My thoughts on makeup, let me show you them

[cleolinda]

Bear with me as I lead into this, because I have some philosophical ramblings about beauty products that guys (i.e., people who do not wear makeup and may not understand the appeal of cosmetics) may find interesting.

So. I have gift cards to Sephora, and also a promotional code from their newsletter that expires today, and then three free mini lip glosses as a birthday promotion, therefore: it's economy-boosting time. My on-and-off obsession with makeup, as previously documented here, is somewhat peculiar, given that I wear very little of it. I mean, number one: I don't leave the house much. I have sensitive problem skin, so there doesn't seem to be any point in irritating it with the constant application and removal of makeup that no one's going to see, you know? What I really love is trying out different colors, because if I wear anything, it tends to be eyeshadow and lip gloss--I really need to wear foundation and concealer, but honestly, when I do, all I look like is someone very obviously wearing foundation and concealer, so I figure the flawed natural look is preferable at that point, and I'll just have fun with my favorite eyeshadow palettes (Hard Candy's Suede and Star). Hence the recent fixation on Aromaleigh, because the samples are so cheap that I can play all I want, and I'm hearing from other patrons that their face powders do a really good job of blending and disappearing, so I'm going to get samples of those and see if I can finally achieve the no-makeup makeup look ("Like you, only better!").

As for why girls--some girls--get so obsessed with makeup, even someone like me who rarely wears it, I can tell you very simply: it's the promise of transformation. Philosophy has a moisturizer called Hope in a Jar, which pretty much sums it up. Or--to jump to a different area of retail--you know the Headset Vince informercial for the Slap Chop? The one where he declares, "Stop having a boring tuna, stop having a boring life"? Which is a bizarre leap of logic--if your tuna sandwich is marginally more interesting, your ENTIRE LIFE will be a new thrill every minute from here on out. I mean, obviously. But that's advertising: not selling you a tangible thing, but a new life and a new you. There's a line in The Women (the original, not the crap remake) where Norma Shearer's wise old mother says something (I'm paraphrasing from memory here) along the lines of, men have affairs in order to see a new version of themselves reflected in someone else's eyes; women just go get manicures, and if men would just move their office furniture around now and then instead, they'd be a lot happier. It's not the most progressive sentiment--remember, this movie was released in 1939--but I think there's a kernel of truth in there regarding makeovers: the idea that a superficial, cosmetic change will ripple all the way down to the core of what makes you unhappy. Stop wearing a boring lipstick: stop having a boring life.

So to me, the most alluring cosmetic lines are the ones that create an entire persona. Benefit is a really, really good example of this; the product names and packaging create this kicky retro girl-on-the-go aesthetic, both coy and confident. "That Gal" (quotation marks theirs) brightening primer! Get Even pressed powder! You Rebel moisturizer! Ooh La Lift concealer! (Fun fact: their Ms. Behavin' lipstick was used on the first Twilight movie. Guess who had to wear it.) On the other hand, there's Urban Decay, with all their gritty, "edgy" trying too hard eyeshadow names: Asphyxia, Midnight Cowboy, Grifter, Smog, Oil Slick, Roach. (The latter of which is actually a really great color that I'm not sure I could ever bear to put on my face.) I feel like if I was wearing these, I would go out and something badass would happen to me, and I would totally be ready for it. You know, all because my eyelids were sporting "lavender with blue sheen." In short, cosmetics are selling you a fantasy that most likely won't come true, but they're selling you so many different of flavors of fantasy that there's always something new to play with, some new means of reinvention, always some new hope.



(I ended up spending my gift cards on the Get Baked eyeshadow palette, the "That Gal" primer, and the Realness of Concealness kit. Happy birthday to me.)


(Zomg e-book! The Annotated Movies in Fifteen Minutes: Wizards!)

Comments

[cupcakery.livejournal.com]

I love Benefit, and the fact that Shopper's Drug Mart now carries it so I can play with it in the store as opposed to driving several hours to the nearest Sephora.

[wenelda.livejournal.com]

I have a love/hate relationship with makeup, really. I am literally glow-in-the-dark pale, so finding any makeup that doesn't make me look like a clown is nigh on impossible, and when I do, I suddenly have absolutely no reason to wear it, which frustrates me. (I, too, don't leave the house much, so why bother wearing any?) Yet I love lipstick and lip gloss to the point of obsession. I will wear that around the house all the time, for no real reason. But I have to be careful what shades I wear because, again, being so very pale bright reds merely make me look either like a clown or a whore, or a sad clown-whore, and I would rather look more like an upscale kind of woman.

Er, but anyway, I rather agree with your ideas about makeup. I always feel, when I do buy new makeup, that something in my life will change, even if that never actually happens.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Are their samples less nasty than Sephora's? Because apparently only people who were raised by wolves are allowed to shop at Sephora.

