I married a good man. A very good man.
I married a man who claims to like how I look without makeup better than how I look with makeup. We have now been married for over eleven years, and he continues to make this claim over and over again, so I guess I should believe him.
For the most part, I do believe him. And it’s easy for me to not wear makeup. That’s how I grew up. I always had horrible acne during my teenage years, so makeup was discouraged by my doctor. During those teenage years, I started to notice the girls in school who did wear lots of makeup versus those that did not, and it was often true that those girls who wore a lot of makeup also had personality traits that I didn’t admire. Those traits weren’t necessarily bad traits, although sometimes they were, but mostly I didn’t like the idea covering up who I really was. I wanted to be someone who could walk out of the house without her makeup on and still feel okay about myself.
(Because once in a while, I did see these girls without their makeup on, and they looked completely different! I decided then and there that if I ever did wear makeup on a regular basis, I would do it only to enhance my natural looks rather than change them.)
The last major makeup purchase I did was for my wedding. I did that because … it was my wedding! In the year before that big event, I went to a Mary Kay party, and the consultant was very sweet and kind and helpful to me as I chose the various beautifying agents for my Big Day.
Although, somehow, I completely neglected to buy lipstick for my wedding. I have no idea how this happened. All I know is that the morning of my wedding, I raced off to some local drugstore and bought lipstick off the shelf. It was Very, Very Pink. Too much so. When the moment finally arrived to apply the lipstick, and I put it on and knew it didn’t look right, but at that point it was too late. Alas, I still notice my garishly pink lips on my wedding pictures, and it’s one of those things that, if I could go back and do it over, I would do that differently.
(I would do my hair differently, too. But that’s a whole ‘nother story.)
So, outside of a lip gloss purchase here or there (my favorite is Burt’s Bees in Rhubarb), I did not purchase any makeup at all since that momentous occasion. At least, not until this week!
Regular readers know that we recently moved. Moving is an impetus for change. Now here I am, at the larger church, and I have foudn that I’ve been instantly given a much higher level of instant respect that I ever did at our old church. (Don’t get me wrong; I’m not ripping on my old church at all. I loved them, and they loved me. But I arrived there as barely more than a girl, and in many senses of the word, I grew up there. They loved me, but I think a lot of them looked at me as their daughter or little sister. And that was just fine with me.)
So, here I am, in my mid-thirties, having arrived at our new church with the mantle of Experience resting on my shoulders. I am feeling, finally, grown-up. I got to thinking that perhaps I should give this makeup thing another try. I had thrown out all of my old wedding makeup when we moved; somehow I thought that after eleven years, it probably wouldn’t be good to use anymore. Over a number of weeks, I noticed various makeup coupons in the coupon section of my Sunday paper, and I’ve been cutting them out.
Finally, I decided it was time, and I went to my local store with the big red bulls-eye on it and spent some time in the makeup section. There were three other ladies in the aisle, all quite elderly, and none of them shopping together. I felt distinctly out of place, and wondered what I was doing there. I thought that perhaps I was still too young to be wearing makeup. But, I finally managed to select the following: mascara, eyeliner, lipstick, foundation, blush, eyeshadow.
So earlier this week, on a day when I was wearing old clothes and hanging out at home doing laundry, I decided to practice putting on some of my makeup. I tried the eyeliner first, outlining both the top and bottom lid of my eyes, and then I tried the lipstick. Score with the lipstick! It looks and feels great. But the eyeliner… Hmm. I didn’t say anything to JJ when he got home. He looked casually at me, then he did a double-take, peered at me, and said, “What’s different with your eyes?” I told him, and he stared intently at my eyes for a few more seconds. He then decisively pronounced, “You look like a raccoon. You don’t need makeup! You look beautiful without it. Why you think you need makeup? No one on your side of the family ages anyway. You look just as young as you did when we got married.”
Aww. Who wouldn’t keep a man like that? 🙂
But, I think I’m going to have to adjust my application method for the eyeliner, at least. It’s too bad I have practically no knowledge of how to do any of this makeup stuff. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to conquer eyeshadow!
And I should add that Lyd is VERY intrigued by all of this. “Can I look at your makeup?” she asked last night before bed. I have a strong suspicion that girl does not share my aversion to makeup… 🙂
Not Finished Yet 