Growing up, I was never a super confident kid. Even to this day I’ll admit that I’m still not the most confident but its gotten a lot better. All through middle school and continuously throughout high school my confidence was at an all time low. I struggled with my self image and was always concerned with how other people saw me. I struggled with my skin and my self image and I was just looking for a quick fix to hide my face and any imperfections that I had. So, I discovered makeup.

Of course I wasn’t great at it when I first started. In fact I was absolutely terrible at it. My first issue was that I applied most of my makeup with my hands when I started out which made my skin problems even worse. Then, my foundation was cakey and usually too orange. My powder over my foundation was chalky and my idea of eyeshadow was a single shade of pink loose pigment powder across my eyelid topped off with a straight black line that I called eyeliner and a nice chunky coat of mascara. I thought that was it the fix to all my problems! No one could see my face but they could sure see my makeup! I was wrong. Very wrong. People saw the makeup for sure, but what they saw was a cakey gross mess and they had no problem letting me know.

Being made fun of for my makeup and my appearance was something that I constantly dealt with growing up and it bothered me to my core. My mom saw how much bothered me and we decided to “take action”. We made my first trip to Ulta the local cosmetics store where I got color matched for foundation and taught how to properly apply my makeup. I went home and I spent hours and hours watching youtube videos of makeup tutorials. I was determined to get better. Aside from learning from my mom, Jaclyn Hill was my biggest inspiration for learning how to do my makeup. I watched her videos over and over again. I sat in my room in front of the mirror and just practiced trying to copy Jaclyn and get the perfect look. Eventually I got better. I learned about blending, matching, brushes, shades, creating dimension, highlight, contour and most importantly self confidence. (Thank you mom and thank you Jaclyn Hill.)

Taking everything I had learned and applying it to my everyday routine, things got better. People talked less, I felt better and I probably looked better. Makeup changed my life once I finally got the hang of it. I wasn't worrying about what other people were thinking about me. I had established a sense of confidence. I put my makeup on in the morning, went about my day with no worries and took it off when I went to bed and started over the next morning. My face became my canvas and makeup was my confidence. All in all I learned that I don't need makeup to be confident but it helps me. It helps me feel better about how I look and how I feel about my self and If makeup is what does it for you as well don't let anyone stop you from wearing it and doing whatever makes you feel your best.