Gaga Over Makeup

My sweetheart was nice enough (hahaha!) to get me MAC's Viva Glam Gaga lipstick yesterday. He liked the Cyndi one--named after Cyndi Lauper; Gaga is Lady Gaga's lipstick namesake--much more, but what can I say... I LOVE pink.

Actually, I really liked the coral red Cyndi lip color too when I swatched it on my hand, so I see no problem adding it to my makeup kit as well.

I enjoy playing with makeup; once upon a time, paintings, sculptures and other old school art forms were pretty much all there was to rely on for entertainment and communication, but in this computer age I find makeup application a practical and fun outlet for my creative juices.

Since childhood, I've come across people with issues relating to makeup and beauty. I've heard it said for instance that makeup is only for the "ugly" ones, and that you don't have to touch it if you're already naturally attractive. My ears have also picked up on makeup being associated with words like "slut," "whore," "dumb," and the like.

Hahahahaha!

How amusing it is to me that we give so much power to something that can be washed off at any time. Makeup may create the illusion that someone is more pleasant to look at, with perhaps assets like wider open eyes and fuller lips, but in knowing that, we can simply use it as a plaything (click the bold words for an old video from yours truly!), while keeping in mind that the results aren't real so we don't become dependent on it and can function without it.

Regardless of whether you have so-called flaws you want to minimize with the help of cosmetics or not, you can play with makeup and be a different character from day to day or whenever you feel like it. Like a lot of other things in life you may not think twice about--for some, it's clothing and for others it may be their house or their car, for example--makeup is a toy.

Not everyone is called to be a professional makeup artist or beautician of some sort, but why not have fun with different shades of lipstick and eyeshadow if you use makeup as it is? Why bother putting on that lip color you've been using for ten years if it doesn't flatter you to begin with?

If you're buying it and putting it on anyway (which I assume is because you want to look like an enhanced version of yourself), wouldn't you rather have fun with makeup and apply it in such a way that becomes you?

...because otherwise, if getting creative with your image is something you only think you should be doing but it doesn't actually inspire you, you might as well step out into the world without a stitch of makeup on your fresh-scrubbed face. Then you can devote your energy to what does uplift you.

As for the Lady Gagas of the world, makeup is a medium through which personal expression becomes a broader field. After all, before Gaga even opens her mouth to sing or say anything, her painted face on any given day already gives us an indication of what she is, or what she wants us to think she is, at the moment.

Lipstick kisses,
~Lea