If you are a woman, why do you wear makeup?
If you are a woman, why do you wear makeup?
I can’t explain why I do without saying “to look better or feel better” as a reason and I’m slightly ashamed of that.
It’s this dilemma many women are in. We want to promote self-love and acceptance and to flaunt exactly who we are, but many of us who utter those words will also engaged in activities to enhance or modify our looks. But it’s nearly feels impossible not to.
A recent study has come out saying that men prefer woman with less makeup. When I first spoke about this study on Facebook, I was concentrating more on the debate of makeup or no makeup but what I didn’t emphasise at the time was the word “less.” It was no so much that no makeup was the preferred. So maybe I shouldn’t feel so bad for being a woman who modifies my looks but also flaunts self-acceptance.
Most days when I’m working at home, I don’t wear makeup or if I do I wear foundation and that’s it. I enjoy this level of makeup and now feel too overdone sometimes when made up for certain appearances and events. But it’s still a guilty pleasure. I was a girl that grew up loving makeup, I was even a makeup artist in my much younger years. But I never did it because I didn’t like the way it looked rather loved to play with it and experiment with colours.
Even writing this I feel more at ease about my own makeup use, but it still feels like a challenge to explain why I do.
The best example of this is when my goddaughter (nearly 7) was with me in the bathroom and asked me why I was putting foundation on my face. I answered her back something along the lines of wanting to cover marks on my skin but as I uttered those words also then felt guilty for previously telling her how beautiful her freckles are (she has lots of cute freckles on her face) and how she must embrace them, but I’m covering other marks on my face.
Whilst I might always struggle between loving makeup and loathing what it can represent (altering ourselves to appear more beautiful), I also think as woman we need to find a balance with enhancements and accepting who we are.
We all make some modifications, but just maybe sometimes we need to make a few less.
