Seeing the Best Version of Yourself – by Bella Ramirez
When I was younger I didn’t like mirrors. There’s something horrifying about an object constantly staring at you and projecting everything people see — flaws and all. I particularly hated mirrors when I experienced my first pokes of acne and when my eczema began to act up. It seemed the mirror on my wall wanted me to remember the things I thought were mistakes on my face. Then I met a group of uplifting friends and they insisted on appreciating mirrors. One day one of these friends came in to do my makeup for a photoshoot.
“What feature do you like about your face?” she asked.
“What do you mean like about my face?” I responded.
She explained she needed to know what features I appreciated so she could highlight them in my makeup. An hour of makeup later (with an emphasis on my eyes) she revealed my new look. Surprisingly, I did not look like a completely different person, rather I was me with a few of my attributes in bold. Makeup helped me see the parts of me that are beautiful and suddenly, mirrors did not seem so bad.
A common misconception is that makeup is used to cover flaws. First of all, if it’s on your face it isn’t a flaw, it may just not be something you like as much as the other parts of your face. Second, makeup is used to highlight pieces of you. Sure, that may mean sending the parts you don’t like as much to the background but that does not mean deleting them from the picture entirely.
Another beautiful thing about makeup is it provides control (as a control-freak, I really support this aspect). People already are given the opportunity to pick what they wear and how they act, they should also be given the opportunity to enhance parts of their face if they want to. The New York Times explains that being in control of how you present yourself to the world allows people to go about their day more confident.
Beyond being confidence-inducing, makeup is an artform. Makeup artists on social platforms use their makeup pieces to invoke emotion and express ideas beyond words. Hodaya Louis, a New York-based makeup artist posts videos of her work on her account. She uses makeup on canvases to provoke questions on what is truly considered human and how women are perceived in society. This artform does not just empower women though, it also helps men.
More men are beginning to dabble in makeup and they feel the same confidence boost women feel from it. Alex Dalley, founder of MMUK, the multimillion-dollar male-based makeup company in the UK, explained to The Guardian that he grew up with acne and his first encounter with foundation was life-changing. “I remember looking in the mirror and feeling like myself again,” Dalley said. Men like Dalley took charge of their appearance through makeup and now can look in a mirror proudly. Makeup is not a crutch or a mask. It’s a tool to help people believe in themselves again. Sometimes they may believe in themselves to the point of entrepreneurship.
Makeup helps with confidence, it is artistic and it is all-inclusive, however it also allows artists to profit off of their makeup creations. Some makeup artists will sell their skills by offering to do a person’s makeup for a specific amount of money while others will sell makeup they created. Even celebrities like Rihanna, Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner have started their own makeup lines.
All in all, makeup helps people see the best version of themselves; not a distorted version of them. People are beautiful with and without makeup. Makeup can just help people with their confidence when first addressing their beauty. Once you build your confidence, then scary objects like mirrors aren’t so frightening anymore. So, let’s do what we want with our face. As long as it makes you smile and enjoy who you are, then makeup will help us all reach new heights. Cheers to getting cash, making art and smiling without shame — to makeup!
