Is makeup empowering or enslaving? I’ve been doing makeup at the Melbourne Cup Carnival this week here in Melbourne. Some of the experiences I’ve had with clients started me thinking about what makeup means to different people, and how it impacts us.
Empowering
For me, makeup was always about feeling good about myself, or feeling more empowered. When I put on my makeup in the morning, its always a bit of a creative moment. How do I want to feel today? Makeup can be extremely empowering, helping us to feel stronger at work, or it can also help us to feel more romantic when we go on a date. In a similar way to fragrance, colours are also be extremely emotive. In this sense, when used to make us feel a certain way, that we want to feel today, it can be empowering.
I really encourage you to try different things and try out different colours. Makeup is only temporary. Hence, I think its great to experiment with different looks, and see what works for you, and what makes you feel more confident. When it makes you feel more confident, makeup is definitely empowering.
Enslaving
However, I worked with girls this week who were more insecure about their makeup than perhaps I have been. Makeup can attract attention from men in some instances, and whether this is sometimes a good thing or not, depends on the motive I guess, so I won’t comment on this.
I also worked with women who were very aware of what their partners or husbands were saying about their makeup, and was even asked to change the colour of lipstick because one husband didn’t like the colour, and said it was too bright. This comment really made me wonder about why the husband was concerned about bright lipstick. Was he worried about his wife standing out too much, was it his own insecurity, or was it some pre-defined ideas about what women should be like? I’m not sure what would have led into this, and I’d be curious to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
You can shop makeup on our website. Alternatively, contact us if you’d like to try a few different things with a makeup consultation. So what is makeup to you: Empowering or Enslaving?
Photo by Nicolas Postiglioni from Pexels
