lipstick and lashes

Barbara and Leny contemplate feminism and cosmetics.

Although it's a very rare occassion that I wear makeup (so much so that I simply rebuy makeup because I don't quite remember which purse I left the last stash in), it's not because I thought of it as a feminist thing to do. I'm just lazy. I also never really learned to do makeup properly. And at this point have worn makeup so infrequently that it irritates my skin. Perhaps I should follow Leny's lead into organic cosmetics.

I would watch my mother apply makeup before going to work. The only thing I really liked was the fragrant Chanel powder she had. I liked the fluffy cotton powder puff she used to apply it with.

The only makeup I could apply properly was for stage. Stage make up is easy because you just make sure to apply too much so the people in the back can still see how rosey your cheeks are despite the bright wash of light drowning out any skin tones.

So, it's ironic, is it not or perhaps simply the universe balancing itself out, that the SO loves cosmetics. He loves looking at fashion magazines and critiques Malou Nubla's makeup on tv. He's the one who wanted Barbies and cut out pictures from fashion magazines growing up. I wanted GI Joes and Transformers.

I've looked at one or two magazines, the ones where they show women step by step how to get certain looks. I read one article about how to figure out how to contour the plucking of one's eyebrows. It discussed how you use the edges of one's nose to mark where to start the plucking. Of course, the model's face in the magazine ends up perfect because she has this thin nose. Then I think, what if I apply this to my face or non-white faces where our noses are more broad then long. And it hits me, this is why there are some Asian women who look like their eyebrows are sliding off their face! These angles and calculations don't work on non-white faces. Hmmm...

Once, I had professional makeup done on me, at the SO's sister's wedding. The makeup artist was a transgender Pin@y with a makeup kit that could rival any toolbox on a woodworking show. I felt like a canvas as she mixed colors and powder applying with the most delicate brushes and even fingertips. She even did my hair, creating this skyscraper metal structure of bobbypins so my 6 inch hair could be a stunning up do. It was amazing! I didn't look like me and it didn't even feel like I had make up on. This, I thought, was the way makeup is supposed to be. No wonder if takes hours and hours to make models "look" a certain way.

I ask the SO, why women need really dark eyeliners and eyeshadow. He tells me, well, if you have blond lashes, you have no eye definition, but most Asians don't need that much.

I've come to watch over the SO's shoulder when he critiques the makeup of women of color who are on tv. How some makeup people don't know which colors to use to define our faces so we end up like a two dimensional sheet or excessively use glossy makeup that makes lighter skin shimmer but only makes darker skin look like ghosts.

A long running project of mine is to talk to Filipino make up artists to understand how they use make up to accentuate our beauty. Isn't the true art of makeup at times to look like as though one does not have makeup? The dream is to someday come up with new rules for creating our faces.

I've often had a problem with white feminism that says we have to give up the things that we like as women in order to establish our empowerment. I do understand how not wearing makeup, or shaving one's legs could be seen as a reaction to a time when all women were expected to do these things in order to look a certain feminine way. But 20 years later, women have a choice. Now that we actively choose to wear makeup or not, is the feminist act simply not wearing the makeup or is the feminist act the fact that we were able to choose what makes us beautiful?