Jezebel 
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New York, 8:15 AM
Thu Dec 10
65 posts in the last 24 hours
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12/08/09
12/08/09
I love makeup and my bathroom looks like a MAC store, but there was never a time that wearing it or not wearing it went into consideration when making friends.
The best part of being the only "makeup girl" in my group? Being the makeup artist for their weddings. :)
12/08/09
I would certainly never judge someone for not wearing make up though like Shane Watson seems to think happens and I just hope no-one judges me for always wearing make up in return!
12/08/09
12/08/09
Oh, and my mother never ever wore makeup and kind of looks like a weirdo when she does.
12/08/09
I just love make up and the ritual of applying it, even though none of the women in my family wear more than lipstick. I've been wearing make up everyday since I was about 12 and I can't imagine changing now.
12/08/09
I still love putting make-up on, and did it every day until I had my son. Unfortunately, now my priority is making sure he gets to daycare and that I get to work on time, no matter what state I am in. Once he is older and if he is ever potty trained, I will probably have a spare 3 minutes and will go back to my routine.
12/08/09
And for years, I got the message (from other women, from men, from my mother) that girls who didn't wear makeup were more "natural" and less vain. That women who wore makeup were insecure or permiscuous. I was told by family members and strangers that my makeup caused my acne (note from my dermatologists - it did not). In other words, my decade of misery was my own damn fault for being so self-involved as to apply makeup in the morning.
My brother once told me he envied my ability to wear makeup, because he had no way of hiding his own skin problems.
Women (and men) are under so much pressure to be beautiful and desirable. Airbrushed images have elevated the standard of good skin or a pretty face. Some women feel comfortable leaving the house with a scrubbed face, and more power to them. But wearing makeup (or not) doesn't say anything about your character or what "kind" of woman you are, anymore than wearing a miniskirt does.
12/08/09
But I guess to the outside world and to Watson, I'm just a vain girly-girl who spends my time primping and posing in mirrors to ensure I look the right amount of pretty. Afterall, it's my philosophy on life.
12/08/09
Sigh. And ugh, I too get all the recommended lifestyle changes. Which again, just serve to make the recommendor feel good about her own choices. I have clear skin because I eat better than you! I have clear skin because I exercise more! I have clear skin because I'm smarter or more careful or more conscientious!
They have clear skin because their genes said so. It's like bragging because you're tall.
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
But my experience is that plenty of people, myself included, don't really feel like we have a choice in wearing makeup. And I resent the fact that people would think my decision to wear makeup, which is the result of both a medical problem and a desire to fit in with society at large (as opposed to some self-selecting group of "makeup girls"), says something about who I am as a person.
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
I also have really sensitive skin. Even hypoallergenics tend to make my eyelids swell up so I cannot open them. Even using *mineral oil* on my mom's advice to remove mascara once caused this, and they were swollen for three days. Not worth it.
12/08/09
I think most women who are afraid of makeup, as i used to be, could watch some makeover shows and learn to do just enough to convince your boss or hiring manager that you're more put-together than you are. It's the American way!
12/07/09
12/07/09
1. pregnant
2. menstruating
3. a mother
4. a dumb blonde
5. a wife
6. "do-able"
7. a slut
8. a "makeup girl"
n. [...]
All of which implies there is one thing you are probably not:
1. a human
12/07/09
Then I discovered David Bowie.
Now? Blue eyeliner, gold shadow, crazy patterns on my face. God bless you, Ziggy Stardust. You unlocked my inner glam-rock queen.
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
I can do a nice enough job, but I know there must an easier and quicker way to go about it.
12/08/09
12/07/09
Growing up I just never had a real interest in it, Ive never worn foundation and blush scares me. Someday I would like to have my makeup done professionally so I know what works for me.
12/07/09
I also wear a pushup bra on my fabulous rack. I like my ladies to be up and out! OMG I am a makeup wearing, pushup-bra sporting Democrat, stop the presses!!
Here's the thing. If I had fuller eyebrows, I wouldn't pencil them in - I'd probably have to actually pluck them instead (yes, I'm follicularly challenged). Is plucking MORE natural than pencil? Am I shunned, all unknowing, by pluckers because I choose the pencil?
Skincare? I can't use moisturizer. I don't care what 4000 dermatologists say, not all oily skin needs more moisture on it. I slap on my mineral powder foundation every morning, because if I don't, I look all oily, and it makes me sad. That mineral powder stuff REALLY soaks up the oil.
And then I put on a metric fuckton of eye makeup and some pretty pretty lips because I am one intense bitch and I want the world to know it by looking at me.
OH! I found the makeup-wearer philosophy right there - I mean, that's MY philosophy, therefore, everyone else who wears makeup must think exactly as I do!
Or..maybe, just like everything else, we all have our own little reasons that have evolved our makeup rituals. Mine started when I hit college and realized I could do something about my lackluster eyebrows, uneven skin tone, and smallish eyes - I could take control of my looks, and I did.
12/07/09
I have never tweezed my eyebrows, though. The person I generally look to for those things, my mom, claims I don't need to, so I hope she's right because crap that does not seem fun.