I love so many things about makeup. It's a way to cover flaws when we want them covered, it's a way to take on a slightly different persona, it's a way to draw attention where we want it. Makeup is fun, absolutely. I love doing my eyes, blending the colors, making sure the lights and the darks fade well. It's like being an artist.
I've been allowed to wear makeup and put it on myself since I was ten years old. It started with a little bit of eye-shadow, slowly increased to a light foundation to help with the bits of acne, and with that, I was off and running into the world of beauty items.
Stage One: There was the bright lipstick phase – we're talking hot pink lipstick that was too cheap to put on anyone's lips. I thought it brought out the pink in my cheeks. It did, but it also brought out the pink in everything. I looked like I had eaten a Barbie or unicorn or something that bled disgusting bubble gum pink.
Stage Two: There was the black eyeshadow phase, that inevitably ended up smeared and scattered all over my face by the end of the day. Somehow I thought that just make my eyes look bigger like eyeliner?
This was definitely not the case, please don't use black eyeshadow as a ridiculous extension of eyeliner. I'm sure people wondered if I was a dark, troubled kid when really I was probably the most innocent, sheltered one out there.
Stage Three: There was the bright blue phase – which makes no sense in itself, as my eyes and hair are both naturally dark brown. There is nothing on my entire body that is naturally blue in any way, shape, or form. The neon glitter-filled turquoise liner that was more like a crayon than anything coated my lids like a raving raccoon. But a raccoon that was done raving, not the glamorous one beforehand.
Stage Four: I discovered the world of liquid foundation, and I went through the "natural clown" phase. The foundation color matched my skin tone well enough – it was a good match. It wasn't the makeup's fault. I put on layers so thick that, no matter how I blended, I ended up with a line along my jawline every day – and the line was even worse along my hairline.
I looked like my face had a spray tan that was peeling or even running there was sometimes so much.
Stage Five: The glitter phase was actually a pretty fun one, I'm not going to lie. I would steal a few things I learned from that and use them as an adult now.
The one major thing that I learned is that there is a thing as too much glitter, especially for a girl who wears glasses. Everyday glitter would fall onto my glasses, and every day I would wipe them off, probably scratching them up terribly. You can even see a slight gleam in pictures. It looks like a fairy sprinkled pixie dust on me to help me fly, but for some reason only on my eyelids and glasses.
Stage Six: There was a short purple phase that didn't last very long but is still definitely worth noting. I bought this beautiful dark purple lipstick, and I still had plenty of dark shadows and purples from my black shadow days. The lipstick was beautiful, but on someone with a different skin tone…and more striking features…headed to a fancy event…wearing a dark purple outfit… so someone different from me in a different situation.
I was beginning to get my eyes down a lot more at that point, and the purple tint actually looked good with the brown. The purple lipstick was cringe-worthy though. I looked like I had mushed dark blackberries with clear lip-gloss and smeared them on my lips.
Well, so I thought. At the time, I thought it was a love of makeup that made me put it on every day, but in hindsight that was not the case. There would be days that I would oversleep and all but panic about not being able to finish every step. I remember dropped off and going to the bathroom with my makeup bag to finish up before going late to class, rather than being on time. I remember checking my mirror countless times in the car, making sure that my makeup had stayed before seeing a visiting relative.
Stage Seven: Suddenly, little miss hot-pink-Barbie-blood, black-eye-shadow, teal-raving-raccoon, running-spray-tan, fairy-dust-eyes, black-berry-lipgloss, phase-after-phase, wasn't wearing makeup. It happened slowly and naturally, but more and more I grew into my "naked" look.
I love makeup, and I always will. Just because I like the natural look and am taking a break doesn't mean that I don't appreciate it so much. I still am guilty of buying an item that looks fun, knowing full well I almost never even wear powder foundation now. It's more fun now, it's an option now, it's a choice.
