Tag Archives: face

Beauty

NO MAKEUP WEEK: Day 7 – Wednesday

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Coincidence? I Think Not A couple of days ago I found out that I'd be doing something really cool at work that involved meeting some VIPs (I cannot give anymore details for fear of being terminated. Hey Bosspeople, confidentiality agreement met!) I was exited, ecstatic, elated, other exclamations beginning with "e," and then I looked at my calendar and saw that the pivotal day was also the last day of No Makeup Week and I silently cursed ever starting this godforsaken challenge week. I seriously considered throwing the whole thing out the window and saying, "Fuck it, I'm not meeting VIPs looking like a garden gnome." But then I thought, "No, you cannot abandon this project MissBleecker." And so I decided, makeup or no, I was going to go through with business as usual, because, after all, those were the rules. And then I thought to myself, this just seems too perfectly orchestrated to be true, I mean either my life is a SitCom (which I often think it is) or the Universe is trying to tell me something. It just seemed far too perfect that the culmination of my beauty project would eventually end in the biggest test of my faith in my face (and all that I am to back it up.) Needless to say, the day went swimmingly, and although the VIPS (all of which were beautiful/handsome/put together people) might not have been scathed by my presence, as I am not at the top of the food chain (not yet, at least), they also did not seem to be bothered by my unmade face and were friendly nonetheless. Lessons Learned So what does this all mean? What has this week taught me? Why do I wear makeup? Well for one, because I like it. I like wearing make up because of the way it makes me feel I look. If this experiment has taught me anything it's that I don't actually wear make up for other people, my friends, people who really know me, don't care much if I'm picture perfect or looking like Ke$ha on a Sunday morning. It's me that doesn't want to look in the mirror at my true face. And why is that? It is because I think I'm ugly? No, certainly not. Maybe it's because after 22 years of looking at my reflection gradually change and age, the only thing I can keep constant is the image I wish to present to myself. So what am I saying, that make up is merely a placebo? Possibly. Who knows if what I see in the mirror is drastically different from what the world sees when they look at me. When you study your face, you can see all the years marked on it, you can see the cracks, the lines, the freckles, the differences that no one else can. So when you cover it up, are you seeing what you've done to your face or what you'd like it to be? People strive for perfection, it's what motivates us, it's what separates us from animals. We try to achieve, to be our best selves, to evolve into what we wish to become. For me, making my face is a transformative process which allows me to raise my head higher, look people in the eyes and not be afraid. It is a mask I wear, and I wear it proudly. After this whole week, I know that tomorrow, when I get ready, I'm going to take the extra 10-15 minutes and paint my face with my warrior lines. That mask is what protects me from the world, it lets me face her without any fear. And let's face it, after all is said and done, we're all a little shallow, and why? Well because we live in a material world baby, and hey, I'm a material girl! Side Note: I've been thinking of that line all fucking week!
Beauty

NO MAKEUP WEEK: Day 6 – Tuesday

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So you might have noticed that RadCooks has undergone a slight face lift. The much needed changes to my glob's theme have come about due to boredom and an inability to grasp advanced CSS editing skills within a work day. You'll hopefully be seeing more changes to RadCooks once I master the art of web design; and for those of you who are not familiar, that shit is pretty fucking hard, but until then, I leave you with a slightly more colorful, personalized and RADiant RadCooks. I like the houndstooth! Feeling Feelings What to say about Day 6? I started writing yesterday and it turned into something that was deep and somewhat surprising, so I'll expound upon those thoughts for my conclusion. However, what my stream of consciousness showed me was that this experiment has become a lot more personal than I'd originally intended. With the end drawing near, I need to ask myself why I did this and what I expected to get out of it. I honestly did it because I thought I couldn't. When I read the original Jezebel post I thought it would be fun to challenge myself and glob about the crazy hyjinks that my makeupless face would surely get me into. I must say, this week has been a bit more hyjinky than normal, and when you read Day 7's post it would just be that the universe decided to have my last day of No Makeup Week coincide with another major event (details to come.) Anyway, back to the point I was making before I rudely interrupted myself, I feel as if this experiment has become more than just something fun and challenging, it's become personal to me. I've begun to question what I see when I look in the mirror, what people see when they look at me, beauty in general. What I thought was one way has proven to be another and now I feel that on Thursday, life after No Makeup Week is either (a) going to change my perception of my face and beauty forever or (b) just be something I globbed about when I was young. What scares me most is how vulnerable I've been over the past week; I've taken down my most physical barrier between myself and the world and I'm presenting myself as I am and not the perfect image I wish to be. More so, dear reader, I'm being completely open and honest with you. What's happened over the past week was an unexpected switcheroo, you're no longer reading words written by MissBleecker, this is pure me.
Beauty

