I can wear make up again!!!

Happy Easter everyone!

It’s official, Lent is over, and whilst I’ve learnt a lot and have appreciated this experience I’m happy to be wearing make up again.

So what have I learnt?

• Society has very strong views on make up that don’t really get aired
• The media hype on self esteem is all about body image but I’ve realised that we all have “face image” issues too.
• Lent lasts 40 days but does not include Sundays
• I can last this amount of time and only lapse once
• I am still attractive to the opposite sex without make up
• It was easier to do than I initially thought

I’m not ashamed to admit that it has been a bit of an ego boost. People were really nice about it and I learnt to appreciate the way I look naturally which has now meant that I can appreciate how great I look with make up! I was expecting to have quite a low self esteem while I wasn’t wearing make up but I don’t think I was really affected; which in turn made my self esteem even better!

I’m proud of myself.

From now on I will try not to judge others as much, I will continue to feel strongly about the cause of self esteem (particularly in teenage girls), I will admire those who don’t wear make up and I will happily leave the house without make up.

I hope you’ve enjoyed following my progress through Lent and I hope you’ve maybe learnt some stuff too (leave me a comment and let me know). I will continue with the blog although on a different theme so keep coming back!

I just have one last thing to say, a motto if you like, to put things into perspective when your feeling a bit rubbish about the way you look:

Looking good is NOT the be all and end all.

Acknowledge your spots

One thing that has made the lack of make up so much harder is that age old skin problem, the zit.

Embarrassing to have, and even more embarrassing to talk about. (So much so that I just closed my laptop as the ticket inspector came past on the train!)

I like many other people, encountered spots in my early teens. At 19 I’m beginning to see improvement but not as much as I’d like, particularly as I can’t hide behind concealer at the moment. However, adults in their 20’s and 30’s are increasingly becoming sufferers of acne due to stressful lifestyles.

These adults not only have to deal with a great big imperfection appearing on their face for all to see;  there is the stigma of having to deal with something you were meant to have gotten rid of in your teens.

In April’s edition of Elle Jenny Dickinson bravely explored the idea of adult acne and the extortionately expensive treatments you can have to deal with it. She rightly pointed out that so many of the associations we have with spots simply aren’t true – uncleanness, poor diet and even too much make up.

And despite many of us knowing in the back of our minds that those aren’t true we still don’t like to talk about them or point them out because they’re “dirty” and “gross”.

Spots are an unfortunate thing in life that doesn’t have an easy answer. I have been to the doctors, tried numerous treatments, numerous skincare routines and even the high-tech solutions explored in Elle didn’t hold the key. They aren’t a serious health issue but in bad cases they can lead to bullying and low self esteem for some people.

So the real solution to curing spots is to lose the stigma connected to them.

Jenny Dickinson discovered that while she didn’t get rid of all her spots, talking about them with other women helped. She realised she is not alone in her problem and that even the most glamorous women in her office were empathising with her rather than laughing at her.

Some mornings it has been hard to walk out the house with a smile on my nude face because Mount Vesuvius is distracting everyone from my pretty smile but I’ve pushed myself. I’ve done it and I’m proud to say I’ve done it despite the shame that having spots has.

So here is my challenge to you: talk about your spots. Laugh about the ‘grossness’ of them, get angry about how they ruined the way you looked on your night out and offer advice on what has helped your skin.

If you don’t have spots (you lucky thing!) then try not to judge others who do and lets all appreciate that it’s a fact of life we can do little about.

Here’s to a zit revolution!   

 

What does Lent mean in the 21st Century?

I hold my hands up, I wore make up on Wednesday.

I was really beginning to miss it and my flat mates and I were going to a party and I was having a bad skin week!!

I did feel quite guilty the next morning, and I feel like I’ve let my blog fans down!  However, I did find a way to excuse myself.

After a couple of conversation over when Lent actually finishes I decided to do some research. It’s a lot more complicated than I first thought!

It turns out that while it does run from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, Sunday’s don’t count! So while I’m 32 days into not wearing make up I could have been wearing make up on 5 of those days! And just to make matters more complicated, Lent is different in the Eastern Church.

