To make-up or not to make-up

That is the question. I love to wear make-up. I have an extensive collection, most of which is from Laura Mercier. I have recently been looking into this and am trying to work through the mindfield of being ethically tested. So not being tested on animals. Laura Mercier say that they do not test on animals unless it is a legal requirement for a specific country. Not 100% sure what that means so will do some research and decide on whether I will buy any more from there. Sorry I have gone off on a tangent again. 

As I was saying I love wearing make-up. But only for special occassions. The reason for this is that I am basically lazy or maybe not lazy, but I like my sleep. So the thought of getting up any earlier for work so I have time to put on some make-up is a big no, no. It doesn't make me better at my job. Aside from that I just have never felt that I needed to wear make-up every day. I suppose it comes from the fact that my mum hardly ever wore make-up and if she did it was so subtle that you didn't really notice it. Maybe some lippy, but that was it. Being one of 5 with only my dad’s wages as a council rent collector living in a council house, there was not much money left for frivolous things such as make-up. That is how I imagine my mum felt. So growing up I never saw my mum putting on make-up so it never became the norm for me. 

 Through my teenage years I experimented with different looks, not always successfully and by the time I got to working I had never got into that whole make-up wearing thing. Also working in a completely male dominated environment there really wasn't any need. Even now as I get older and I am definitely not as youthfully

skinned as I once was, I don't feel the need to wear make-up for work or day to day. Saving the made-up me for special occassions. It is part of my dressing up that I love to do. 

 Why am I talking about this, I ask you say. Well there is a lot of discussions about celebrities who are not bowing to the peer and social pressures around them and being seen in public without their make-up on. Personally I think it is great. Why shouldn't people be allowed to look like they want? Why do women have to have this idea of having the perfect body, be perfectly made-up, be perfect? We are not perfect and we should celebrate that. It is amazing how women who are bucking the celebrity Hollywood persona to be who they want to be are described as brave. Yes they are brave, but women should not have to be brave to be who they want to be. It should just be excepted. 

An example of this I have recentlyseen is Pamela Anderson going out without make-up on and Jamie-Lee Curtis responding on how brave she was and the comments were positive (or the ones I saw). 

 In contrast to these women being brave we have others who are wearing what they want and being vilified. The comments made are horrendous and quite frankly I beleive that more should be done to stop people airing their hurtful opionions. An example of this is Carol Vordemon recently wearing what she wanted to wear and the comments are just rude. No respecting other peoples feelings, just the idea that they have the right to air their opinion. I don't believe you do have that right. Sure you can think it, I am

no saint I hear myself thinking "Why is she wearing that?". Then I tell myself off and remind myself that I do not know anything about that persons circumstances or why they are wearing what they are wearing. I then remind myself that people can wear what they want, if it makes them feel happy or smile or warm or safe then who am I or any of us to judge.

 One benefit of my relationship with make-up is that my daughters take after me. They love to wear make-up for those special occassions, in fact my eldest daughter is amazing at her make-up, but they don't wear it every day. More importantly they don't feel the need to wear it all the time. For that I am happy. It is not that I wouldn't want them to wear make-up all the time, but only if it is something they wanted to do rather than from external pressures. In my work I see so many young people bowing to social and peer pressure to conform to the expected norms. Beautiful young adults thinking they only way they can be pretty is to wear loads of make-up. I just want them to know they don't have to if they don't want to. That what makes us beautiful is our values, our compassion, our humour, our strength, and so many other internal qualities which are more important than how we look on the outside.