NO MAKEUP WEEK: Day 5 – Monday

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A Case Of The Mondays I woke up this morning groggy, confused and thoroughly unsatisfied with my dreams, add that to the fact that it was raining cats and dogs and I had to hike nearly a mile to physical therapy and I was not a happy camper. Mondays, why was the day ever invented? Mondays jolt you back to reality like a defibrillator. I walked into work, feeling gross from the rain and when I looked in the mirror to fix myself I remembered why it is my concealer is my best friend. As you all know, I had a pretty full weekend and my face paid the price. I had been rested, I had been glowier, but not on Mondays. And then it hit me like a ton of bricks, I remembered where the obsession started. You see in high school I wore make up, I would wear eye liner here, blush there, but it wasn't an everyday thing and never to the extent it is today. Like A Punch In The Face Freshman year of college, first semester, I had 8AM classes everyday, work until 4PM and then an evening class. By the time I got back to the dorm it was dark out, I'd grab dinner at a dining hall, chow down and then drink myself silly. It was college, I wasn't under my mother's eye and we were freshmen, it was what we did. Needless to say, my complexion took a beating, at least that's how it looked. Because one day, out of no where, I was hanging out in my friend's room and his roommate looks at me and comments on my dark circles, "It looks like you got punched in the face." Well that's what the insult felt like, it knocked the air out of me and the next day I bought industrial strength under-eye moisturizer. Now, I don't know if it was the comment, or what it made me see in myself, but after that some sort of concealing was happening on a daily basis. Of course I can't blame my entire self-view on one idiotic remark from a man who clearly does not know how to converse with the fairer sex, and I'm not going to, but there are always remarks, looks, feelings that we get off other people, internalize them and add them to the why-I-hate-myself pile. And even to this day, the number one thing I need to cover up are my dark circles. I will say, to the man's credit, that he was absolutely correct, it did look like I'd gotten punched in the face, it still does, and that is one of the reasons why I wear make up. But here's some free advice, to all men, even if you don't want to sleep with her, never, ever, under any circumstances say anything negative about a woman's face. Because let me tell you, she's thought about her face every which way, so anything you say will resonate with her as true. So again, never say anything negative, even if she asks you... especially if she asks you.
Beauty

NO MAKEUP WEEK: The Routine

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To better help you, dear reader, understand exactly what I will be giving up, I've written a detailed and if I don't say so myself, poetic and eloquent, account of my daily face routine. Enter my sick, self-obsessed world! The Base Of My Face Now, I have to admit being bad, because I never take off my makeup before I go to sleep, I don't know why, (I'm lazy) so when I wake up the next morning, not only does my pillow look like it's been eye-raped by Taylor Momsen, but my face looks like it did when I thought it would be fun to play in Mommy's makeup kit. So I have to take that crap off and start fresh, and mind you, by fresh I mean porous. I mean splotchy. I mean I've been breaking out lately because of stress and I've had dark circles under my eyes since god only knows because of my insomnia (did I mention I'm an insomniac? Fuck beauty sleep, give me 4 hours uninterrupted.) Where was I? Oh yes, fresh! So I even out with a base, I apply an allover foundation, I use Revlon Custom Creations Foundation, but you can still see the acne and dark circles. So I take my L'Oreal Paris True Match Concealer and I sweep it generously under my eyes, pat, pat, pat, looks better, and then I spot treat all the red marks, and I look like a fucking neutral-palleted cheetah, and I blend (blending is the secret.) And now it's starting to look like a normal person's face, but I have to seal it in with powder. So I take my powder brush, swirl it in my Maybelline Dream Matte Powder and sweep it across every inch of my face. So that's the beginning, and if I wanted to stop here then I'd look like I had no makeup on at all, but that's not my goal, my goal is to be pretty, and why with all the success and happiness I have, I can't be content with the face god or whoever gave me, especially with all my self-righteous feminist banter, I digress. And then it's time to add some color, so I take my angled blush brush and run it through some Clinique Soft-Pressed Powder Blusher, in Mocha Pink, I contour my cheekbones, making my face look thinner, warmer, and more feminine, flushed with blood, a sure sign of fertility! The Eyes Say It All Then it's onto the eyes, and let me tell you, this is both my favorite and most hated part. I love my eyes, I could get lost in my eyes for hours, in fact I have. They're big, yet seductive and a very pretty shade of blue. So while accenting them in the correct way can make them look even prettier, I'm a perfectionist, so if they're not just so, I get frustrated and end up stabbing myself with the eyeliner. But anyway, what I've been into lately is something more classic and looks simple, but is not simple at all. I love 60's cat eyes, and since I got these killer hippie-bangs I've been doing them a lot lately. I could never get the wing good enough with powder or solid liner and then I found L'Oreal HiP Color Truth Cream Eyeliner, in black. It's a cream! So I dip my angled Sephora eyeliner brush into the cream and I pull it across my lash line, and it looks okay, and then I do the other eye and I fuck it up. So I remove a little with some makeup remover and a q-tip and I reapply. It looks better now, but before I became such a pro, it has taken me several attempts in the past. And then it's the hard part, the wing. Making them symmetrical, not hookerish and perfectly fluid is like the hardest thing in the world, I cannot even begin to describe the patience required or the zen state of mind I must be in while doing this. But it works, let's just say it worked the first time (it's usually the 3rd, but I've gotten it down to the 2nd lately.) Of course sometimes I'll mix it up with some eyeshadow, I'm a fan of softer colors, light gray or brown, swept across the lip and more powerfully in the crease. Sometimes I'll even do eyeliner and eyeshadow, but that's only when I'm feeling extra fancy. Regardless, the hard part is over and now I can relax. So I take out my Revlon eyelash curler (which some of my male friends have looked at and been terrified by) and I get as close to the lash line as possible ,without actually removing my eyelids, and I do this a couple times on each eye. And I take my Clinique Lash Doubling Mascara, black, not waterproof, because that shit dries out your eyelashes, and I layer, layer, layer, and if I'm feeling frisky, I put some on my bottom lashes. Then it's the eyebrows, now let me tell you, I have some perfect arches so I don't need to pencil any shit in, and I wax my own because one time I let some salon bitch do it and I ended up looking like an angry chola. So all I need to do to maintain them (aside from waxing every other week or so) is brush them in the direction I want them to go and then seal them in with some Anastasia Brow Gel, because them caterpillars are finicky and don't always like to stay where I put them. Talk To The Lips But what about the lips? Now, I'm a biter, so unless I want some color on my teeth I generally keep them neutral, I'm a big fan of Neosporin Lip Treatment (it's medicated, it makes them go numb, I trip on that shit all day long.) However, yesterday I did get this new Nivea Kiss Of Flavor Strawberry Tinted Lip Care, which tastes, feels and smells great with just a tint of color. The Red Lip Now occasionally it's Friday night and I'm in the mood to get some male-attention, so I do a basic face and then I break hearts with my red lipstick. There's something about red lips that sends men over the edge, I think they see it as a challenge. It's sexy yes, but also unattainable. You can't kiss a girl with red lips, that shit will get everywhere, and even if it is Revlon Colorstay Ultimate Lipcolor, in Top Tomato, what I use, then it'll be like kissing a piece of dry wall. Either way, a guy can't help but trying; and there's something to be said about the confidence boost a girl gets when she sports a red lip, she knows she's got it, she can smile bigger (if there's none on her teeth) because it makes them look whiter, it draws attention to her face instead of her tits, she is the seductress, unattainable yet desired by everyone. No End In Sight And by the time it's over I look fresh-faced, dewy, youthful, glowing, whatever I'm supposed to look like after applying layer upon layer of chemical. To the untrained eye, it might even look like I'm not wearing anything, and that is indeed the point; but the question is, should I have to put in all that effort to look effortless? Now I will say that I've got it down to a science, and all the shit that I just explained usually only takes me 10 minutes. Nevertheless, it's daunting, to know that everyday I must wake up and participate in a routine that perpetuates the beauty myth, but damn, it makes me feel good!
Beauty

