun and we do feel rewarded afterward. If, by chance, a girl tells another girl that her shade of lipstick compliments her or her eyebrows look good she will go around all day feeling proud of herself. Sometimes, even if I’m home all day, I will still put makeup on. It’s a pick-me-up and we shouldn’t feel pressured that we’re doing all of this to impress someone else. The only person in my life I need to impress is myself. I need to be happy with who I am and if that means wearing as much or as little makeup as I want when I want, then so be it.