The poll I conducted on here has revealed that only 10% of you are giving up anything for Lent although 50% of you have given up something in the past.

I wonder how many of those people were doing it as a religious thing? Probably not many.

I’m not a Christian, but I do accept that Christianity is a huge part of our culture and history as a country, that’s why we have thousands of atheists and even people of other religions celebrating Christmas, Easter, Mothers Day.

I watched a really interesting series of documentaries on Channel 4 called “Christianity: A History” a little while back. One of the documentaries was focusing on the conversion of Africa to Christianity and whilst a lot of the conversions were brutal and forced Christianity on to people there were some nicer success stories! One place was still practicing their old pagan rituals, but they were doing them with a focus on Jesus and the Christian God instead.

I’m beginning to wonder, are we doing the same in England with atheism?

We’ve made Christmas about family and Lent about self improvement.

I’m a big fan of self improvement, I make new years resolutions every year and evaluate my life regularly. For me Lent has been an opportunity for self improvement too, I’ve given up make up to try and make myself less vain. Other people give up chocolate because they want to lose a bit of weight perhaps. It’s not a bad thing, but it’s not a religious thing.

We’ve lost religion and replaced it with who we are, what can we bring to this world, making our own morals and living how we think we should.

We’re beginning to know less and less about what religious festivals mean (or even when they run from and to!) and changing their meaning to fit our secular thinking and secular society.

my mood is in my make up

I may have been quite critical of make up in my past posts but I must admit, I am beginning to miss it.

For two brief days this week, the dark cloud over Preston was lifted and the sunshine came out to play.

I have missed the sunshine desperately since moving to the grim north and so when I finally got some much needed rays I was as high as the kite that I wished I had when I was sitting at the park on Thursday. In the rapid change of mood I felt that wearing make up would have just completed my good mood, or rather expressed my good mood.

I love that make up can transform you to relfect your mood.  You can go from looking ‘every day’ to looking ready to party in minutes! When I come back from work at around 7:30pm and get ready for a night out, I struggle to get in the mood without make up. Putting on make up to go out makes me feel fresh and ready for the night ahead of me. Without changing my appearance I’m still stuck in work mode. The change of outfit just doesn’t quite have the same effect.    

Following this thought, I began to feel a little sorry for men. What do they do to transform their look? While metrosexuality is on the rise, nothing quite makes as much impact on the way you look as make up. Are they destined to look ‘average’ all the time?

While I rarely see any of my male friends and think they look really bad on that particular day, I also rarely see them and think they look great that day! In comparison, I probably complement at least one of my girlfriends at least once in a week on the way they look.

Whether you are conscious of it or not, make up and style is a form of art. It expresses who you are and how you feel.

Sometimes I tone it down with nudes and play to my girly side, sometimes I show my fun loving side with some electric coloured eyeliner and sometimes I put on basic make up which says ‘I couldn’t be bothered today’.

Then again, I doubt most men really think about what they feel that day when they reach for their jeans lying on their bedroom floor.

But for me, I can’t wait to get creative with my make up again and show my sunshine happy mood!

Poll: Are you giving up anything for Lent?

Celebrities not wearing make up

 

I was in my flat mates room earlier this week and she had a copy of Heat Magazine on the bed. On the front page was “Stars without make-up special.”

Given my current situation I was rather interested in what the media had to say about it.

I was expecting it to be slating the celebrities who included Adele, Sarah Cox and Anne Hathaway. However, the magazine took a more sympathetic approach.

The only problem with this was that some of the pictures were extremely unflattering! A complete mixed message.

They publish images so that we can stare and laugh at people who normally look ‘perfect’ and then excuse them because they usually look so great or they’re going through a break up or they’re a parent.

The representation of women in the media has been a big issue in recent years. We are more aware that skinny models and airbrushed celebrities are giving us ‘normal people’  a complex.  

As a result of this things are starting to change. Look at the dove promotion for example, and perhaps Heat Magazine’s sympathy for celebrities who aren’t wearing make up is a sign of this change too.

