Perhaps a bit deep for a Tuesday morning but I was thinking last night about how I used to use and wear makeup. From that first lilac eyeshadow through to the morning of my wedding, I wanted makeup to turn me into some dramatic adaptation of myself. Infact, barely even myself… I wanted it to work miracles and turn me into a fairytale version of that reflection I saw in the mirror.
I vividly remember the excitement before my bridal makeup trial and being so hugely disappointed afterward that I’d agreed to pay some chick £70 to make me look like myself, but with lipgloss. Not that she was bad at her job, she was pretty good… but it was my first experience at letting someone else loose on my face and God only knows what I really expected or wanted from that poor makeup artist.
Nowadays, I’m pretty horrified if after applying my makeup I look like anything other than what I’d normally see in the mirror. Infact, I’d take it as a sure-fire sign that I’d well and truly overdone it!
I think it goes to show that my formative years were spent poring over too many before/after makeovers from between the pages of Just Seventeen magazine. Makeup can have a dramatic affect on your appearance… but I wonder what age I was when I realised that I didn’t want it to make me look like someone else anymore.
Or maybe… I’ve just settled for second best?
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Do you wear your makeup like a (beautifully applied) mask or just to dampen your flaws and accentuate your best bits?
