MAKEUP: MY PERSONAL PLAYGROUND AND HEALER

«Makeup is not my armor, it’s my playground. »

At first, I would say that I put makeup on because I like getting ready, I have always been coquette since my early age. I believe this is the result of the Barbie phenomenon. Her persona has a significant impact on my life now that I think about it... She is always well-dressed with a nice haircut, and that is what I love the most about her. That did not mean I wanted to be the same as her white face and blond hair because, even my younger self searched for a black doll. I have always been attracted to what I look like. When I was little, l watched my mom, my aunts, my older cousins putting makeup on, I was like fascinated; my mom noticed, so she bought me my first makeup item: a waterproof mascara in a turquoise tube. In my first days in high school, I started putting foundation and so serious adventure begins...  

FEEL GOOD “When I feel sexy” 

Makeup became one of my many forms of self-care, and also a form to express myself. When I am not feeling at my best, it has grown into a way to boost my ego. Just like that, I start getting ready alone at home, look in the mirror, take pictures and compliment myself. I believe narcissism got its good sides! I still feel beautiful with a bare face with just hydrating face crème and chopstick. I have no problem showing myself with no makeup on, and so to keep the same mindset I take pictures of myself without any filter or makeup to remind myself what I looked like and not get myself lost in this egotistical and overweening world we live-in mostly as a result of the rise of social media. It’s keeping me down to earth into appreciating more my natural beauty. A type of beauty, that everyone got, that may sound a little cliché but, I strongly believe everyone got their own unique beauty no matter what beauty standards one’s society has putting up, but sometimes it is just the way they are and the way they’re standing themselves that produce attractiveness.   It can come from a song I just listen to or when I see my reflection in the mirror after taking a shower. I want to make an extra effort and materialize this feeling. 

NO STRESS 

A few days after feeling low because of school, love story or simply life, I sit down and free my imagination. Subsequently, I take pictures and videos without even posting those on social media, I am keeping them to myself. 

BOREDOM  

A usual Sunday like any others, I fished all my tasks, my homework is done, my belly is full, I’m done scrolling through my social media so I am saying to myself just like that: “why not.”  

INSPIRED 

When I see a nice picture on Pinterest or a good YouTube makeup tutorial, it makes me want to get pretty too so I take my makeup brushes while keeping in mind the aesthetic of what I saw, and let’s go! Makeup is here to enhance what you already have. Don’t try to look like someone else, you got chubby cheek put blush on it, you got almond eyes apply eyeliner, you got big lips put lipstick on. All I am trying to say is makeup should not be a mask you are hiding behind but instead considered it as a way to show yourself in another light and still accepting yourself without any artificial effect. I think you can use makeup to gain confidence, but you also got to learn to keep the same energy and enthusiasm when you don’t get any. Don’t lose yourself trying to look like someone else it will get you nowhere because solve the confidence problem that you might but it will increase it.  

Océanne BILE ELA 

This is the very first article of Oceanne Bile Ela, promising journalist.