[stateofserenity.livejournal.com]

I've become a MAC Whore-in-training thanks to a good friend of mine. No funky names - but the colors are AH-MAZING. I've recently had my eyes opened to the world of department store make-up lines (I've been a "drug store makeup girl all my life). I get what you're saying about their marketing strategies...i found myself saying I'd FEEL prettier in makeup that was called (insert name here).

with regard to MAC I believe they have sample eyeshadows and what not for about a buck fifty. Just to enable your addiction. *grins*

[rina2o6.livejournal.com]

Oh man, all I got was a $15 of of $50 coupon to Sephora and it took me hours hours to decide what I wanted on their website. Part of it was that I was trying to pick out gifts for friends that wouldn't break my bank and part of it was that I was trying to figure out what was dissimilar enough from the stash of makeup I already own to buy for myself.

I'm with you on the transformative powers of makeup - I'm a complete sucker for kits, like pretty much everything from Bare Minerals. Its a new look, a new personality in a box!

Hope you have fun playing with your new makeup, especially the concealing stuff. My friend came up with a pretty genius 'no makeup' look - use a mineral concealer, dab a little into a blob of primer, and smooth over your skin. If the color is right, it just evens out your skin tone a little, doesn't look cakey or heavy at all. I follow it with BE's mineral veil.

And also a very happy belated birthday to you!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah--of all the makeup lines I've browsed on Sephora (so many, many makeup lines), Benefit is closest to the person I would like to reinvent myself as, I think. It's the attitude, probably. So confident! So breezy! So tongue in cheek! Also, the packaging is really, really cute.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh, awesome. They're not on Sephora, are they? I think that's why I'm not as familiar with them.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted because I had already spent many hours window-shopping on the Sephora site. It still took me about an hour to decide.

Oh, the concealer/primer idea is really good.

[cupcake-goth.livejournal.com]

My collection of makeup is ... rather astonishing. The amount of lipstick I have acquired in looking for The Perfect blackened pomegranate/cherry color, oh dear.

But I've mostly switched to Aromaleigh, because I do feel their products are the best value out there, and work incredibly well. (In fact, I'm waiting for an order to show up that contains a jar of the "dazzle" Twilight powder.)

[cupcakery.livejournal.com]

Oh God, the Sephora store samples, how they frighten me. People, the sponges and swabs and mascara wands are there for a reason. However, the samples at the Champs-Élysées were in pretty damn good condition - that store is also 726 m squared.

I think SDM hides their "higher" make-up (as opposed to the Cover Girl/Maybelline/Revlon/etc) around the actual check-out counter there for a reason. It's not the main one in the store, but there are two curved shelves set up around it, with the Benefit/Smashbox/Elizabeth Arden/Shu Uemera/etc on the inside so that it faces the counter, hidden from the rest of the store, and very brightly lit.

ETA: Oh, and StrawberryNET.com sells a bunch of make-up at X percentage off of retail - I just got a bunch of Stila for under $50 that would normally be at least double that.

[labonnefille.livejournal.com]

I think I can definitely get on board with what you're saying. I had a long fetish with sexy panties for that reason. I was pretty heavy and I had low low low self esteem, but wearing sexy panties made me feel that much more sexy and confident, even thought no one Ever saw them.

Now I have pink hair for much the same reason. I feel like a super hero, or a celebrity, cause everyone can see my pink hair, and everyone remembers me.

[lady-guenievre.livejournal.com]

I rarely wear makeup, or at least that used to be true. Then I discovered Bare Minerals. They don't have the *persona* of Benefit, but OMG their stuff is fabulous...

[ninepointfivemm.livejournal.com]

MAC is definitely on and in Sephora. Not my favorite (I'm a Smashbox girl, personally, and my favorite red lipstick is still drugstore brand)

[cupcakery.livejournal.com]

Find yourself a MAC pro store - they have actual white foundation, and you can mix it with the regular MAC foundation to get a custom colour.

Right now, I just use the light tinted moisturizer, and it blends fairly well. I, too, am glow-in-the-dark (and sometimes in the bright sunlight) pale.

Glow in the dark pale, like... well, the opposite of the Sparklepires?

[mysterypoet66.livejournal.com]

Wenelda, SRSLY, Casper has a healthier color than I do in winter. Not porcelain or alabaster or ivory - WHITE, that's me. Aromaleigh has a shade called Ghost, it's pure white, very sheer, easily blendable.
Ms. Jones, you have hit the nail right on it's spangly little head: Transformation. Yay! (Also, same probs with stuff on skin, also low-maintenance look, but - SHINY!) Why the perfect lipcolor has the power to make the day better is both placebo and magic, and it does, sometimes keep us away from the Cliffs of Despair. :D (Note: If anyone ever hears that Urban Decay is bringing back their pleather lip pencils, please message me. Of course they discontinued the only, "you, only better," shade that ever worked on me.) I do think that makeup does one other thing for us grown-ass women :It lets us *play* like when we were kids.

