I put makeup on today. Why? I don't know. It's not like dropping my daughter off at school, running to Walgreens for paper towels (super glamorous!), working from home all day, and doing school pick-up (in a snow storm!) really warranted bronzer, eyeliner, and Too Faced "Better Than Sex" mascara, right? And yet.
Does this mean I'm shallow and vain? A slave to the beauty industry? A bad role model for my daughter?
Meh. I don't think I'm any of those things. (Well, OK, maybe a little shallow and vain -- but only sometimes! Aren't we all? Bueller ...?) I think I just feel more "me" when I'm wearing at least a bit of makeup. Whether that's "bad," well, I don't know, but there you have it.
My mom never wore much makeup, with one exception: blush. I inherited my natural pallor from her; we both tend to look as if we're constantly about to pass out from blood loss if we don't have at least a bit of color added to our cheeks. I can remember the cream blush my mom used to share with me when I was in junior high ... a dusky rose color that blended smoothly into my cheeks and left me with a pretty scent on my skin, a hint of my mother with me in the hallways and classrooms. It was, not incidentally, the only makeup I was officially allowed to wear until I was about 14.
Mom, a true-blue hippy girl from northern California, never went much beyond that blush and still doesn't -- some mascara and eyeliner signal quite a night out and you'll never catch her wearing lipstick or nail polish. But somewhere along the line, I caught the beauty product bug, and not only do I enjoy wearing makeup, I feel rather lost without it. In fact, a surefire way to kick-start my lackluster motivation during a day working from home is to change out of my sweats, do my hair, and put on my makeup -- even if I don't have to see a soul outside my family.
My bare minimum daily makeup is a little bit of BB cream or tinted foundation (right now I'm absolutely loving Covergirl & Olay Tone Rehab) and some bronzer (like Urban Decay Baked Bronzer). But I almost always wear mascara, a light coating of eyeshadow (I'm currently obsessed with my Urban Decay Naked eyeshadow palette), and some eyeliner (these days I'm into a green-gold-brown that I think looks nice with my eyes). I wear various lip balms and tinted glosses throughout the day, especially in these dreadful winter months when my skin feels like an alligator purse and my lips get SO chapped. But I pretty much always upgrade to real lip gloss or lipstick if I'm going to a work event or out to dinner. And sometimes even when I'm not!
I do have a little bit of envy for women who feel totally comfortable without a scrap of makeup on. Recently, at a press event, I spotted a PR girl in a super chic black cocktail dress, long hair, and a completely bare, fresh face. She looked fabulous and unique. Gorgeous! But, though there's a part of me that wishes I could pull the same thing off -- either by having the same lovely skin as this girl or just not giving a you-know-what -- it doesn't really upset me that I can't. I do give a you-know-what! I enjoy wearing makeup, I like the way it looks, I don't mind taking a little bit of time to put it on, and I feel more "together" when I'm gussied up just a bit.
What's so wrong with that?
What do you think -- do you wear makeup every day?
Image via trostle/Flickr