Glossed Over

Make up for the longest time to me was the few dabs of powder and the reddish pink wax my mother smudged onto her lips all the while hurrying me and my sister to put on our sandals before heading out of the house.Needless to say makeup wasn't a big thing in my home. Any shadow of interest shown by me was met by a slightly amused smile from mom and ridicule courtesy my sister. My initiation into Jr college meant a whole new world opening up for me. To me honestly the people(I don't want guys to feel left out) who wore it were much more interesting than the concept itself.It was worn on an everyday, sun or rain, light or dark basis by those girls. You know which ones I speak of.The ones who carry handbags that even match their carefully picked out eyeliner and who you secretly wish are evil.To me half the challenge of getting myself ready for college was waking up at 6.What I eventually found out was that there was this whole other species out there who were applying their face for the day while I scrubbed the tiredness off my face in the sink.Nothing shocked me more than seeing these seemingly ordinary people looking like they walked off a fashion shoot of some sort at that hour in the morning.Maybe they had mirrors for palms...I never quite found out..Anyway, like all 16yr olds I was interested in this whole way to play up your features. To me it was and still is just FUN.You get to experiment with your look and as our generation has lost any interest in expressing itself through its thoughts,ideas and personality in general it revels in expressing itself through various other mediums like cell phones ,backpacks,shoes and make-up included.I honestly never understood the concept of expressing yourself by strutting around in a few brands Daddy bought you.That's not expressing yourself ,that's barely posing as a mobile advertisement for the nearest luxury mall.For example do you believe all the people wearing Nike are sporty ? Snort.I'll accept there are exceptions where people really do express themselves through their look,like goth,emo etc. Anyway, that's a whole other argument.

Right so all parties must understand I hold no right or intention to mock or snub, I merely state that I don't particularly enjoy or recommend having to apply a load of gunk onto your face every time you step out of your home.At least not until you have to and shops offer you free products out of pity. There does come a time when it would be necessary to look particularly put-together but guess what ,17 isn't it .



Besides, I don't think you can really fool anybody into thinking that is really what you look like,people can use their imagination faster than you can say "eyelash curler" to picture what lies beneath all the cover-up. And you don't want anyone not recognizing you the day you forget (god forbid) to put any make-up on which could lead to some awkward moments. Basically at our age make-up is fun to play around with and use from time to time but don't be obsessed enough to let people only see you with it all on.All The Time. What the beauty brands which pitch products to teenagers don't tell you is that your face(I mean your real one) will probably never look as good as it does now and you don't need it to be perfect to define who you are.Just don't let yourself make it who you are.

ETA : The above was written two years ago. Now at 18 I still feel the same way.Consider it a lack of growth or whatever but I feel like the self-image of girls is at its worst and to have so many brands cashing in on it makes me sick.What worries me more is the consumers seem to be getting younger. Good Lord, there is nothing sadder than a 14 yr old Paris-Hilton wannabe with luminous glossed up lips doing something completely random like shopping. I refuse to believe its for "fun", its to impress, period.