My alarm goes off every week day at 6:50am. I then reluctantly open my eyes and turn on my local radio station. I then lie in bed flicking through Twitter for 15-20 minutes whilst listening to the morning's discussion and the news before getting up and ready for work.
This morning I was made instantly angry and needed to rant - so I will apologise now for how ranty this post gets. The question posed by the two male presenters this morning was "why do women wear make-up?". Now, I know from being a long time listener and the way they are that everything they were saying was not intended to offend and they genuinely seemed curious and the things they were saying were okay comments. HOWEVER... their main reasons for asking this question were that "men prefer women without the make-up" and "it must take up so much time!" (and they had some "statistic" of how many hours a year "women" spend putting on make-up.)
They get people to phone in to join in the discussion and everybody that did call in was female and the majority saying they don't because they prefer to spend longer in bed/have kids/no time/etc and some people saying they felt as though they had to wear make-up. To this one, the presenters being all nice and saying things about "natural beauty". This all being well and good but from those of us who suffer low self esteem, it comes across a little
patronising.
The main vibe I was getting though was the whole "we prefer our women to not have make-up on"... oh, I'm sorry. Just wait a moment... Do you think I'm rocking this red lipstick and smokey eye for YOUR benefit? No.
Just no.
I'm pretty confident that I've never heard from anyone that they wear make-up to appease another person.
I love wearing make-up. I love buying make-up and trying new products and looks. I find it quite therapeutic and it can make me feel better and good about myself. And if something is making us feel good, why should we stop doing it?
I'm having a rubbish day, the weather is awful, I'm spending another 8 hours sat in an office so I'm going to put on some winged eyeliner and a bright pink lipstick because I can.
As for the radio males point of "but it takes so much time! Why spend all that time on make-up when you can be doing something else".... I generally do the whole primer, concealer, foundation, powder, brows, liner, mascara, cheeks and lips on a daily basis. If I wanted to, I could stay in bed an extra half hour and be done in 10 minutes flat. But I enjoy spending time getting ready.
I especially love Saturday morning, knowing I don't have to actually be anywhere by a certain time and spending 90 minutes getting ready at the same time as watching The IT Crowd on Netflix.
Another caller on the radio (a non make-up wearing female) came on air and stated "make-up gives you spots and I don't have any spots!!" Oh, well bulley for you... So you have normal skin type then. First of all, spots aren't always a sign of bad skin. You can get spots/acne even if you look after your skin impeccably. Factors such as hormones can cause breakouts regardless of make-up wearing or not.
I'm not saying make-up doesn't cause bad skin because obviously putting products on your face can clog up the pores and clogged pores is going to result in bad skin. BUT if you cleanse your skin correctly, morning and night, then hey presto! You should be properly cleaning your face twice a day regardless of putting make-up on it. You sweat (you do), you're outside where there's all kinds of pollution and dirt, your pillow is full of sweat and oils from your face and hair... you need to clean your face. A face wipe to take your makeup off isn't cleaning your face. You need to unclog your pores, get rid of dead skin cells, hydrate and repair those skin cells. (I'm going to do an updated skincare routine post soon, I think!)
I very much got the impression, and I do in everyday life too, that people who don't wear make-up feel the need to have to comment on the fact that others do and they seem to take this elitist approach over it. (Elitist people is my biggest pet peeve!) It doesn't happen the other way round though (as far as I've ever noticed...)
As far as I'm concerned, anybody should be okay to wear make-up for whatever reason they want and not have to be commented on by other people. If you don't want to wear make-up, then don't. If you do, then do. If you want to wear make-up because you don't like to not wear it, that is more than okay. If you want to wear big eyelashes and highlighted cheekbones to go to the supermarket, then you do it!
Do what you want, wear what you want, look however you want to. You are wonderful whatever you choose.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you get as angry as I did when people make these throw away comments? I'd really love to read everyone's thoughts on this!
Thank you
xx
