I am continually amazed at the power of makeup. Before I got into fashion, I never really did feel pretty, and it definitely took a toll on me emotionally. After I discovered and subsequently learned how to use makeup (through a series of hilarious mishaps involving super-yellow foundation and raccoon eyeliner), I finally felt pretty for the first time of my life. It was a huge ego-boost, seeing that if I really wanted to, I could look however I felt like. That feeling stuck, and today even after I take off all the foundation, the eyeliner and mascara, I still feel beautiful.
Makeup and the people who wear it are often criticized as being "fake," to the point where I've heard many people say that girls who wear makeup don't deserve to be told they're pretty. However, to me makeup is like a form of art, expanding on the fashion worn on the canvas-- my body. Most of us into fashion are all working towards a certain beauty ideal, whether it be a cute, doll-like look similar to what Lolita or fairy-kei models wear, or a sexier look that's more popular in American/Western society, and everything in between. VERY few people can reach the look they desire without a bit of help from product- thus, makeup. And really, as cheesy as it is, there is a little bit of magic in having giant eyes like the model you admire, and cherry-red lips like a doll, and yet you're still the same person you were before.
Many people feel that taking any measure to attain an image other than ~your true self~ is bad, but I myself think that's BS. In today's society, where we can easily change almost everything about our appearance save for a few sacred things, why shouldn't people try to obtain the look they want? If somebody wants to look like, say, Danielle Radcliffe, why should you care? It's their body, their choice. Makeup is really one of the least destructive ways in which we alter our appearance- in fact, it wouldn't be destructive at all if women in particular weren't constantly having images of unattainable beauty ideals pushed on them.
Even if I do love to use makeup, I can certainly see why people would be against it. In today's society, the way media portrays people (women especially) can be very harmful to a person's self-image. In a way, makeup has, sadly, become a product that is pushed onto women whether they like it or not, and although indirectly, women who choose not to wear it for whatever the reason are told that they're Not Good Enough. People who are anti-makeup, whether they realize it or not, are not against makeup itself- they are against the marketing used to push it onto us, where women look perfect all the time and anyone who does not fit the beauty ideal is never a main character (I personally can't think of a single TV show with a female main lead where the character is distinctly physically "flawed," unless their "flaw" is used as a gimmick for the whole show like "Huge").
Really though, when it comes to makeup you just can't win. If you wear too much, you are called "Fake" and told you don't deserve to be called pretty, as well as junior psychologists diagnosing you with low self-esteem, and if you wear too little you are told that you don't care about your appearance and you aren't as pretty as the girls who do wear it unless you have exceptionally good genetics.
So, after realizing this, when I do wear makeup, I'm going to make my face a shade paler, wear a crap load of blush, dump sparkles in my hair and use giant circle lenses and (surprise!), still be the same person but with a crap load of makeup. At the end of the day, when I take it all off, I'm not going to go cry about how ugly I am like people say makeup-wearers do, I'm going to look in the mirror and see how fast I can wiggle my eyebrows because that's the sort of thing I enjoy doing, makeup or not.
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