Wearing Makeup Everyday/ Loving Who You Are

I first started wearing the tiniest bit makeup when I was in 6th grade. I remember asking my mom if I could start wearing mascara because me and my 12 year old self was finally becoming a mature woman. At least that’s what I thought when I was that age. She said yes, so the two of us walked into target and I picked out the only mascara brand I new existed; the one my mom wore. I went home to try it and I’m pretty sure I immediately poked myself in the eye with it. That didn’t stop me though, I continued to wear that mascara everyday. Eventually I added more and more to my daily makeup routine and by 8th grade I had mastered perfectly blended eyeshadow, again at least I thought, and applying eyeliner. I woke up at 5:30 in the morning almost every single day just so I would have enough time to do my makeup and hair.  Even if I was exhausted, I didn’t care I had to look good for school.

That routine continued well into sophomore year of high school. I woke up early everyday to put on makeup, the only difference being a newfound love of winged eyeliner. There would be days I would wake up and wish I could sleep in at least another 20 minutes, but would force myself awake because I had to have time to get ready. On those days I would look at myself in the mirror and wish I could just go to school without wearing makeup. Then I started to think, why can’t I go to school without wearing makeup? There are plenty of people who do and they look fine. Would I look fine? Of course I would, I told myself, but I had worn makeup everyday for so long I didn’t know what people would think. Then I started to think, why do I care what people think? But the fact is I did care because I liked the compliments I got on my eyeshadow or my hair or even the fact ‘i had my life together enough’ to do my eyeshadow and my hair everyday. I still loved to do makeup, I think it’s fun and creative, but the problem was that I was getting tired of doing it, but why couldn’t I just stop? I realized later it was because I had somehow forgotten who I was without it. It was a security blanket, some sort of false confidence, I felt less like myself without it than with it. Even when I wanted to just skip one day and leave my face totally bare, I couldn’t.

I know there are so many more girls out there feeling like they have to wear makeup everyday to feel pretty or accepted or for people to like them. We’re told almost from day one that being pretty is the most important thing a girl can be. It’s fed to us on a silver spoon from the time we are old enough to play with barbies. It’s in the way women make up only 5% of CEOs of America’s fortune 500 companies. It’s in the way we turn on the TV to see a girl half naked modeling socks. I don’t buy into it one bit anymore. It took some growing up to realize that I’m more than the way I look. I think it’s important for everyone out there to come to that same realization too. That loving who you are with or without makeup feels so much better than only with. Because that confidence can be wiped away quicker than it can be be put on.

I’m not saying that I’m 100% confident with myself all the time because that standard is just as unattainable as always looking like a photoshopped model. I’m also not saying that I stopped wearing makeup all together because it’s something I love to do. I think it’s expressive, and artistic, and it’s something I’m good at, something to be proud of. I am saying that if I’m tired and don’t feel like getting up to get ready I wont, and I can feel as good about myself as if I did. Getting to the point where you can be fine with yourself is hard, but for me it just took one day of wearing absolutely no makeup to school to realize it was going to be easier than I thought.

Is Wearing Makeup “False Advertising?”

The short answer is no.

I spend a lot of time on the internet and I like to think of myself as someone who is relatively savvy when it comes to trends online. You don’t necessarily have to be someone of that sort to be aware of the comments people who wear makeup have been receiving, mainly from boys behind a keyboard. Just scroll down on the comments section of any makeup related youtube video or read tweets sent to celebrities wearing a full face of makeup, it is possible you will find a reoccurring theme.

“Makeup is false advertising!” has been a common remark lately.

The backlash from women across the internet has been massive rightfully so, because what these posts are saying is disrespectful on so many levels. I’d first like to point out the major issue I have, they are blatantly stating that women are not in fact human beings, but rather products that need to be ‘sold’ to men. By saying that wearing makeup is false advertising they are diminishing women to nothing more than an object that at all times must be pleasing to a man. As if a woman is nothing more than the way she looks, that what she has to say or who is as a person doesn’t even matter, if her face doesn’t look just as flawless without makeup as it does with.

I find it outright offensive that many people would only be interested in someone who looks like they are wearing makeup at all times. It’s hard to believe that they think women naturally have perfectly contoured cheekbones, bright red lips, and winged eyeliner. Because of this, it is not the woman’s fault that people feel ‘lied to’ when the makeup comes off. This feeling of betrayal by the public deepens the standard that teen girls, young women, and even adults have to wear makeup to be accepted and successful. It should not matter how someone chooses to represent their own physical appearance, and honestly many of these women who do put on a face of makeup everyday don’t do it to impress men.  It may be hard to understand that for many, not everything they do revolves around a man’s opinion of them. We live in 2015, a radical time where woman can do things by themselves, for themselves.

This brings me to my second point; a lot of the time people don’t wear makeup to impress anybody but themselves. It is an empowering feeling to look in the mirror and feel confident that you look as though you could take on the world. Yes, makeup can be used as a tool to hide slight insecurities, but for me personally and many others that I know, makeup is about the art and self expression, it’s about being good at something, it’s about experimenting, and mostly having fun. It is not about becoming someone different than yourself, or advertising yourself falsely, because underneath the makeup you are still the same person .