“You would look so much better if you’d wear lipstick, Karin,” said yet another fellow acting student. Grumble, grumble. Why is everyone trying to get me to wear lipstick? Makeup? A hairstyle that reflects my actual age?
I Love Makeup
I’ve always loved makeup. I especially love the palettes of eye shadows. When I was younger, I would go to Target or Kmart around Christmas time and pick up a palette of a billion colors. I felt like a kid after trick or treating. Or like I was at an all-you-can-eat buffet. It just seemed so decadent to have so many colors. It made me feel like I was a real girl, not what I felt like I was. An oddity. A mistake. A problem.
I’m 56 now, yay! Hey, I earned my years! I’m proud to have made it to 56. Anyhoo…I still love palettes. Bartell Drugs has a whole section of different palettes now. Every time I shop there, I have to go look at them. Oh, my Goddess! There are like 20 different palettes with different colors! It’s quite amazing to see.
But then I remember I’m 56, and I have 56-year-old tastes now. So, I look a bit closer at the palettes and realize that they, while seemingly spectacular, as individual colors they are just not as classy as I like now.
My Palettes
I’ve had many palettes. I had the Chocolate Bar Collection from Too Faced. It was weird because all the colors smell like chocolate and I’m a chocoholic, and proud of it. But I could smell it when I was putting on my eyeshadow. Maybe they were using the wrong chocolate smell. I’m pretty discriminating when it comes to chocolate. And then, the damn shadow didn’t stay on my eyes! I ended up looking like a cow after a few hours. It was annoying, especially since I loved the colors!
I’ve had the…uh uh…I just tried to find it on the Sephora website and it’s gone and I can’t remember what it was. But I had the same problem with it not staying on my eyes.
Then I found Urban Decay. Oh, the beautiful palettes they have! Most of the colors are muted, which work best for me. And I find them to be the most beautiful as a whole. And they stay on my eyes! I’ve owned 4 palettes from them. Once of them was so dramatic I rarely wore it, although I loved to open it and look at it. I’ve had 2 sets of the original palette, which in my opinion, was the best. I have the Naked Heat palette, ooh la la. And the Smoke palette, which didn’t do so well since it was focused on blues and purples. But I love it. And I’m a bit annoyed that it didn’t work because now they don’t have any motivation to create my green/grey/brown palette that I really want. Fa!
But the last time I went to Sephora, Urban Decay wasn’t there! It’s still on their website. Maybe they are hiding it from Karin. Or maybe, like things often go, because Karin loves it, it has to go. I’m surprised that Theo Chocolate is still in business.
Now I’m on the lookout for a lip palette. Lips are annoying because I have to pay attention to their state. I can’t just paint the damn things and forget about them. There has to be a way.
Bobbi Brown
I have a subscription to Masterclass and guess who now has a class? Yep, Bobbi Brown, makeup extraordinaire. So, I took her class.
I liked her right off the bat because she told me, yes, I act like she’s talked to me personally, that she thinks makeup should make you look better, not like you’re wearing makeup. She’s into more of a nude look. So, I’m nodding and agreeing with her, willing to listen to her wisdom.
There is a difference between regular makeup and photoshoot makeup. One time I got headshots done and I did my own makeup. To my own senses, I felt like I was wearing a lot of makeup, however, people came up to me and congratulated me on my bravery of not wearing makeup in my headshots! Clearly, I don’t have skills.
The class was great. I got a few tips that I’ve implemented. I was soothed that some of the things I was doing were right. And it made me appreciate makeup more, and the job of the makeup artist.
I highly recommend her class. That’s really all I have to say about that.
Love and Hate
I love makeup. I often wander into Sephora or Nordstrom just to look at the colors. To me, makeup is an art. It’s creative and fun. It can show a person’s personality.
But what really pisses me off is the fact that wearing makeup is expected. Women without makeup, or who do it weirdly, are judged by other women.
And I get it. I know someone who puts on her eyeliner a couple of millimeters above the lash line. There’s skin between the line and the lash. It’s driven me nuts for years. Part of me wants to say something to her, but what if that’s exactly what she chose to do? It is her face!
I’m ornery. When people try to tell me to do something, I tend to do the opposite, even if it’s not in my best interests. I don’t like people telling me what to do. Unless I ask for it. For a long time, I hardly wore makeup at all, just because it was expected. Even though I love it.
Then I think about some of the acting classes I’ve been in. Actor’s tend to be very focused on their image so they’ll show up to class in full makeup, dressed to kill, with stiletto heels or combat boots or some other wild footwear. Actors are often told that their actual job is to audition. And so, a class is just another audition. You never know if the teacher is looking for something.
But I remember taking classes at the Second City. People would show up audition ready, and they would get lightly teased by the teacher and the rest of the class. The attitude there was that we were in the class to work, not strut around looking pretty. It’s hard to run and jump in stilettos.
<big sigh> This makeup business is just too damn complicated. I just want to have fun with it. I don’t want to have to go check my lipstick every hour. It’s just not me. Give me a lipstick that will stay. I often use tints so that it looks like, yes, I had lipstick on at some point, and yes, at any moment I may go freshen it up. But I forget all about it. That’s just me!
I guess I’ll just have to keep struggling with it. I’ll have to figure out how to do it so that I meet expectations while also doing it my way. Maybe I’ll send Bobbi a message and ask her how to keep the damn lipstick on my lips.
Powder on, blemishes off!
