Wednesday, October 22, 2014

A quick history of my life with makeup.

I'm obsessed with makeup.  Of course I am, I'm so obsessed I started a blog about makeup.  In the last 8 months specifically my makeup obsession has grown to outrageous proportions. It's grown so much that strangers have started commenting on my makeup and friends/family ask me for makeup advice.

So how did it all start...I guess you can say it's my mom's fault (love you mom!).  Growing up we weren't allowed to wear "makeup" till we were in middle school.  And right before 6th grade my mom took me (and years before my sister) to the Clinique counter at Dillards or Foley's in the mall to get our first makeup.  I was so excited for my "makeover".  Clinique declared me and countless other teenagers in the 90s as "Tawny" I remember the blush, the eyeshadow duo in a sparkly orange bronze and a matte cream, and the black honey lipstick.  I also got all set up with their face care products, their standard face bar soap, the toner for dry skin and the regular yellow grandma smelling lotion.  This makeup routine carried me throughout middle school but as I slowly had to start supplying my own makeup I downgraded to a little more affordable items and also a little more nontraditional items like purple mascara and all the glitter. Anyone remember those True Color kiosks in the mall? They were loose pigment shadows before we called them that.

For as long as I can remember I've loved watching people apply makeup.  I used to love watching my mom put on her makeup.  I thought it was so cool how she blended her eye shadows together and used the dark brown as shadow and eyeliner. I learned how to apply mascara by watching her too- she'd start at the base of her brows, wiggle the brush and pull up. She wore cream blush  that looked super red till she blended it out and always put lipstick on then blotted it with a tissue.  These are things I remember.

Growing up my sister was the one who was better at makeup than me.  She used to rim her eyes with black liquid eyeliner and it made her look like she had rabbit eyes.  I thought it was so cool and pretty but could never recreate it- to this day I still suck at liquid eyeliner.  I loved watching Haley apply eye makeup too.  She wore a lot of greys where as my mom wore a lot of natural colors, so of course I stared wearing more greys, silvers and blues with black eyeliner.

In high school I still experimented with makeup a lot and at the same time not.  For a couple years every spring for Lent I'd give up wearing makeup.  But I also did musical theatre in high school so there was lots of experimenting with what stage makeup could do for you.  Whenever there was something fancy or formal to go to in high school I'd ask my mom or sister to do my makeup, I just always felt like they did it so much better than me.

It wasn't until college and after that my makeup use and abuse sort of leveled off.  I started just wearing pretty neutral colors, browns on the eyes, mauve-y cheeks and no lipstick.  Still at any chance I had I'd let someone else do my makeup though. I just always felt if I tried to do something out of my usual I'd mess it up and look like a clown.  There are numerous times where friends would tell me I had a little excess blush on.  I went through tons of different brands of makeup, for a while I was obsessed with Victoria Secret's Very Sexy makeup line, I still have tons of their quads and palettes. I tried Bare Minerals for a while but I was too clumsy for loose pigments. I used Glo Mineral Makeup for sometime and loved it, but not the price. Those brands got me pretty much through my early and mid 20s.

It really wasn't until 8 months ago that I started becoming obsessed with makeup, I was content wearing my natural looks.  Immediately prior to 8 months ago I was wearing very little makeup, some Too Faced natural eyes, Lancome Terra-cotta blush, brown eyeliner by whoever and black Maybelline mascara. I never wore foundation and my skin has always been too dry for allover powder.  Then 8 months ago I was cast in Little Women as Amy- a character 16 years younger than myself but more importantly Blonde.  Instead of doing the logical thing and just wearing I wig I volunteered to dye my hair Blonde. Not just Blonde, but platinum blonde. I went from dark dark brown hair to white blonde hair in about 5 hours. It completely changed the color of my face! Or at least my perception of the color of my face.  I felt washed out all the time and started applying more blush (always a mistake) and so I took to the internet to figure out what makeup works best for blondes.

And then I fell into the rabbit hole...

Down and down I went.  Starting first with Beauty Bloggers. There was so much great information out there! Bronzer, I needed bronzer! All over bronzers like Wet 'n Wild's Ticket to Brazil it was perfect for all over color, just enough to make me look less dead. Then I needed highlighter, just on the tops of cheekbones, brow bones and cupid's bow. I needed to put blush above the apple's of my cheeks and back towards my temple.  It was also painfully obvious I needed to start filling in my eyebrows, how had no one ever recommended it to me before! How dare a blonde have light eyebrows, they must be darkened up! Then one day a beauty blogger reference her favorite Beauty Vlogger.  YouTube.  I fell into YouTube. So many videos, so many product recommendations. Have you heard about this contouring thing? Matte lipsticks? Where have you been all my life!  I spent hours watching YouTube videos and making my lists of products I needed.

8 months later I haven't stopped. I dyed my hair back after 6 months, 6 months of being an unnatural blonde was plenty- fun- but I'd had enough. Going back to brunette I worried all my new makeup knowledge wouldn't be needed anymore, but luckily that proved not to be true. If anything it's gotten a little worse. As a brunette I feel like there are so many new colors available to me. I still have a classic natural look I like to throw on when I'm in a hurry, but life's too short not to have fun with  makeup! Time in the morning is often frequently too short to play with makeup too long. I've found myself rushing more than usual with the rest of my morning routine because I spend so much time playing with my makeup.

So I guess while I can blame my mom for my initial introduction into makeup, I can also blame the theatre, the internet and especially YouTube.  I haven't asked anyone else to do my makeup in quite sometime, but I still love watching other people do their makeup and love hearing about products other people are using. So this is going to be my makeup outlet, where I can share what I've learned, what I've discovered and what I'm trying and sometimes failing at.


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