I feel pretty--NOT! THE COSMETICS THREAD

aw. well-done, both of you!

I sewed an apron and an ugly Christmas-themed pillow in 8th grade home ec. Also a dress from a LAURA ASHLEY pattern in a floral print, though I played dumb and got my mom to do the nominally difficult parts for me. No makeup application, but we did learn how to make SAUSAGE BALLS lolAlabama.

that's pretty good 'punishment'. i would totally rather have done that than sew the freakin elastic-waistband SHORTS (mauve cotton) i had to sew in home ec (yeah maybe it was called something else? i don't remember) - and a TOP (white with green and purple polka dots) too! but i'm glad i have those skillz now tbh, i mean, the pattern part and the measuring and matching up is a skill in itself for actual non-sewing-related life. the cooking part was meh - i already was into baking because my mom has always been a cookie-making fiend!

anyway
i do not even own an eyelash curler! i feel like my eyelashes curl enough? but could they curl MORE??
i usually put a little mascara on lower lashes but only really on outer lashes (not ones closer to inside corner of eye)

Ended up with BB cream blush in Sheer Lilac - never thought I'd suit a lilac blush but I think it works (it's more pink than lilac really). Never used a cream blush before, might make my skin look a bit crinkly, but maybe that's just during application...

omg it's the most exciting day of the year
gratis at work!! $500 RTL to pick out stuff from our brands. perfume is more expensive, but, they give us so much I don't need any more! so it's all about makeup. (Sm@shb0x and b0urj0is) yay!

i am not exaggerating in the slightest when i tell you that i am SO ENVIOUS of you right now! that would be so fun. and to do it annually! marvelous fortunate you!

I know. That is amazing!

it's crazy though because I don't even know where to begin, haha. we have a few displays in the office but i have to run back and forth between the order sheet (on computer) and the display to figure out what stuff i want. first world problems!

this makes up for me being super super sick right now, yay

that is like diving into a pool of mangos and eating my way to the top

I know, I'm so stoked. Sorry for bragging ladies! I just can't believe it!

enjoy yourself! get some wild shit!

i'm at $200 picked out, I think now I move to brushes and eyeliners. got $50 worth of nail polish (lolgod), a few lip glosses, eyeshadow palettes, etc. i would NEVER spend this much, wow

Get one of those bitchin stainless steal traincase!!!!

Uh STEEL

*burning with jealousy at the idea of getting $500 worth of makeup as a job perk*

I haven't tried the zigzag idea, but I will. I'm assuming that I can start wearing a better kind of mascara if I stop wearing it on my lower lashes? I love the doll-eyed look that it gives me, but I can accept not being able to do so, just like I'm starting to accept that I will never be able to grow my nails out longer than a quarter-inch before the tip of my finger.

I have been zig zagging! And it really does seem to work.

I ended up spending $150 on the hubby, buying cologne he likes (2 bottles). So really I only got $350 worth, which is still way more than I've ever bought. I have to wait til late July for its delivery. I'M DYING :D

p.s. there were no brushes on offer, which is the saddest thing ever. :( I bought several lip glosses, eyeshadow palettes (incl softbox) and a bit of primer and a bunch of nail polishes. I wanted another of these because mine's almost done but we didn't have those to choose from either:

http://www.mywomenstuff.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/smashbox3.jpg

grr
http://cn1.kaboodle.com/hi/img/b/0/0/ba/f/AAAAC7XnJCQAAAAAALr9ow.png?v=1269194404000

just found this blog that Lauren Conrad is a part of (never saw any of those shows, but am aware of her)
http://thebeautydepartment.com/

under http://thebeautydepartment.com/makeup/ is a brush tutorial that was kinda enlightening for me!

Christine, that Guardian link upthread mentions a Clinique mascara specifically for lower lashes with a tiny brush. Sounds quite gimmicky but might be worth a look?

I gave the L'Oreal a try but even zig zagging and wiping the brush off (well, not in that order) it just looked like too much. So today I totally crapped all over my plan to start cheap and work my way up and bought some Lancome "Definicils" and we'll see how that goes.

I will say that I had no flaking problems with the L'Oreal. It wore pretty well for me.

I've never heard anyone say their mascara was too effective. You might...have some trouble there.

haha yeah. I wish! The bigger and blacker the better!

