Posts Tagged ‘family’

Let me take a moment to get a little personal…

I used to be pathetic at doing my makeup.

Absolutely.

Totally,

And stupidly inept at applying cosmetics to my face in a beautiful and pleasing way. (*Here’s an interesting fact: the word “cosmetics” comes from the Greek word for “order”. Which was totally antithetical to my first newbie designs of course :P)

But I still loved playing with it and would do so every chance I got. I blame this fascination with the magic of makeup on my dad. Yes, my dad. No, he didn’t dress in drag nor was he a circus freak. He just loved Halloween…and theatre :) And I loved watching him transform.

Meanwhile my mother just used the standard neutral toned, basic cover up and color of a busy working woman. Concealer, brown brow pencil, that sort of thing. Not particularly imaginative but functional and easy to put on everyday.

My dad’s makeup was “special” so he would put it high up on a shelf in my parents bedroom closet. Meanwhile my mother’s daily beauty products were easily pilfered just by going into the bathroom and rummaging through cupboards. So being the enterprising pre-glamorgoddess girl I was I snatched up her lipstick and pencils and commenced to make a very bad attempt at “drawing” beauty on myself before the living room mirror.

A minute later my dad spotted this cosmetic horror and yelled at me, saying “Little girls aren’t supposed to wear makeup!”

He was right…mostly cause I made a huge mess of my face.

I kept at it though – and even contemplated a career of makeup artistry. Would that I wasn’t also simultaneously obsessed with other things (travel, socializing, fashion, writing, spazzing out) I just might have made that a reality. As it is I’ve made a nice pastime out of fantasy makeup and even made a few lovely tweaks to my daily makeup routine.

What’s my point here? Have fun with your designs – explore color, shapes, lines, etc. Make it a fun ritual for expressing your personality while also enhancing your natural features. With that sense of play and experimentation you will enhance your learning and even get to know your own unique beauty quickly and easily :)

So, what’s your makeup story? Let me know – I’d love to hear it ;)

“I heard someone once say that we’re only as sick as our secrets.” -Carrie Fisher’s Wishful Drinking

I have begun reading about Carrie Fisher’s crazy up and down life with delighted interest. After watching all the youtube videos of her I could find starting with the one below, and then reading a slew of articles and interviews I boogied on over to the library for a copy of her totally candid live-and-in-wacky-first-person autobiography Wishful Drinking.

My mother, whom I currently chaperon asks innocently “do you think you are bipolar?” then,
“all the people I’ve heard about being bipolar are really hard to live with.”

She’s so wonderful and seems blithely forgetful of the often emotionally torturous years her and my father have survived in raising me. That or she took a good measure of peace in her office miles away while I raged home alone with my brother. No matter, she has always taken my intensity in stride…as best she can anyway.

Alright…gotta get back to the book. Here’s that vid I was talkin about an excerpt from the amazing documentary hosted by Stephen Fry “The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive”:

By the way, did you notice how I totally posted this out of sequence? Yeah, it’s been a weird…project.

Ever the rebel girl I decided to spend New Years Eve with my very mellow, non-drinking, non-partying parents. There was an odd sense of “rightness” in blowing off the alcohol saturated parties for “family night” at the movies and then microwaveable pot roast dinner at home. Were I to choose the “eve” parties I would find plenty of new and old friends to blithely welcome in 2010 with. But this night…it was just mom and dad and a comfy couch to watch a Cary Grant movie while the fireworks went off outside.

Mom.
Dad.
My cat.

Later on, Anomaly Boy and I cuddling comfortably in his bed and an audio book.

This is my Real life at times.
No pretension.
Little fanfare.
Occasionally quiet.
Plenty loving.
Absolutely Real.

I’m ready for you 2010, bring it on.

photo credits: