Grow Up, Girls

If there was ever a subject I could talk about endlessly, it would be makeup. My fascination with it culminated in elementary school, where my then-best friend and I spent hours flipping pages of glossy magazines, expressing our awe at the newest pre-teen lip gloss featured in the advertisements. I still like gloss, although once I find a flavor I stick with it. If you want to see how much I hate trying new things, just look at the flavors I own: all Smackers, titled Lip Frosting, Vanilla Frosting, and Smooth Vanilla. (And I never use any of them because the wind gets my hair stuck on my lips, hah!)

But from a die-hard feminist perspective, is makeup OK?

Out of my six best friends, only one wears makeup continuously – a bit of liner on the top of her eyes. Another claims to love makeup, but when pressed, admits she only wears gloss and occasionally some blush. The rest don’t wear any. I throw on some liner occasionally, but I can’t afford to spend a precious five minutes in front of the mirror on some days, so I forgo makeup most of the time.

We’re all relatively young, so I suppose once we hit our thirties all of us will be wearing makeup daily, out of societal pressure. So here’s the thing: out of the millions of women wearing makeup, how many really want to wear it? There’s no doubt the right makeup makes a woman feel beautiful, but when going without it makes her feel ugly, something is wrong.

I dug up a 2008 study on how makeup affects a woman’s attractiveness (go ahead, click the link, it’s worth checking out.) In the study, women with and without makeup hung out in bars, and more men approached the woman wearing lipstick, blush, etc. In another part of the study, men and women were asked to judge photographs of women with and without makeup, and most considered a woman with full makeup more attractive than the same woman makeup-free. Mind you, their faces were washed and cleansed!

So how do you make the decision whether or not to wear makeup?

The same way you’d make a decision whether or not to wear a light jacket on a breezy day. Some might want the extra warmth, some might like the cool wind on their exposed skin. Many women think they enjoy wearing makeup because of all the attention they get, but they really enjoy that attention – I myself am guilty of this one!

In the end, the choice is yours. What would you rather get noticed for – your intelligence, sweetness, creativity, etc. or your makeup? There’s nothing wrong with wearing makeup to draw attention to yourself, as long as you know what really makes you beautiful is underneath your skin. Makeup is, in the end, an accessory, not a necessity.