I pretty much want my lashes but darker. I don't want extended lengthened volume curled fibers blasted whatever. I don't think it looks bad, mind you (and I admire the look on other ppl). I have been wearing it every day to see if I start to dig it but I conclude that it's not the look I'm going for.

The Lancome was dismissed in online reviews as being a "office mascara" and failing to provide any of the lengthening plumping whatever benefits so I was like that is for me!

Make up wise I'm pretty much just an aging hippie trying to add color back to her face. And hair, but that's a different thread.

PRETTY MUCH Y'ALL

I've been toying with the idea of liking my face more without makeup. Saw a documentary with Audrey Lorde in it last night and I know she's sort of radical by most any definition but like she's downright "plain" and clearly that's her choice to appear as her natural self. Would I find a unique beauty in my own looks over time? Or would I always be like, "I am making a utilitarian choice; beauty is not a priority and shouldn't be expected."

That's not really a question, I guess. Just wondering about the transition from "I'm doing this for other reasons; a certain kind of prettiness is beside the point" to "I see a different kind of beauty without enhancement, and its inherent value is sufficient."

Sounds like you're overthinking it a little? Just wear makeup when u feel like it and don't when u don't.

Haha. Yes, and I feel like wearing it all the time end of story, no one can see me without mascara + eyeliner unless I have completely given up.

Christine, that Guardian link upthread mentions a Clinique mascara specifically for lower lashes with a tiny brush. Sounds quite gimmicky but might be worth a look?

Sorry, I forgot to include some more information about that: The only mascara I've been able to use has been Cover Girl's Professional Smudgeproof. Everything else gives me raccoon eyes. (And apparently it's the only smudgeproof mascara on the market.)

And the thing is, I want dramatic ultra-long lashes, which I can't get with the one I'm using.

LONG POST IN WHICH I THINK IN WRITING ABOUT MAKE UP SKIP IF YOU DON'T LIKE THIS KIND OF THING

I don't know, I think that's a pretty legitimate line of inquiry, Laurel. I'm not saying you (or anybody) should do anything different, and yeah we chose our choices, etc., but I think it's reasonable to step back and look at why we chose our choices. We - as women living in a patriarchal society (yeah, I went there!) - don't do these things in a vacuum, you know?

So personally, I am 38 years old and pretty much never wore make up, other than a few years in my early teens when I was first allowed to do so, outside of special occasions at all. And it's only been in the last three or so years that I've worn enough makeup regularly to necessitate some kind of container for it all. And yeah, buying and talking about and wearing makeup is pretty fun, and I'm digging it but why am I now so reluctant to leave the house on a weekend without undereye concealer and brow powder when five years ago I would have been like "What the shit is brow powder???" I recognize that I tend to be pretty analytical about these things, but I wouldn't feel comfortable just being like, "Well, it's fun! Yay!" without putting some thought into it.

The conclusion I reached, to get kind of personal here and forgive me, is that I'm getting older. I've always been pretty per mainstream beauty standards and then suddenly, I'm losing some of that youthful glow and it is legitimately freaking me out! Why? Well, because older women aren't taken as seriously and because historically people paid attention to what I said because of what I looked like and that isn't happening as much anymore. I would really like to be Audre Lorde-esque about it but 1) I'm not that awesome nor do I have things that awesome to say; and 2) I work in a very male dominated, obnoxiously duderiffic area of law and it's kind of a professional reality that I have to play a certain game if I want the dudes in charge of things to listen to the words coming out of my mouth and 3) I'm fat, which I'm cool with, but like being fat and pretty is one thing while being fat and old is a whole new area of insecurity for my therapist and I to explore. So it's a combination of recognizing my need to conform plus insecurity.

(As an aside, when I was in my 20s I worked with a woman who warned me that as women get older, their face kind of disappears, and I keep thinking of her because that's pretty much how I see it, both literally (in that my hair and eyebrows and eyelashes aren't so much graying as just color-fading and also where did my lips go???) and figuratively (see confessional above) and sometimes I want to look her up and be like I THOUGHT YOU WERE CRAZY BECAUSE I WAS 27 BUT YOU WERE TOTALLY RIGHT.)

