Women's Talk Wednesday- Makeup

Ahh, yes, one of the perks of being a woman- makeup. Nothing says 'I'm feminine' more than locking yourself in the bathroom, making sure the lighting is just right so you don't come out looking like a hooker, and covering up every line or imperfection with gloppy gooey stuff that will probably melt off within a few hours.Whether you are a makeup wearer, or prefer to go all natural, it's still a topic of conversation amongst women.

I started wearing makeup as a freshman in high school, and went very minimalist with it. Face powder, thin eyeliner, mascara. That was it. Even if I ventured into eyeshadow, it was in the neutral range- brown in the crease, beige on the lid and the brow bone. Somewhere along the line, though, something changed. I'm not exactly sure when my obsession with makeup began, my need to acquire as many different crazy colors of eyeshadow and eyeliner possible, but soon, the makeup monster took over.


I want to say it all started only about 3, maybe 4 years ago. I got it stuck in my head that it was my job to prove to the world that bright blue eyeshadow did NOT automatically need to be associated with old ladies and hookers. My life then was very colorful; I owned a new age store, was getting into the tattooing world, I needed to experiment with color everyday, and really let my personality show on the outside of my body. Up until this point, my makeup routine consisted of foundation, concealer, powder, neutral eyeshadow, black eyeliner and mascara, sometimes lipstick (when I remembered). I picked up some of those liquid eyeshadows that you painted on like lip gloss, and fell in love. Those bad boys stayed on forever, bright as hell, never faded until I washed them off (at the time, Avon made them, but I think they've since discontinued the ones I used, blasted all). I found that I could use them alone and get dramatic eye makeup, or even lightly dust some powder eyeshadow over it in key areas for an even more amazing look.

My makeup routine quickly evolved to include at least 2 shades of bright ass eyeshadow, usually 3. I'd do a softer shade on my lids, a darker shade in the crease and outside corners, and white on the brow bone. Something was missing, though, so I started experimenting with eyeliners. I had my staple eyeliner of black or charcoal. That always went on, no matter what. But highlighting or defining that became a necessity to me. So that's when my makeup routine evolved once more to include 2 eyeliners.

Back in the day; ahhh, I miss my eyebrow ring and
my red and black hair...

What's the tally up to now? Foundation, concealer, powder, 3 eyeshadows, 2 eyeliners and mascara. Yep, sounds about right, and where I stayed for years, especially with being the only female in a tattoo shop. I used to get complimented on my eye makeup just about everyday by customers coming into the shop. The crazier the colors, the more people seemed to notice, and in a good way (unless they were talking about how horrible it really looked behind my back). I even started using lip liner as eyeliner, because I wasn't able to find bright red or bright pink eyeliner. I really wish I had a picture of those makeup days, because I promise you, it looks a hell of a lot cooler than it sounds (cause I know you are thinking 'hooker alert').

Since leaving the shop and returning to the life of a stay at home mom, I've pretty much abandoned my makeup routine. If hubby and I have date night, yes, I'll go all glam for it. But if I'm just running out to do some grocery shopping, it's back to powder, eyeliner and mascara. I feel bad, turning my back on something that I used to enjoy doing so much. When we first moved, though, I did continue going through my makeup routine every morning, just to sit around the house. I understand I should do it for me and not other people, but when I'm not the best at remembering to remove my makeup before bed, all my makeup routine did for me was clog my pores at night and cause zits the next morning. Great, more 'friends' to cover up.

I envy non-makeup wearers, I do. Those women who are natural beauties and don't need makeup. I've been told my a few people that I'm one of those women, but seriously, I don't believe it. I've seen myself without makeup- it's scary as hell. I look about 45 (considering I'm not even 30 yet, that's not good), with just this blah face. And, my body decides to do this lovely thing when I get stressed; I lose hair. Yeah, normal for being stressed, right? How about when it extends to your eyebrows and eyelashes? It's horrible. So, until I reach a point in my life where I'm no longer stressed (yeah, okay), I will be at least a minimal makeup wearer, and just an FYI, if you try to tell me I look beautiful without makeup, I won't believe it. Period.

No, neither of these are anyone I know.
I typed in 'bad makeup' into google and
this pic appropriately came up.

I will wrap up this week's Women's Talk Wednesday with a little bit of gossip (hey, we're women, right? It's ingrained in us). There is a woman who works at the pharmacy up the street, whose makeup is so horrific that even my 8 year old looked at me one day and said, 'Mom, her makeup is horrible'. This woman is beautiful, if you can see past the masquerade she has on her face. She's blonde haired, blue eyed, beautiful cheek structure, smooth skin- she really is a knock out. And, for some god awful reason, she chooses to camouflage all of that under about a gallon of foundation, bright ass blush, about 5 different eyeshadows that cover everything from her eyelash line up to her eyebrow (ranging from pitch black to bright white), drawing on black eyebrows, and dark brown lipliner with no lipstick on. Everyday I go in there, I just want to take her aside and have a talk with her. Find out if she was raised by clowns or in a brothel, and scrub the horribleness from her face and teach her the ways of non-hooker makeup.

So ladies, now it's your turn. Share why you wear makeup, why you don't, your favorite brand, what's worked and what hasn't, whatever comes to mind!