Not Quite Old Makeup #2

Nancy ♦ August 2, 2011 ♦ Leave a comment

Back to the three levels of Makeup:

1. Wal-Mart
2. Work
3. Wedding

I figure I wear Makeup #1 – Walmart makeup – 10 times per year, and Wedding makeup, twice.  That means for 353 days out of 365, I wear makeup #2, Work Makeup.. 

Work makeup is appropriately named.  Not only because I wear it to work.  Because it works.  I have been wearing most of this stuff since I turned 14.  I wear (in order):

• Primer (Okay this is new this year… love this stuff)
• Concealer
• Foundation
• Eye Liner       
• Eye Shadow
• Mascara
• Brow Pencil  (I admit this is relatively new too – since I recently found out that eyebrows do indeed go gray)
• Blush
• Lipstick

That’s nine steps… not too bad.  And the nine steps are only seven products right now, since I use my nice pinky-brown blush as shadow, and the smudgy tip from my liner to assist my graying brows.

These seven items fit nicely inside a small bag when I travel (which I almost never do.)

But my makeup cabinet looks like this:

Why do I have all these products when I need seven?  Because I am a sucker.

I love drugstore makeup because I can try all kinds of stuff without spending lots.  I love expensive makeup because the exquisitely made-up lady at the makeup counter tells me I need it, and because it smells really good.  Because one of these days I am going to find something that makes me exquisite.

Some of this stuff I buy, I love. And my new shadow, blush, whatever, quickly replaces my previous love.  This is sort of like how I treated boyfriends when I first started wearing makeup. 

Some of my purchases don’t work at all…wrong color, wrong texture, bad smell.  This is often the case with drugstore purchases, since I can’t open it right in the aisle and give it a whirl. But sometimes even stuff I try on turns out not-so-good.  It makes me break out (which is quite discouraging when you’re old), or gives me hives (even worse). And sometimes horrible mistakes just happen – like when I got one of those tiny samples of foundation that was glued in a little foil dot inside a magazine, and it was a fantastic texture, but too dark, so I went directly to Sephora and the fabulously made-up girl half my age helped me pick the exact right shade; but when I got home it was…well…yellow. 

Some of it is just old, and what’s left won’t come out, or reminds me of some scary online story about germy makeup.

I could throw out all the unfortunate choices, old stuff, and jilted loves.  But I can’t.

I might need them.

–          Pale lips could come back – like I wore in the 60s. 

–          Fuschia blush might come back into style – like I wore in the 80s.

–          My skin might get really dry, and I will need really greasy eyeshadow.

I might decide to be Lady GaGa for Halloween.

–          I might even come down with jaundice and then I’d have the right foundation for my trip to the hospital.