So I think it's great to interrogate (to use a social justice buzzword there) these kinds of things (anytime you would like five paragraphs on why I shave my legs, holler). Your particular comment, Laurel, was interesting to me because there's a lot to think about as far as what's pretty per fashion dictators vs. what's pretty per mainstream beauty standards vs. what's pretty per our personal standards and how much of the former two influence the latter. Probably because I've done a lot of reading about feminism and noncomforming bodies, but I think about stuff like that a whole lot.

audre lorde is p much a hero

being fat and pretty is one thing while being fat and old is a whole new area of insecurity for my therapist and I to explore

so are you, Jenny <3

this is almost certainly not the appropriate thread for this observation but i am getting really sick of how much space "pretty" takes up in my head.

) I'm fat, which I'm cool with, but like being fat and pretty is one thing while being fat and old is a whole new area of insecurity for my therapist and I to explore.

I was digging the whole post already and then I got to here and was like YESSS THAT'S MY JENNY HI5 HI5 through to the end.

Haha so I typed all that and as I was freshening up to go teach a class I was looking at my mascara (the L'Oreal) and thinking, "Hey, maybe I do kind of like the way that looks..."

xp also? the title of the thread is super appropriate here! Pretty is kind of a huge thing. This is good if you haven't seen/read it: http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/04/19/katie-makkai-on-pretty/

i am getting really sick of how much space "pretty" takes up in my head.

Ditto. Catching myself having "pretty" behaviors and thinking about them more and more like they don't belong to me, I think because I'm feeling like I'm outside the ranks of the (younger-than-I-am) "pretty" girls now.

Like, being well-groomed in an older woman, that's supposed to substitute for the youthful kind of pretty, I think? But "grooming" is secretly just about consumption; being clean and having combed your hair is pretty much the minimum that any un-institutionalized person is expected to do; "grooming" is everything on top of that, and it all involves an amount of time and money that I feel weirder and weirder about even as I reapply eyeliner every time I wash my face.

i'm going to skip the gory details of how i ~feel~ about my face/looks, but i always figured that going for FUN would serve me better than going for pretty, which would be much more difficult for me to achieve. so my goal wrt makeup was always FUN, and that's why i am feeling conflicted as a 35 y.o. woman who maybe shouldn't be having so much fun with eyeshadow? but it's still fun? i dunno. if i overanalyze anything it always comes back to feeling like shit about myself, so best to forge ahead blindly in my purple eyeshadow.

that is to say that i am with you guys, but from a slightly different angle

so best to forge ahead blindly in my purple eyeshadow.

Oh you beauty. Would you be my life-muse? Please?

Everything comes back to feeling like shit about yourself, doesn't it. It's a good thing feeling bad about yourself is really really BORING, because otherwise I would do it 94/7.

I'm always here for you boo!

i think sometimes for me it helps (for me) to find age appropriate role models -- people who know how to live, yknow

Horseshoe, you should know that the reason I can write shit like that publicly is thanks to an amazing email you sent me ~ four (holy shit four??!?) years ago in which you were basically like "I have been trying out this new thing called not hating myself and maybe you'll like it and here are some websites" (except longer and far more eloquent) which was pretty much like tossing me a life preserver. So a hero is you. For real.

Laurel super OTM about feeling weirder and weirder about that stuff. Almost-40 is a weird age bc I'm too young to fully make it a Chico's kind of day, style-wise, but I am all out of patience for shapewear and pinching shoes and high maintenance grooming (even as I spend $200 every couple of months on my hair cut/color and $25/month on my brows).

Jenny that Makkai on "pretty" thing is...I think we can all agree that she is a hero. I would like to wear that whole speech on a Tshirt so that it reads the right way to me when I look down.

This is about the self-mutilating circus we have painted ourselves clowns in. About women who will prowl 30 stores in 6 malls to find the right cocktail dress, but haven’t a clue where to find fulfillment or how wear joy...and everyone who will drift home tonight, crest-fallen because not enough strangers found you suitably fuckable.

you should TOTALLY have fun, LL!! fuck the haters.

Amands, a good number of my age-appropriate role models are on this thread already, just fyi.

aw Jenny, i'm so glad. certain websites have changed my life!

also, yes, nobody makes clothes for thirty+-year-old women!

no one should feel guilty for wearing makeup and it's awesome if it's fun but if you have some ambivalence that is also understandable.