Let's address the elephant in the room...
If you hang out with me on Instagram, you may have noticed that I’ve given up ‘working’ on a Monday and can now be found hanging out at my local spa instead.
It feels so good to give up a traditional work day on a Monday to replace it for a little email and social catching up, pool side.
It became one of the new commitments I made to myself for 2022 having felt pretty overworked for the past few years.
Yes, literally years.
Side note. I also host a business coaching call every Monday night for my Mentees which means that usually, in order to go from what I would call my ‘Spa day hobo’ look (think fresh faced, no makeup, top knot and joggers vibes) to my ‘Professional Business Mentor’ look, I’ve gotta seriously pull my image together.
However, I came to recognise that preparing for the call for 30/40 minutes by applying a full face of makeup and styling my hair was pretty out of proportion to the time I spent on these calls. Crazy.
So I’d basically go from feeling fresh faced and comfortable all day long to then, come 8pm, spend 40 minutes or so doing ‘all the things’ to style myself for a 60 minute call -only to then take it all off and hop into bed?!... Ummm, weird.
When I realised what a huge waste of time this was, it also got me thinking about what the heck had me programmed in the first place to believe that I had to show up to these calls looking red carpet ready?!
My conclusion? Society.
Consider this. If a guy gets on a zoom call without having fixed his hair frizz and smoothed his fine lines or dark circles, is he judged as being less than professional? Is his contribution less valuable? Absolutely not. No one probably even notices because there was no expectation for him to do so in the first place.
So why, just a few weeks ago, did I feel like I ought to address the elephant in the room on my zoom call? (The elephant being that I wasn't glammed up to the nines!)
Society.
I felt like it was expected of me to be as close to ‘put together pretty’ as possible. I decided that I was done with that BS.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t about not taking pride in our appearance or man hating. What it is about is women feeling comfortable enough to show up with or without makeup because it has no relevance or reflection on her value.
Let’s strive to be unapologetic about our image.
Do you ever feel like you need to or ‘should’ wear makeup to leave the house, do the school run or attend the meeting?
I actually would love to know, so leave me a comment and tell me how this resonates for you.
Either way, I think it’s about time we have more conversations around breaking beauty standards.
You may, at this point, be wondering why as a professional MakeUp Artist, I’m having this conversation.
‘Like, doesn’t she get paid to put makeup on womens faces?!’
Yes, I do. And I love it.
But, my job isn’t to reaffirm to women that they need makeup in order to feel beautiful. For me, It’s about enhancing someone's image through the use of makeup in a way that is fun, creative and expressive just in the same way a great stylist can throw on a belt that shows off your beautiful figure or a shirt that makes your eye colour pop.
The point is make makeup for you, not for anyone else. Wearing makeup shouldnt be a matter of survival or necessary to feel accepted in the world. It can be a tool to play with, to use as a form of expression about who you are.
This latest shift in me has also inspired the thought that it may be pretty cool to run a live workshop where we can hang out and I can take you through some of the most impactful makeup tips that can have you effortlessly zoom ready in just 10 minutes. This would also be great for moms on the go or any of us that want to look and feel fresh and put together without having to dedicate a ton of time and products.
If this idea sounds like something you’d be down with, then let me know -and actually DO let me know because I won’t run a workshop without knowing that you actually want it first!
