Getting Personal: Am I Defined By The Makeup I Wear?
** I've got a bit of a different post for you today, one that' I've been willing to write for ages now. I hope you enjoy it! **
I often think about what makeup means and why we wear it. Why we enjoy wearing makeup, or feel like we have to. It is still somehow controversial, though makeup has been around for thousands of years and all cultures have been known to use it in some way or another. This is why I've decided to take these odd photos with half my face painted, and the other half as bare as could be. Do I have two different faces? Is one side worth more than the other? Which side is actually more like 'me'?
There are as many reasons to wear makeup as there are people who do. Today it is still a common thought that women (because a lot of people don't realise men can actually wear makeup too) use makeup to 1. be considered beautiful when they get out of the house, i.e. when they are subjected to the eye of others, and 2. as a strategy to please men (because who thinks about other sexualities than heterosexuality anyways!). I have heard so many cliché and misogynistic statements about makeup, and I'm sure we all have! Luckily, things are getting better each day as the blogging world gains visibility, and so does seeing makeup as a passion or activity that we do because we enjoy it. I am sure many of us beauty bloggers and readers of beauty blogs will agree that makeup is a creative outlet and a way to express ourselves by directly changing our appearance, just as fashion is, or tattoos are (in a more permanent way though!).
Personally, I wear makeup because I love adding all these different colours and textures to my face. Weirdly enough, I don't feel less real when I wear makeup. I feel more depth in my features, more feeling and expression, because of the colours I choose to apply, the shape I give to my eyeliner or the lipstick I use to make my lips stand out.
Do
we wear makeup because we feel insecure? I feel more
confident when I have makeup on, it can make a big difference on how
awake, how alive I look (have you noticed how
colourless I am? God, I feel like a zombie sometimes!). Confidence
can play a part, but it does not define you and how you express
yourself through your look. People can't tell how good or bad
you feel about yourself just from the makeup you wear, or from
the fact that you don't wear any. That is purely and simply
stereotyping and putting people in boxes. Not
all girls who wear red lipstick and fake eyelashes are dumb, and not
all women who keep it natural are more respectable and 'real'. Even
though half of my face is painted, doesn't mean that it's less worthy
than the other. These both sides of me belong to the same
individual, with all it embodies of character, spirit, strength and
skill. And faults too. Makeup reflects creativity, it reflects skills
that we pick along the way (not everybody can do eyeliner, right?!)
and a style that we develop just as we develop a fashion sense or an
identity. I shall not be
defined by my makeup, I
choose to
express myself through makeup to highlight who I am and give way to
my personality.
Do you wear makeup? If so, why? What are your thoughts on how makeup is seen today and how it affects how people see you?
Lots of love,
Julia x
Lots of love,
Julia x
