Face up to your Face

I watched Funny Face this week, I wonder if that has something to do with me writing this post…

ok, yes we can't all be audrey

Don’t let stores or magazines tell you what is wrong with your face, look at your own face and decide how you want to present it.

This is how I now buy makeup. I confront a mirror, look at my face and decide what I want to do with it.

I used to wander the aisles in Boots and Superdrug, see a highlighter strobing thing and think, OOO YAS my face will be all shiny, I don’t know why but I guess it is supposed to be shiny. Or I would look in magazines at what I should be worrying about and how my face should look, articles like, HOW TO CONTOUR LIKE A KARDASHIAN. That’s great, but I have a super round face, so contouring on me is like trying to give cheekbones to a watermelon.

I decided it to flip it round. Not that I’m angry at stores for stocking products other than the ones that I specifically need, I am saying that I will no longer look at the stock, and at magazines, as a guideline for how my face should look. Instead of seeing a product and thinking, should I be using this? My face is the customer. I look at it, decide what I can accept about it and what I want to make more sparkly, and then I go and find the product that does that for me. For example, I might notice, hmm this eyeshadow doesn’t stay on all day, maybe because I have dry skin my face doesn’t like powder, let’s go find a cream eyeshadow. And I go to a store for that thing.

So, this is what I did.

THIS BIT MIGHT SEEM CONDESCENDING BUT WHEN BECOMING MORE MINDFUL AND AWARE OF THINGS, SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO DO THE OBVIOUS

Step 1:

Find a Mirror

Step 2: Look at your face, and really see it. From the condition of your skin to the actual features.

Step 3: Consider it, what is happening with it, any skin problems, if you are wearing makeup, do you like it, is anything you are wearing the wrong colour, not giving enough coverage, too much coverage, do you really need it/are you wearing it cos you want to or cos you think you should.

A friend of mine recently unfollowed anyone on Instagram that made her feel anything negative, whether this was a friend or a celebrity or a business. Do the same with makeup and skincare. Unfollow/stop using the products which you don’t love, and which don’t make you feel good. I think when it comes to being true to yourself it is important to unpick why you are wearing something, and with makeup and skincare, it needs to be because it makes you feel good, not because someone told you to do it.

For me, I realised that all the makeup that I was using, it was because I felt I that I had to. I felt I needed to use foundation and eyeliner like I needed a toothbrush and toothpaste. And you really don’t. 

I didn’t even like the specific makeup I was using. So, I stopped. I stopped using any makeup that I didn’t love what it did to my face, that I was using in a perfunctory way.

And then I LOOKED at my face, and I built my skincare back up. One product at a time, deciding what my skin needed to be healthy and after that deciding products that I wanted to use to make me pretty,  to increase my levels of pretty because it was fun and made me feel good. I picked a BB cream that I love, and which finally matches my super pale skin tone, lipstick that stays ALL FREAKIN DAY, and mascara that does not fall onto my cheeks. I could never decide if everyone’s mascara fell and I just have super prominent cheeks to catch it or if I had really shitty mascara. Probably both.

I guess what I have described here is kind of a mindful make up application.

It’s a conscious selection and application of products which suit you, your face and your wishes.

This outlook may not work for others, and I realise it now looking back, that it sounds like I am saying you should look at your face and critique it and decide what to change. But that is not what I am trying to say.

For me personally, this approach has allowed me to be much more content with my own, one face only policy, subject to ageing, sun damage and accidents and to actually be aware of what it looks like. Sometimes, when I was doing my makeup, I felt like I was applying it on someone else’s face. What I mean to say is, I was applying makeup to my face, copying how I thought I should look or apply it and wasn’t actually looking at the face in front of me.

I genuinely used to get moments in changing rooms and shops where I would catch a glimpse of my face and not recognise it because I was walking around pretending, without realising that I looked completely different. I think this is pretty typical teenage, becoming aware of your own body, stuff. I remember the first time I got in a changing room and saw my side profile in one of those awful three-sided, angled mirrors. And I had that Hermione moment of “is that really what my hair looks like from the back” except it was “oh lord what is up with the shape of my nose, I had no idea that is what I looked like side on”

Listening to The Guilty Feminist podcast the other day, Deborah Frances-White, in the closing titles, said half-jokingly, “don’t ever EVER take a photo of a woman from side on!” to an audience member who was taking a photo. And she is not wrong guys. We kid ourselves into thinking we are perfectly photogenic from all angles and we don’t like to be reminded of the fact that we are not.

Ultimately, this process has been me making myself face up to my own face. To accept the canvas I have been given to work with, and taking care of it.

How I apply makeup now and the reasons why

I used to apply makeup like I was brushing my teeth. FOUNDATIONEYELINERMASCARABRONZERLIPSTICK. Now, when I look at my actual face every day, I’m thinking, “ok now what do I want to cover up, emphasise?” and I end up putting less makeup on.

My thoughts now, instead of FOUNDATIONEYELINERMASCARABRONZERLIPSTICK, are more like this:

(after skincare)

Hmm let’s put on my BB cream today to even out my skin and so later in photos at work drinks I don’t look super shiny and red, plus, this does contain my SPF for my Irish inherited skin. And oh don’t forget to put primer on first so my skin is SUPER SMOOTH AND I RUN AROUND FORCING OTHER HUMANS TO STROKE MY DOLPHIN SKIN. Also, it will save money cos my makeup will last longer.

Concealer? Oh no, little bit of a red mark from where I just plucked my eyebrow, what an idiot doing that in the morning, and will need some on my chin to hide any spots (at the moment I have barely any for once because a) guys drink water, turns out it’s good for you and b) I have been eating so much less dairy, mainly cheese and damn, my skin is so much better). And let’s see looking at my actual face instead of smearing it around everywhere I have ever had a spot, dab dab dab it in a few key areas and wow my skin looks like skin still.  

Eye makeup. Oh, it’s so easy to just smush on some eyeshadow and swish some eyeliner and swish some mascara and do magical things called cut creases and cat eyes and flicks and OH WAIT NO THESE THINGS ARE SUPER HARD.

(I realised, I don’t really care enough about makeup to do this to myself. Plus, when I looked at my actual face, I realised that I have basically no eyelids when I close my eyes which was why I always looked really odd when I put on eyeliner, but no eyeliner makes me look even more odd. So my options are no makeup at all or a TEENY TINY line of eyeliner.)  

So swish mascara and PAINSTAKINGLY DRAW THE HINT OF A BLACK LINE.

Lipstick. I am lazy, so the only lipstick I can deal with is the Max Factor lipfinity, the kind of stuff which is like painting and then varnishing your lips and requires deep exfoliation to remove. But on the bright side I don’t have to remember to reapply it every 15 minutes because I’ve eaten it off my lips.

And TADA.

I may change it up, that is the point of mindfully applying things to your face, but for now this is all I feel I want.

I am a feminist but… I have just written a blog post about how to apply makeup. I mean the irony of this post is that I am telling you how to apply makeup, by saying that you should not let anyone tell you what to do with your face except you. But me telling you that is telling you what to do with your face. ARGH. You might be like, hey, Katie, I enjoy browsing a drug store and finding products I didn’t know I needed to highlight body parts I didn’t know needed highlighting. And that is fine.

(inspired by The Guilty Feminist Podcast)

As ever the thoughts expressed in this post are merely the thoughts and views of Katie written down on the date she thought them and do not necessarily represent the thoughts and views of Katie throughout her whole life. Debate and counter arguments are always welcomed.