With all of this 'anti-feminist', anti-self, anti-everything fuelled stories going around at the moment where we are all loosing faith in ourselves and the world I wanted to just come and pop myself down in front of my macbook for a moment and have a bit of a chat. That's okay right? I know it's not a face chart or a 'how to' look but sometimes words are just as important. Sometimes, they even matter more. I was discussing beauty with my mother the other day and it came up how standards change. If you look back at photographs of say her wedding or her teenage years no body really bothered that much with make up. It wasn't that they didn't want to look good or it wasn't that make up didn't exist it was just that, no body really did it. Lipgloss here and there or a bit of mascara but nothing compared to what we have now. Half of me envies her and other half pities her.
The part that envies her is the part that wishes she could be like her mother was. That she could go to Tesco without putting on liquid eye liner and red lips, or that she could stay over in a boys house and not set her alarm for 5am to try and sneak into the bathroom and put on some make up before getting back into bed so she woke up 'flawless'.
The part that pities her - is the part that knows how it feels to look in the mirror and feel like a different person. The joy of control, drive and ability to be anyone in the whole world. Even if it's only for a few hours. A new person you can simple wash away at the end of the night.
Do we all rely too much now on beauty? Yes. Do we have standards of beauty that aren't even attainable? Yes. Does that matter? No.
Never be sorry for needing make up to feel beautiful. Never be sorry for wanting something that wasn't given to you at birth. In this day in age a lot of people think (and some do) we wear make up to please other people (mainly men). Like I said before that can be true. I do it myself sometimes. It's not something I'm proud of but so what. But at the end of the day Am I really hurting anyone by wearing an extra dark red lip if I think it's going to make someone look at them? Am I hurting someone by wearing a dark smokey eye to go shopping in Dundrum even though its my one day off that I should be sitting at home in sweat pants for? No.
It doesn't matter who I wear make up for or when I wear it. All that matters is deep down in my heart of hearts I know I'm doing it for me. For my self confidence for my self control. I do it so that when I look in the mirror, I don't hate the girl looking back at me. It took me years to get to that stage but it's thanks to the cosmetic world that I now know how to feel good about myself. Is it the right method? No. People will disagree and tell me I should feel beautiful on the inside and that my natural beauty is enough but who are you to decide what is enough? You have to remember that being beautiful is a hundred and one different things to other people. Some times I watch friends get ready and they have their entire face on when I'm still sculpting. To them - I must be insane. To me - they are insane. But we all need different levels of different things to feel enough. Do what you need to do to be happy.
Break boundaries, wear dark lipstick, wear flowers in your hair. Do what ever you need to do to feel like you could walk down Grafton street with your head healed high. If you are confident and bold that is all that people will see. Be yourself, but remember who you are today might be different from the person you found in the mirror yesterday and that's okay because every day starts and ends for a reason.
Make up is a way that we are lucky enough to have to express ourselves, to show the world who we want to be and why. Utilise it and never be sorry for it.
![]()
The part that envies her is the part that wishes she could be like her mother was. That she could go to Tesco without putting on liquid eye liner and red lips, or that she could stay over in a boys house and not set her alarm for 5am to try and sneak into the bathroom and put on some make up before getting back into bed so she woke up 'flawless'.
The part that pities her - is the part that knows how it feels to look in the mirror and feel like a different person. The joy of control, drive and ability to be anyone in the whole world. Even if it's only for a few hours. A new person you can simple wash away at the end of the night.
Do we all rely too much now on beauty? Yes. Do we have standards of beauty that aren't even attainable? Yes. Does that matter? No.
Never be sorry for needing make up to feel beautiful. Never be sorry for wanting something that wasn't given to you at birth. In this day in age a lot of people think (and some do) we wear make up to please other people (mainly men). Like I said before that can be true. I do it myself sometimes. It's not something I'm proud of but so what. But at the end of the day Am I really hurting anyone by wearing an extra dark red lip if I think it's going to make someone look at them? Am I hurting someone by wearing a dark smokey eye to go shopping in Dundrum even though its my one day off that I should be sitting at home in sweat pants for? No.
It doesn't matter who I wear make up for or when I wear it. All that matters is deep down in my heart of hearts I know I'm doing it for me. For my self confidence for my self control. I do it so that when I look in the mirror, I don't hate the girl looking back at me. It took me years to get to that stage but it's thanks to the cosmetic world that I now know how to feel good about myself. Is it the right method? No. People will disagree and tell me I should feel beautiful on the inside and that my natural beauty is enough but who are you to decide what is enough? You have to remember that being beautiful is a hundred and one different things to other people. Some times I watch friends get ready and they have their entire face on when I'm still sculpting. To them - I must be insane. To me - they are insane. But we all need different levels of different things to feel enough. Do what you need to do to be happy.
Break boundaries, wear dark lipstick, wear flowers in your hair. Do what ever you need to do to feel like you could walk down Grafton street with your head healed high. If you are confident and bold that is all that people will see. Be yourself, but remember who you are today might be different from the person you found in the mirror yesterday and that's okay because every day starts and ends for a reason.
Make up is a way that we are lucky enough to have to express ourselves, to show the world who we want to be and why. Utilise it and never be sorry for it.
