Thoughts on Makeup

Sorry if you don't think this topic is interesting. . . but bear with me please! 🙂

I've worn powder on my face since I was about fourteen --- I have oily skin, so the powder helps control the oil. I think the powder is barely tinted, but it's not clown white. When I turned sixteen Mom and I talked briefly about makeup but it never got anywhere, and I wasn't overly interested. Mom wears makeup but it's all natural stuff and all powders, so her look is really natural. She has face powder and blush. She tried eye shadow two or so years ago and it bothered her eyes. She's not worn any concealer, contour, lipsticks,  mascara or eyebrow stuff for a very long time (college days --- and even then I don't know if she did anything with concealer, contour, or eyebrows). Anyway, I think her choices have influenced me about what makeup is for and how to use it. 

For the girly girl who likes her sparkle like me, it's easy to go overboard with other things in life, so now that I am branching out on this limb (ha!), I'm being very careful about how I do things. I think everything makeup should be done tastefully, simply, and naturally. No hot pink or black lips for me! No bruised eyes (okay be honest, some smoky eyes look bruised)! But keep in mind that a girl can wear natural makeup and not be beautiful and modest --- because those come from the inside. And I don't need to wear it. I don't want to become "addicted" in a sense to it. I want to be able to comfortably walk out of the house without it and be myself. Makeup should not define me. 

Yesterday I got my first real makeup item --- an Almay rose gold eye shadow quad. It's really pretty, light and delicate. I haven't experimented with it yet, but it goes really well with my skin. There's a slightly darker matte, a metallic, a satin, and a glitter. I am excited to try it. I hope I can wear it tastefully and subtly. 

Wow, I actually posted twice this week! (hint: it's called spring break 😉)

Outward beauty in this age

(Pine tree blossoms)

From McGuffey's fourth eclectic reader:
"I would desire the fairer of the sexes to consider how impossible it is for them to add anything that can be ornamental to what is already the masterpiece of nature [God]. The head has the most beautiful appearance as well as the highest station, in the human figure. Nature [God] has laid out all her [His] art in beautifying the face. She [He] has touched it with vermilion, planted it with a double row of ivory, made it the seat of smiles and blushes, lighted it up and enlivened it with the brightness of the eyes, hung it on each side with curious organs of sense, given it airs and graces that cannot be described, and surrounded it with such a flowing shade of hair, as sets all its beauties in the most agreeable light. In short, she [He] seems to have designed the head as the cupola to the most glorious of her [His] works, and when we load it with such a pile of supernumerary ornaments we destroy the symmetry of the human figure, and foolishly contrive to call of the eye from the great and real beauties, to childish gewgaws, ribbons, and bonelace." (I like to think, instead of ribbons and bonelace, jewelry, hairstyles, and makeup.)

This quote has had me pondering the vanities of this world. We are often so obsessed with the modern version of beauty, which in reality is reduced to nothing but fripperies and the lusts of the flesh. Let us cease to be caught up in it, and let's instead show real beauty. Let's reflect our great Creator with our looks as well as our hearts. This is definitely not easy to do in this age, but it is possible to be simple and yet tasteful in one's styles of adornment.

Till next time,