Gossip magazines just don’t know how to deal with it though. A celebrity might be hailed in one issue for having ‘curves in all the right places’ and then in the following issue there is a photo of them at the beach with their cellulite circled and magnified.  

They’re trying to find what their readers want and while increasingly that is a real representation of women and accepting the fact that we’ve all got imperfections, there is still a part of us that loves to pry into other people’s lives and point out how bad they look. After all, that’s what gossip magazines are all about.

I don’t think gossip magazines will ever be sugar and spice and all things nice but then maybe they should just stick to what they do best and stop contradicting themselves.

They’ve gone from trying to be your bitchy friend with all the gossip to trying to be your sweet friend with all the compliments and now they’re just your two faced friend… and no one wants that!  

Heat Magazine might be praising these celebrities for being “comfy going out with bare faces” and admiring them for going for the “low maintenance, fresh look that we love” but I know that I would be slapping on the make up thicker than ever if I was papped looking like that!

What I have learnt this week from not wearing make up

On Wednesday I was asked to help some students with making a TV news programme by being a presenter.

As I sat there pondering the dolled up faces of Natasha Kaplinsky and Georgie Thompson I felt that I really should have been wearing make up.

The girl next to me, also presenting, said “Its part of you isn’t it. Don’t you find that people treat you better when you look good?” I found this statement slightly alarming. Its part of me?? I can’t say I notice a ’whole new me’ when I put on make up.

Perhaps she meant that if you wear make up it says something about your personality but hang on, most of my peers wear make up but we’re all very different!

As to whether people have treated me better, I honestly haven’t seen a difference! In fact, the bar tender in the pub I was in on Saturday asked my friend if I was single or not. What an ego boost!

However, it is a simple and unfortunate fact that you will be judged on the way you look. (This article shows statistically the effect wearing make up in the work place can have http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/career_and_jobs/graduate_management/article2961724.ece)         I may not be wearing make up but I still keep myself well groomed and I have made more of an effort with the way I dress. Although part of that has come with having more time in the morning.

On a shallow note, not wearing make up has made me much better at accessorising! Simply because the 15 minutes I usually spend on putting on make up in the morning is dedicated to lazily thinking what else I can add to my outfit today and having a cup of coffee.

So I conclude that as long as you look presentable and show the world you’ve made an effort, make up really doesn’t matter!

40 days and 40 nights

It is five days into Lent and five days since I have worn make-up. I’ve given it up. It’s a sort of experiment, a test of my inner strength. I’m wondering how much time and money it will save me and also whether I can actually do it!

Those of you who know me will know that I’m not the kind of girl to leave the house looking anything less than fabulous… with the exception of the odd bad morning.

So far its gone fairly smoothly but I think there will be some challenges ahead: my first big night out, having my photo taken and probably some more that I haven’t yet thought about.

What has interested me is the reaction it has caused. Within six minutes of posting ”Olivia has given up make-up for lent” on facebook at around midnight there was a shocked comment from a friend. A few more followed over the next couple of days, including “you know that’s forty days, right?”

I’ve also had several conversations with friends about it. Mostly very supportive or saying that they couldn’t do it themselves.    

One friend, male, thought that what I’m doing is really good. He said that a lot of girls become so dependant on make-up when they look great with out it. (So there is hope that not all men want a bimbo with big boobs and foundation as thick as themselves!)

I completely agree with him. I’ve worn make up nearly every day since I was about 12 and even though I made some hideous faux pas’, being of an age where glitter ruled, it made me feel confident.

The feminist in me wonders whether make-up has been enjoyed by women and made them feel better about themselves or whether it is just another pressure from society which has given us more insecurities. 

I’ve never known anyone to challenge the idea of wearing make-up, it’s just something we do every day and give little thought to. I guess that’s why I was surprised by the outrage this idea has received, it has been more provocative then I expected. Maybe it’s something we should be addressing. Ever the new-age feminist, eager to jump on a cause, I think I’ve landed on one without realising it.

Perhaps next year I’ll give up wearing a bra.