Makeup Ain't My Cover Up

There is a catastrophic event plaguing the minds of the new up and coming generation of fashion, makeup is another term for cover up. I see it all around me in day to day life, and I am even seeing it in the mind set of young and up coming stars. So many tween through teens seam to think that makeup is worn by people who are not secure in themselves. The rejection to makeup is so strong, that some are unwilling to do the basic moisturizer and foundation to help protect their delicate first line of defense. All because they some how got it into their head that makeup is bad, and just another way of hiding the real you. But I am hear to bust this myth. Because you see, makeup is not cover up, it's war paint!

Myth: The purpose of makeup is to hide any blemishes weather actual or perceived. 

Truth: Makeup is used to protect and enhance your natural beauty. 

So many people hear songs about beauty like "Just the Way You Are"#BrunoMars or "What Makes You Beautiful"#OneDirection, and they think that it is a call to leave the stone age of makeup behind and move on to natural beauty. Lines like "Don't need makeup to cover up,,,"(#1D #WhatMakesYouBeautiful) and "You wake up flawless..."(#Beyonce #Flawless) paired with music videos of stars taking their makeup off seams to be interpreted as "makeup bad." But I look at makeup more from the perspective of Tanisha Thomas #GirlfriendIntervention, "Make up is an outward expression of an inner beauty." 

Think about it, if makeups' only purpose was to cover up, why do all the magazine articles and the best makeup artist talk to us about how to enhance our features? Why do we use words like sassy to describe runway makeup trends? 

I am calling today's beauty tip: Paint your face!!!! Why? Well, when I think of painting your face two distinct types of culture come to mind, Native Americans and Mimes.

Lets start with Native Americans. Native Americans wore ceremonious makeup to represent many things. War paint, the most commonly known one, was used to symbolize who was apart of the war and it helped you to know what a specific brave has accomplished in battle. They also had ritual makeup for weddings, funerals, tribal council ceremonies, as well as coming of age and many other symbolic ceremonies. If you saw paint on a comrades face, you knew what was going on in their life weather it be war, love, or ceremonious. In the same spirit, let your makeup reflect you. 

For example, my sister is a cheerleader and like the cheer stereotype, she loves sparkles. Her makeup sports sparkles in foundation, eye shadow, blush, lipstick, you name it her version has sparkles. But she is also a very sassy girl,so while her makeup has sparkles, it is also on the intense side of the color spectrum. She also uses very bold in thick lines weather it be lip lining or eye liner. The overall look says I am a sassy white chick with a love for sparkles. So find what defines you. Do you love color? Than play with color. Love intensity, find your degree of intense.

Moving on to our second culture choice - Mimes. When you think of mimes, you probably think of white faces, dark eye brows, stripe shirt, black pants, big shoes, and something on the cheek. Well, a mime has to tell a story using just hand motions paired with facial expressions. If you have ever seen the show "Lie to Me" you would know that just the smallest movement in the lips eyes, hands, so on and so forth tells a story. So to make sure you catch the smallest of detail, mimes do everything in the spirit of enhancing. 

The same is true when it comes to make up. Hears the deal, no two people are alike, it is these differences that make us unique. Just looking at the three women in my family we see large differences. My mom is a brunet, with green eyes, olive skin tone, and huge lips. She wheres browns to enhance her green eyes while using dark lipsticks to draw attention to her huge lips. I on the other hand, am blond, blue eyed, almost death skin, with large eyes. My favorite makeups consist of light to mid colors to enhance my blue eyes and porcelain skin tone, thick eye liner with a brush of gold or pure white in the corner of my eye to show off my huge eyes, and very light pink to light berry lip colors. Crazy difference right. But then there is my sister, who also has blond hair and blue eyes, but she has a medium brown skin tone, with eyes and lips taking up about the same amount of attention on her face. So she sticks to dark browns, silvers, grays or blacks on her eyes to again enhance eyes and skin tone, then dark lipsticks to enhance her lips. Three people, three very different makeups, three very different forms of enhancement and we are related. 

So when it comes to makeup, analyze your face and find your defining features. Do research on how to enhance your unique self. When you go in to by makeup, do skin checks and eye checks to make sure you are defining what you want to define. And find your own beat. Above all, express your self. Let makeup be an art, not a cover up.

Beauty Tip of the Day: Paint Your Face!!!

Quote of the Day: "If you think you can you can. And if you think you can't your right." Mary Kay Ash

Song of the Day: Mirror Mirror #BarlowGirl

American Girl

Question: What do Bonnie McKee, Fergie, Iggy Azalea, Demi Lovato, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, and Katy Perry all have in common?
Answer: Girl Power

Do you ever feel like a third wheel in a party of two? Have you ever just wanted to smack a friend upside the head because she is more worried about her boyfriend than a failing grade. I had a friend like that once, and we almost lost our friendship over her constant need to be with her boyfriend. Where I live, it seams like so many women are dependent on men, even if they are educated. So many women measure their worth by the man they live with. Why is that?

When I people watch, I have noticed that a girl will work twice as hard to impress a guy than most guys will to impress a girl. from what her hobbies are to the way she dresses, women will do what ever they think is necessary to get a guy. But I think that this system is complete and total BS. Why should we women be the only ones compromising in a relationship. Fact: We don't have to!

