Love yourself. Really.

Okay, I know I’m generally the review type gal around here, but there is something I just have to get off my chest and I think it fits well with the direction of this site.  We are looking for something more responsible and aware in what we pamper ourselves with, companies that really believe in what they do and want to bring that passion to others. That’s what we’re all about too, a love of clarity and color and comfort.

I love makeup. I love the freedom it gives me to be whoever I feel like on any given day. I am a painter and my canvas is a face. I create and experiment and blend to express what I imagine in my mind. I love vivid color combinations and subtle effects that accentuate my glow. I wake in the morning and wonder who that tired looking mother is in my mirror, and as I smooth and stipple and brush I enjoy that few minutes of remembering just how important I am and how great my life is. I am a beautiful, smart, strong woman. And no face paint on this earth, or lack thereof, could ever change that.

So I get saddened and even angry when I walk into a store and see a tag line like “Not made up, made BETTER”. Better? Really?

We live in a very image conscious society, I would argue TOO conscious. A person, particularily a woman, can expect themselves to be judged in a thousand ways everyday based solely on how they appear. “Did she even look in the mirror before she left the house? Who on earth told her THAT was her color? What the heck?!” The people who I think should be helping us rise above this are subtley  supporting these biases and assumptions.  Counter help make themselves indispensable by telling us over and over how they can “fix” us, what creams we can use to hide our flaws and appear more “normal”, and the definition of normal they present isn’t even found in nature! Wander through any drugstore and you’ll see the taglines and blurbs, the ones telling us to fight aging, fight redness, fight pale skin, fight nature, fight fight FIGHT. Where is the blurb about acceptance? Almost everything you’ll find tells you that you must look a certain way and then happiness will come. Where’s the company telling us that feeling happy is the first step?

I’m not talking about everyday taking care of your skin and yourself. It’s hard to be happy and calm when you feel like scratching your face off or dipping it in a bowl of baby powder. Finding balance in your skin is much like finding balance in yourself, sometimes it’s a thin line we walk for years and sometimes it’s a broad path we can easily enjoy. The best skin is the skin you don’t notice, skin that feels so good and natural that you accept it as a part of your beautiful body instead of a thing to be poked and changed and presented to others like an elaborate mask. I take issue with the belief that we must cover and conceal and inject to be better people. I take issue with anyone who says that you NEED this to be better, you aren’t good enough as you are. I take issue with companies manipulating something I love, turning it into a sly weapon in the war for your money and your dependence.

Do we want to look good? Yes, of course we do. I believe that we want to present to others the joy and glow we feel from within, we want them to understand the pride we have in our unique personalities and talents. To reduce such a glorious thing to simple societal norms is a disgusting waste of resources and potential.

Do you really feel like you need to be better? Read a new book, take a class, serve someone in need, reconnect with loved ones, make a new friend, smile at the next stranger you pass on the street. Pay for the next person in line when you’re getting your coffee, tuck a note under a friend’s windshield wiper, make cookies and take them to a friend, BUY cookies and take them to a friend. Pay a little extra on that bill that’s been annoying you, buy yourself a cozy new pair of socks and wear them while watching your favorite stupid movie, make a list of all the cool things you’ve done or would like to do, stand in front of the mirror and tell yourself all the wonderful things you like about you. Don’t ever, EVER, let someone tell you that you can only be better by buying into their version of okay. Make your own version of okay, and strive for that.

Let’s try to really embrace ourselves, and maybe we won’t need to be made better, or prettier, or thinner, or richer, or sexier. Maybe someday we’ll all realize that we can just be whatever we want. And that’s okay.