I Don’t Need Your Permission To Love Makeup

So Stop Trying To Shame Me For It

Recently, I’ve been seeing articles that depict makeup in a negative light. So many women are ‘finally being freed’ from their makeup prisons, and others argue that women only wear makeup to attract the male gaze. The women who wrote these articles have only seen makeup as something that they were ‘forced to wear’. Those women were never makeup lovers, and that’s fine, but I am a makeup lover and I want to share my two cents.

I love everything about makeup, from the act of applying it to the confidence it gives me. I’ve always considered makeup another form of art, and I usually experiment with bright colors. I’ve even considered furthering my education in makeup artistry by learning how to create special effects makeup. Watching my face transform in the mirror is almost like magic, but I also know that I don’t need makeup and can go without it as I please. I have never felt obligated to wear it and only wear it for myself. As silly as it may sound, there are also days when I feel my makeup is a suit of armor, giving me confidence that I need to go about my day.

In 2019, I left a job that I enjoyed for one that paid more and offered me more hours. I didn’t know how toxic that job was when I accepted it, or I never would have applied for it. The job ended up taking a toll on my mental health for over a year. During that time, I was using makeup as therapy. Sometimes, applying makeup was the only bright spot in my overwhelmingly negative (and long) workday. It always brought a smile to my face whenever someone complimented my makeup, because I felt like they were appreciating my art. I didn’t have to wear makeup for this job, most of the other women who worked there didn’t. Some of my coworkers even made fun of me for wearing makeup, but I never allowed their words to bother me. Most makeup lovers have been judged for their love of makeup, and I was already used to hearing statements like ‘you wear too much makeup’ or ‘you look like a clown’.

When I finally left my toxic workplace, I got a job working with makeup. Now I encounter women who range from expert to beginner, and each of them has a different reason for wearing makeup, but the one thing they have in common is that they are wearing makeup for themselves. Some may want to look their best when they look back on old wedding photos, while others want to feel more like themselves since the mask mandate was lifted. Some of these women are like me and wear makeup solely because they are passionate about it.

In my short time working with makeup, I have encountered a woman that I’ll never forget. She had third-degree burns on her face and asked me to help her pick out something that would help her cover them. She didn’t want them covered because she wanted to attract a man or fit into society’s standards. She just wanted to look in the mirror and feel like herself again. She wanted to learn to love her new physical appearance, and it shouldn’t matter to anyone if she felt she needed makeup to do so.

A lot of people like to talk about the negative side of makeup, and how they feel pressured to look a certain way because of makeup trends, but there are positives as well. I mentioned above that women have many reasons to wear makeup for themselves, but I also find that the cosmetics industry empowers many women. From salespeople to CEOs, there are many jobs created and filled by women. With the growth of social media, anyone can build a makeup community.

While I am glad that women who felt obligated to wear makeup now feel that they can go without, I’d also like to celebrate the makeup lovers of the world. There are many valid reasons that women can enjoy wearing makeup, and we shouldn’t be shamed for wearing it or told that we’re just wearing makeup to impress men or appeal to their gaze.

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