Why I Wear Makeup featured

I started wearing makeup around age nine. It was when I started getting acne and overtweezing my brows. I wore too much of it but had no care in the world. It was time to “grow up” I thought. It was time to be a real “woman.”

Years went by and I continued my regimen. It became one of my most dreaded rituals. I wore it because I needed to mask my imperfections. I wore it to hide from the rest of the world. 

The truth is my teenage years were lonely. I hit puberty much too young and I always felt lost in my own skin. I was drowning and I thought makeup could bring me afloat. 

Once I got to college, my hormones evened out. The acne dissipated and I was forced to look at my makeup-less self more often. I fought with the girl under the face paint. I learned I just really didn’t like her. 

After a long uphill battle with a girl I didn’t want to see, I realized I had been beautiful all along-flaws and all. A little pimple on my forehead did not and could not define the beauty within. 

I started shying away from thick makeup, opting for a more “natural” look. I even cut all my locks off to show more of the face I had so long hidden from the world around me. 

So here I finally am… 27 years old and counting. I still wear makeup but my ritual has changed. I absolutely love loving myself. 

I love pampering myself every morning with lotions and potions. I love wearing serums to hopefully deter those dreaded wrinkles that might come my way. 

But you know what I think at the end of the day? Bring it on! Bring on signs of aging and wisdom. Bring on scars and stretch marks. Bring on all the things that magazines tell us are evil. They are signs of character and tell the truest of stories.

While I may have started wearing makeup for the wrong reasons, I now wear it for all the right ones. I love primping myself for the day ahead. It gives me a whole new sense of confidence and strength. 

While makeup may be superficial or unnecessary to some, I choose to embrace it and always incorporate it into my lifestyle. This is my choice. 

Everyone else can say or think what they want but I choose makeup as part of my presentation everyday. It’s the sacred moment I get to love myself solely and wholeheartedly. What is your love regimen? How do you show yourself self love? 

Choose self love. Choose inner beauty. 

Love Deeply and Forever, 

Karen