NO MAKEUP WEEK: A Crisis of Faith

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Hello Loyal & Deranged Readers, it is I, MissBleecker, your fearless, albeit fickle, leader (of sorts.) I won't dwell on my absence of late, just consider it a mental vacation. That is all. Well why have I returned to you, you ask? Well, let's just say, for the sake of this abusive relationship, I can't stay away from you too long, I have so much more torment to inflict. But what has broken you out of your month-long globbing funk? Well, today, as I was perusing my favorite feminist blog (aside from, you know, my own) Jezebel, I stumbled upon a quaint little post, The Week Of No Makeup. Writer is embarking on a challenge to not wear a stitch of makeup for a whole week. Nothing, nada, zilch. None to work, none to dinner, none at bars, none on dates (gasp), none on the hungover Sunday brunch with your parents (just as well, it's usually just the mascara-smudged remnants from the Saturday night shit-show.) And then it happened, Writer challenged all the women reading the post to do the same, go one week sans face-paint. Now MissBleecker is not one to shy away from a challenge, and so, Writer, I accept. 7 days without makeup (I'm sorry world.) Not only will I be participating in, what will heretofore be referred to as, The No Makeup Week Challenge Extravaganza, or something better for short, (how about Cavewoman Status Week?), but I will also be chronicling my week-long journey in this little box known as the interweb. Now, for some girls (we'll call them Eyeliner Whores), this challenge wouldn't be so tough. Those are the girls who are all like, "oh, I wear makeup," but really only wear eyeliner and maybe some tinted lip gloss. No, MissBleecker is a makeup fiend, I wake up and literally put on a new face. There's not a day that I don't wear makeup; I wear makeup to the grocery store, I wear makeup to take a stroll, I wear make up to buy makeup, I even wore makeup to hot yoga once (not recommended.) And I don't just do one or two things either, I have a fucking routine. So yeah, this is going to be extra hard for me, but I'm committed, and even though it's going to be an awkward, uncomfortable and a long week, it's going to be worth it in the end (I hope.)
The Rules 1. No makeup. 2. Any skincare (untinted of course) is acceptable. 3. I retain the right to do my hair, wear my regular cute outfits and accessorize. 4. My mani/pedi from last week is still going strong, and since I paid for it, it stays until it chips. 5. Nothing else will change in my day-to-day life. 6. I will document all changes in attitude; my own and those with whom I come into contact
So there it is, the gauntlet has been thrown down; starting tomorrow not brush nor liner nor cream shall touch my face for 7 consecutive days. I will be continuing life as normal, going to work, meetings, out with friends, and even to the odd party; may god have mercy on our souls!