Tips For Adulthood: Five Reasons To Get A Makeover

eyelinerOn occasional Wednesdays, I offer tips for adulthood.

I’m not exactly what you’d call a girly girl. I hate shopping, I rarely purchase clothes and I only really began wearing make up regularly four years ago when I started my most recent job.

So when my 22 year-old niece recommended me for a free makeover/photo shoot, I was initially skeptical.

“It’s fun!” she insisted.

“Yeah, I’m sure it is, but you’re 22 and I’m…not,” I answered.

When the call from the salon initially came through, I politely declined. But when they later followed up with a text, I found myself wavering.

I’ve only had someone show me how to apply makeup once in my life, another freebie back when I was much younger and first out in the working world. Back then, someone told me that figuring out how to style yourself is all about seasons – and my coloring renders me “Winter” – but I never bothered to investigate what that really meant. More to the point, that was like 20 years ago and I felt like it might be time for a”refresher” course.

It was. Here are five reasons to get a makeover:

1. It’s efficient. I have no idea which makeup looks good on me. For awhile now, I’ve noticed that others were applying their makeup differently to me and better, but I didn’t know how to alter my daily regime and that’s not the sort of thing I’d be naturally good at figuring out. This time, the lady who did my makeover told me that my natural skin tone is yellow. This means that I should stick to “peach” tones. But because I have blue eyes, I can also work in some grey accents and pink is OK for lipstick. Best advice? Putting eye liner on the top eyelid, not the bottom.  Apparently it “opens the eyes.” (Yeah, I’m pretty late to that party, but at least I’m not alone.)

2. It’s a good excuse to declutter. Relatedly, there’s nothing quite like seeing professional photos of yourself to realize that the jeans you think look good, don’t; the color of shirt you think suits you, doesn’t, etc. etc. I’ve just finished reading a book about decluttering – The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying – whose essential message is that most of us are living with untold amounts of clutter in our lives that simply doesn’t “spark joy.” If we can get rid of all that excess stuff, and pare down to the things that we really love, we’ll not only see our lives more clearly, we’ll be happier and more relaxed. In my own case, I know that I could easily do without at least two-thirds of the clothes I own because I only wear them once a year. It’s time to accept that they simply don’t “spark joy” and move on.

3. You can bond with your child. I took my 12 year-old daughter along with me to the makeover/photo shoot. They gave her a tiny bit of lip gloss and curled her hair. She loved it. I know that many would find this troubling: it encourages her to focus too much on her looks and to learn that her natural beauty is something that she needs to perfect endlessly. But I’m really confident that my daughter knows exactly who she is and also knows that looks aren’t everything. And as long as she’s still at that age (just) where I’m her best friend, I cherish any chance for us to spend “alone time” together.

4. It’s good to experiment. I’m currently reading a self-help book that encourages readers to try one new thing a month. The idea is that only by experimenting, can you discover your true passion in life (more on that another time…). I’ve written before on these pages about the value of experimentation in adulthood. In my own case, I’m trying really hard to fight the side of me that always responds to new opportunities with “You don’t have time,” “It’s too expensive” and/or the perennial, “Yes, but…” In the case of this makeover, my gut told me that I actually wanted to try this and I figured I had nothing to lose. I didn’t.

5. You get a decent photo of yourself. Yeah, I’m not above that…

What about you? Have you ever had a makeover? Did you like it? What did you learn?

Image: YSL Baby Doll Eyeliner 11 Light blue by Heidi Uusitorppa via Flickr

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