Makeup is a revolutionary tool channeling creativity into our society. Although its bad press leaves women yearning for a full face of makeup in opposition to their natural face, is it really that terrible? and are we suppressing art and our inner creativity because people say that we should or shouldn’t wear makeup?
There’s definitely two enemies to this argument, the people who think women shouldn’t wear makeup at all, and the people who think all women should wear too much makeup.
THE NO MAKEUP SQUAD
The first category of people stops men and women from expressing their inner creativity. I mean just think for one moment why you wear makeup. Ask a child why they dress up at halloween. Ask an artist why they paint. It’s because they love it and its fun and a way to express yourself. It’s not always about covering things we want to hide.
I first started wearing makeup to hide my spots and bags under my eyes from my chronic insomnia, so yes I do wear it to hide things about my self I don’t like, but now I’ve hit my 20s you care a lot less and accept thats just the way you are and target the problem from within instead of makeup. Like taking vitamins and eating better so you’re naturally radiant.
Lots of girls have no blemishes, spots, wrinkles and they’re naturally beautiful, but still wear makeup, as someone who likes to dabble in artistic makeup it’s something i enjoy experimenting with colours, shapes and maybe that’s because I always wanted to be a artist, and I’ve always painted women fully contoured and beautiful looking, it’s my form of self expression.
So when I hear people say I shouldn’t wear makeup, or women all together shouldn’t, it’s suppressing the inner need to experiment. Yes we should be promoting natural beauty and how amazing women are with or without their makeup, but it’s a personal choice justifying the makeup we wear.
Remember you didn’t buy the Urban Decay Naked Palette so other people could tell the difference between Half Baked and Toasted, because you did it for you and because you like the colours.
I wear my makeup like warpaint, it marks my tribe and belonging to what I believe in, and if I could get away with doing away without foundation and just wearing eyeshadow, eyeliner and fab lip colour I would totally do it!
THE SOCIETY ENFORCERS
Now for the other end of the spectrum, the baddies that think all women should wear a full pallette of makeup, that think natural beauty is a lie, who’s high and unrealistic expectations see them through a single lonely life.
This next story will probably make your blood boil like it did mine – I met a guy lately who recently just started dating one of my friends, his perspective on women would have a gang running him out of town with pitchforks for treating someone so horribly and so openly. My perspective is that if you can slag off someone in public then it’s a lot worse behind closed doors.
He sees women as a work in progress, like mini projects and that my friend would be ‘suitable’ if she wore a bit more foundation, if her bum and boobs were bigger, with a tiny waist. Unrealistic expectations for someone who has a small straight down figure like hers. God knows what you see in a person if you see them as under construction and not a final product of perfection.
I suppose the grass is always greener on the other side but he’s in a different field and clearly in the wrong relationship.
I asked him why she should wear more foundation to which he replies “because all girls should wear it, you all look like rats underneath!” (sharpens pitchfork!) Which demonstrates a true flaw in society that now expects men to raise their expectations of women, whilst women lose more self esteem.
Our impression of magazines is to gather inspiration to make future choices, but when we look at these overly photoshopped models and all we get back is negative self reflection and see stupid expectations it’s hard to not walk out the door and not put on a little something to make ourselves feel better. This is where we need to change something in ourselves to remember the reality of why we do a ritual in the morning.
We shouldn’t be wearing makeup because we have to, but because we want to.
Don’t let another man or women tell you that you don’t look anything less than wonderful without makeup whether you wear a tinted moisturiser or a full face and neck of product. I feel like the saying ‘it’s what’s inside that counts’ and it’s overused but fits perfectly because a glowing grin on your face is better than £100 worth of products.
Remember every time you look in the mirror that you’re doing this because you love makeup and not because someone in a magazine or a shitty boyfriend told you that you will never be good enough.
If you wanna wear blue mascara, then that’s cool and if you wanna wear a invisible BB cream, that’s cool too. Remember you wear your makeup with pride and its not what defines you and that you have a beautiful face underneath that you were born with.
What are your thoughts on makeup and why we wear it?
