I'm far from knowledgeable when it comes to other parts of the country, but here in the south makeup seems to be a necessity. Little girls grow up dreaming about the day when they are allowed to imitate their mothers' daily ritual of applying lipstick, blush, and eye shadow. The youngsters turn into teens and start experimenting with heavy eyeliner, brightly colored lips, and many other trendy facial fashions. Beauty pageants, high school proms, and date nights all call for an hour or so nose dive into the make up bag. Before long, the adult version doesn't feel like herself in public without at least a puff of powder. Neither right nor wrong, somehow I skipped right over this entire phase of girlie-hood. Being almost thirty years old means that my skin is far from perfected porcelain. Like most, my face is dotted with freckles, sun spots, the occasional blemish, a couple of scars, and a fair amount of wrinkles that, at times, I wish I could erase. But when I really think about it, those unique characteristics decorating my skin are just minor details. Details that tell my own personal story: freckles because I have fair skin, sun spots because my family enjoys vacationing at the beach and we forget to reapply sunscreen, blemishes because I get stressed out or eat too much chocolate, scars because I was an active kid, forehead creases caused by being confused or angry at times, and those deep parenthesis wrinkles between my cheeks and mouth because I've laughed a lot during my lifetime.
At this point, I wouldn't exactly know where to start the process of buying cosmetics. Besides modifying my features with a light brushing of mascara and lip gloss, I even bared it all in front of my husband and guests at our wedding. Don't get me wrong, there are many times when I look around at all the flawless faces strolling the streets, and my mind starts to wonder: "That shadow really makes her eyes pop, would it do the same for mine?" or "Her skin looks impeccable with that powder, should I invest?" or "I wonder if I would look younger and fresher with a bit of concealer?"
But in my world, being able to roll out of bed and shamelessly face the world (with under-eye bags and all) within five minutes of placing my feet on the ground trumps everything else. I could probably just chalk this all up to the fact that, in general, I'm lazy when it comes to presenting myself. However, I prefer to think I'm sharing and celebrating my life experiences one sun spot and blemish at a time.