[anonymeet.livejournal.com]

I like your theory about the transformative powers of make-up. It's a very good way to explain those who wear make-up for self-gratification purposes - to look better, feel better about themselves, etc. I also generally subscribe to the theory that make-up is modern warpaint. For those who wear make-up for external purposes. In the war for whatever it is you want - success, attention from others, a man, to be desired, etc.

Both probably apply to all of us, at different points, Certainly, both have applied to me in the past . . .

[cupcakery.livejournal.com]

http://www.maccosmetics.com (.ca for me) - right now's a good time to shop them because they have all of the holiday gift sets out. I like 'em because they have Back to Mac, where in you bring in 6 empty containers and get a free lipstick. Yay.

[renshai.livejournal.com]

My favourite quote on the subject is from Martha Rogers (played by Susan Sullivan) on Castle - "What men don't understand is, the right clothes, the right shoes, the right makeup, just... it hides the flaws we think we have. They make us look beautiful...to ourselves. That's what makes us look beautiful to others."

I'll admit that I still don't get makeup, but I do now get the sentiment.

[wenelda.livejournal.com]

It was actually really freaky when my friends discovered I glowed. We were having a sleep-over and my best friend was like, "...what's that glow? I don't have any lights on." And I said, "er... Well I have my legs up in the air...?" Because I was fidgeting, and she said, "...JESUS CHRIST, YOU'RE GLOWING. WHAT." But I recently found an article that said humans do glow in the dark if they're pale, so I'm not a freak. (Plus, well, having other people comment and telling me that they, too, glow in the dark, leads me to believe we should start a group or something.) I glow in sunlight too, actually, which always terrifies my friends.

And now that I've rambled about all that nonsense, I'd heard MAC is expensive, but now I'm curious. I use Cover Girl TruBlend whipped foundation (405: Ivory) and it works well enough, but again, it's obvious I'm wearing foundation and unless I put eyeliner/eyeshadow/amazing lip gloss on it's rather like clown makeup.

[stateofserenity.livejournal.com]

I -think- they're on Sephora? If not there then definitely Macy's or Nordstroms (Not that that will help you spend your b-day monies).

Oh - this just in... MAC is the creator of the Urban Decay Line - its their lower-end stuff. either way - here's linkage to their site. M.A.C. Cosmetics (http://www.maccosmetics.com/)

[wenelda.livejournal.com]

You know how they used to call people bluebloods because they were so pale you could see their veins? That's me! And I agree about Casper having a healthier colour too, LOL!

[morganwolf.livejournal.com]

I'm at Sephora, like, every two weeks. It's pathetic. I can name my favorite colors in my favorite products from my favorite brands instantly. Every time I start a new costume, one of my favorite parts is figuring out EXACTLY the right shades to be applied in EXACTLY the right way.

I'd like to think I'm immune to the "makeup will make you a new, improved, more exciting person" business, but I never did get over the joys of playing dress-up as a kid, and wearing makeup is part of that. It's illusion, it's fantasy, it's transformation. This morning I can look alluring and mysterious, tonight I can look fresh-faced and innocent, just by swapping out my eyeshadow and lipstick.

P.S., I swear by Bare Minerals, but I do hear good things about other mineral makeups as well. I can't wear most cream or liquid concealer/foundation because they are really obvious, but the mineral makeup provides great coverage and blends invisibly. I hear people with dry skin are better off staying away from powders, but my skin is most definitely oily and it's not a problem for me.

[laurelin-kit.livejournal.com]

I am an absolute Benefit girl. I have the powder foundation, the primer, the Benetint. Love it all. And That Gal is some fantastic primer, you'll love it.

I personally prefer Sephora over MAC because the Sephora girls are nice and MAC girls are bitches. (At my malls.)

[padawansguide.livejournal.com]

I think I'm mostly too lazy to bother with makeup in the morning. It takes time and I'd rather sleep, so unless I'm wearing a costume or going to something dressy (which is rare), I don't bother. :-)

[beansalad.livejournal.com]

If I was a girl I would probably be obsessed with Make up too. I already wear it for costuming and theater and such. Make up is just too much fun. You get the chance to change your look any day. I think that's something really cool. I mean, of course, in moderation. The more you wear make up, the more people get used to you with make up and the more expected you are to wear it. Plus I've seen what it can do to people's skin and eesh, that's no bueno.

But still, if I was a girl I would go CRAZY with make up haha. That's probably why I was made a boy. But a homo can dream...