Her Ladyship

Notes from the gutter.

Sunday, February 08, 2015

There is no such thing as natural beauty*

I have always loved makeup.  When we were little, my sister and I of course did the Bonnie Bell lipsmacker route, but we were not allowed to really wear makeup until we were in junior high. At which point, the sky was the limit, meaning that I layered blue eye shadow with blue eyeliner and blue mascara. (Don't judge, it was the 80s.) (Although come to think of it, I would wear blue mascara today.) For years, I wore a full face of makeup every day to school, up to and including lip liner. (Don't judge, by that point, it was the 90s.)(That I would not do today - if you knew me in real life, you know my lips are big enough - they don't need any more outlining.)

It helped that one of my closest friends in high school worked at a local MAC counter. She was often bored when working weekday shifts so I would go over and have her give me a makeover just so that she would look busy. I of course would then want to buy something so her manager wouldn't take me for a plant. For a while, MAC had this deal where if you turned in 10 used lipstick containers for recycling, they would give you a free one. I never had trouble coming up with 10 lipsticks.

When I moved to DC, the much more humid climate meant that I had to change some aspects of my makeup but I still wore it all the time.  What can I say, I'm one of those people who needs it to look alert and healthy. When I don't, even strangers will sympathetically comment to me that I must not have gotten a lot of sleep the night before. 

So no surprise that my daughter knows about my makeup routine: take a shower, then get dressed and do makeup. She still is in a major mama phase where she wants to sit with me any time I am sitting down (except for on the toilet, and knock wood that that never changes), so she sits in my lap and dabs herself with brushes and chews on compacts while I get ready.  I enjoy it and it keeps her happy and quiet - the latter of which is the end goal of any parent to a toddler.

It has gotten to the point where when I announce that I'm going to take a shower, she starts chanting, "Bake-up! Bake-up! BAKE-UUUUUUUP" and doesn't let up until it is indeed time to put on makeup.  No big.  Even on the weekends, when I would pre-kid go make-up free, she wants to do it, so I oblige her.

What I take umbrage at is when I get makeup suggestions from her. Yesterday, we were running late for her playgroup, so I didn't have time to shower or put on makeup.  On the way home from playgroup, we were waiting in the metro and she looked at me and asked very hopefully, "Bake-up?"  Everyone's a critic these days.

* I finally saw the Lifetime version of "Steel Magnolias."  I have thoughts about how they redid it, not all complementary. But at least they kept in most of the good lines from the original.

 
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