Today I was listening to Bonnie McKee's "American Girl" when I realized that I am all about Girl power. So I am making today's song of the day, "American Girl." This song has a nice easy going bubblegum pop beat while stressing the point that girls can do what they want - without a guy. My favorite line is "I told him I got a plan and I'm gonna dominate, and I don't need any man to be getting in my way." She clearly points this out in her music video when she and a couple of friends steel a guys car and than crash it. Now this is not to say that guys don't belong in her world, the next line is "If you talk with your hands than we can negotiate."

The truth is, men are great - the right man is great. I am all about boyfriends and getting married, my problem lies within the fact that some girls are unwilling to be themselves when looking for a guy, or make their world revolve around a guy. Ladies, you should be "Hot blooded ready to go... Loving taking over the world." Be you, and when the time is right, the right guy will come looking for you. And he won't ask you to change....

Beauty Tip of the Day: Be the beautiful you
Quote of the Day: Every woman is beautiful, it just takes the right man to see it - Nicolas Sparks
Song of the Day: "American Girl" Bonnie McKee

In the Fitting Room

Today I was in the mall with my mom just having fun looking a clothing I was not going to buy. We looked around several shops and tried on several outfits. But the fun ended when we both realized that we looked terrible under the florescent lighting. We would walk out side and look great, makeup done like a normal people. But when we walked into the stores at the mall, we saw everything wrong with ourselves. Wrinkles, bad foundation application, skin blemishes that weren't there this morning... we just couldn't look good. And than it dawned on me, isn't that the point........

We spend so much of our lives trying to look our best, and so the world tries to use it against us. No one looks good under florescent lighting, so when we walk in to look at their products we think I look so bad, lets find something that looks good. We are more willing to try product when we think it will help us look better now, and don't stop to think about, hey, is this really what I look like in natural lighting. Thus this days beauty tip is simple; prepare for war.

Trying to look our best in a world that is constantly telling us we are not good enough is like trying to run up hill on a treadmill, you don't feel like you are getting anywhere. Being the beautiful you is full out war, and we need to prepare. Hears a few battle strategies for the mall attack.

1) Go dressed to kill: Truth, confidence starts with you. If you walk into crap lighting without proper battle gear, than you are going to suffer some losses. Having your makeup done well in a way that you know looks good is a good start.
Next, do your hair. A little product and a few bobby pins can keep your hair looking its best through the tribulation of dressing rooms.
Third, and I know this sounds weird, but where good lingerie. Your lingerie shows how confident you are in you, so sport some confidence underneath. Plus, good lingerie will help hold everything together and show you what outfits look like on your best shape.
Along with that comes a cute outfit. When I was a kid I used to where t-shirts and loose jeans to go shopping because I could hop in and out of the outfit. But when you where something like that, almost anything you put on is going to look good, so where something that looks amazing on you. It will help you truly determine whats great and not so great.
And  last but not least, Smile. Smiles say I am confident enough in me that you can't tell me otherwise. You will find that store employees are nicer, and that people are less likely to give you the three time over tun and laugh.

2) Walk out of the room: Store lighting is bad, but the worst lighting is in the fitting room. So when you try an outfit on, walk into the main store and find a mirror close to a window. This will help you see what the outfit looks like in the best lighting possible.

3) Put it back: If you try something on that you like but are not absolutely sold on, than put it back and keep looking. This will prevent buyers remorse, because lets admit it, how many times did you actually return something to the store?

The mall is a wonderful place to make memories, don't let bad lighting put a damper on good times.

Beauty Tip of the Day: Prepare for Battle
Quote of the Day: "A smile is the curve that sets everything straight." Phyllis Diller
Song of the Day: "Shake It Off" Taylor Swift

Loud and Proud

Good day everyone and welcome to my first post. As a person who tends to babble, I should warn that I babble. I am also very loud about my opinions and will say what I believe. Thus my first post is about being loud. 

Loud; 1) Producing or capable of producing much noise, 2) easily audible, 3) with a great deal of volume. When most people think loud, they think high voices lots of noise, more than likely the opposite of peaceful. But being loud requires you to believe in something so strongly that you don't care if the world knows and disagrees with you. You turn up music because you like it and don't care what others within the new hearing range think, you raise your voice because you have something to say and you believe it is important, What would your peers say you are loud about? No I'm not talking about your friends who have probably sat through more than one rant session, I am talking about those who only know you as that one person that they have in biology class or works in that one department. Maybe they would say you are loud about human trafficking, or maybe its about bullying, Perhaps you think that winter is an under serviced season, or that we should have Christmas trees all year around. Or would they say, I don't know what they think about such and such. 

Being loud is not an easy job, it requires putting yourself out there and accepting the possibility of rejection. Sometimes being loud even means that you make an enemy. Being loud shows what you already know about yourself, you are unique and special. It seams to me that to many people are caught up in playing the stereotype, trying to be like everyone else. They forget that they were made unique and that there is not another person in the world like them. So why do they shut down and refuse to be loud? Why do people blend rather than flaunt their uniqueness? 

Blending never got any one noticed. When you hear/read 45 year old mother of two I doubt the first thought in your mind is Booty#J-Lo. When you hear pastor I have a feeling you don't think ADHD California boy with tats and a killer sense of style#LeviLusko#FreshlifeChurch. Most people are noticed for what they do differently not what they do the same. So my beauty tip of the day is: Be unique. Be that one person who has difficulty deciding between listening to 1D or Pink Floyd. Be the person who blinds the world because you where a ton of glitter. Celibate there being only one you, because once your gone, theres never going to be another you. 

Beauty tip of the day: Be unique
Quote of the day: "I am a rare species, not a stereotype" Ivan E, Coyote
Song of the day: "More Beautiful You" Jonny Diaz