DEFINITION
Cosmetics
A toiletry designed to beautify the body
“Anti-Ageing, Extra Sexy Look Healthy Magic Cream It’s Beauty in a Box!”
All women seem to wear make up these days.
A woman’s make up bag is an essential part of who she is, it seems, but where did it all start?
As far as I am aware, they had quite advanced forms of beautification in the time of cleopatra, in egypt, a couple of thousand years ago, and its origins may be from much further back in time. But we are here to discuss it in its modern context.
What I want to know is why we cake creams and mascara onto our faces!
Faces that are so pure and beautiful on their own, before they are covered with a creamy facade. Our skin is delicate and needs the right moisture and exposure to the air to remain healthy, but hydration comes from within not from outside.
Wearing make-up doesn’t hide either, it projects and it accentuates. It projects an image of who the women want to be seen to be.
In short (if you didn’t know it already) it is worn to attract men. You may not agree with me here, but think about what you wear. Eye mascara to accentuate the eyes, lipstick to accentuate the full lips. Blusher or powder to accentuate the cheekbones. This is all about animal attraction. The need to attract a mate.
So is this about biology then?
We know it is hard wired into a woman’s brain to find a suitable mate with whom to have children with, and she uses whatever tools she has at her disposal. Much like a bird who displays all his colours during the mating season, women apply false colours to try to achieve the same effect. So isn’t it perfectly normal to make yourself as beautiful as you can be to attract a mate you want? Isn’t the idea of accentuating the most sexual parts of your face mimicking nature?
I hear most women reading this saying “I don’t know why he’s going on about make-up; I like wearing make-up, it makes me feel good. Why shouldn’t I wear something that makes me feel more attractive. I’m not doing it to attract a man, I’m doing it for me!”
Whilst having a conversation with a friend a couple of years ago, I remarked that her make-up was always immaculate, and I asked her (jokingly) if she ever took it off. To my surprise, she said that not only did she go to bed with her boyfriend in the evening with make-up on, but she also got up in the morning to apply fresh make-up before her boyfriend got up. In short, her boyfriend had never seen her as she was meant to be – natural.
Now I for one, found it sad that someone had to hide under cosmetics; what I would call false beauty, even though it was quite obvious to anyone, that she was pretty anyway. But she never showed her true self.
Whilst this may be an uncommon story, I did start to investigate it more; the more women friends I talked to, the more I found that wearing make-up all the time was common; even when they did have a man, and no longer needed to attract him with long dark eyelashes and pouty red lips! They wore it all the time because that was who they were. They weren’t hiding anything, nor trying to project anything; without make-up, their whole being, personality, and their self-worth was incomplete.
When they looked at themselves in the mirror, the true self was the one wearing the make-up – the one with the sultry eyes, sexy lips, and raised cheekbones painted on. Gone was the reality of nature, the face that has been evolving for millions of years, and brought in was the false, man-made beauty.
The thing is, men have become addicted to make-up as well, and also don’t want to go out with a girl with a “plain” face. They want her to look “stunning,” they want her to look “beautiful.” They want her to smoulder; even if it is under a load of old grease paint!
Of course men are attracted to women with make-up. The dark eyes are meant to draw you in; the plump red lips meant to imitate the physical state when a woman is excited and her lips fill with blood, mimicking the sexual organ, also inviting you in…
Who would a man be attracted to? The woman looking painted and seductive, or the “plain” girl?
We have become so conditioned into believing that this is how women “should” look naturally, that we seem to have forgotten that it is all man-made. I don’t know about you but I am quite impressed with the way nature has dealt with things over the last few billion years, and I am also a believer that nature has pretty much thought of everything whilst we have been evolving over the last million years or so.
In fact, we are so perfect, anatomically, that I would hazard a guess to say that if nature had intended us to have thick black eyelashes, accentuated cheeks, and bright shiny lipstick, they would have come as standard!
I am not suggesting that women shouldn’t wear exactly what they want, I just want to explore it with you. It seems to me that women don’t think about why they are wearing it; it’s just something you do as you get older.
Unfortunately, young children are now encouraged to play at dressing up where they wear make-up, which starts the conditioning process off.
They see their sister and their mother wearing it, so they just accept that it’s something you should do. It is teaching every young girl that the only way to be beautiful is to apply cosmetics on your skin. It teaches that beauty is something that can be bought in a jar.
Beauty
The qualities that give pleasure to the senses
The old saying “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” just doesn’t seem to ring true. We feast with our eyes before we even strike up a conversation, and we are naturally drawn to features we judge as attractive. We take in all the primary information we need to know about a person’s beauty from their face.
Some people have striking facial features which seem to be in perfect symmetry, and for some reason, please all of us (think fashion models). Unfortunately, this accidental mix of genes which resulted in these features is taken as the benchmark for what beauty should be, and the rest of us spend our time trying to live up to this seemingly impossible standard.
Of course, the cosmetic companies love our insecurities, and they come up with all sorts of products to cover up “those little blemishes.”
The stupid thing about it is that most of the models in the magazines have been “touched up” by computer to make them look perfect.
As all of you should know, there is no such thing as perfection, only subjective judgement; and if I judge myself to be beautiful, then so be it!
I am beautiful.
The problem with the word beauty, is that it naturally goes along with another word, and that is compare (examine and note the similarities or differences of). We are constantly comparing ourselves with others.
We are always looking at others to see if they are more beautiful than we are. Then we look in the mirror to compare ourselves to them. We feel forced to constantly evaluate our faces and bodies. For women, and slightly less so for men, the need to compare represents a physical need to assert whether we are attractive enough for someone else to pick as a mate.
Of course, some people prefer specific features (height, hair colour, body type etc.) over others, but this need to constantly evaluate and compare – what are, in essence, just the surface of who we are – is sad in my opinion.
Every human being on this planet is beautiful, and I don’t mean that flippantly, I mean it in all seriousness.
Under every skin is a golden light. A mass of swirling energy, bursting with vibrancy, swathed in colour, full of real beauty. Not superficial, like the position and shape of the nose, the height of the forehead, the shape of the chin, the definition of the cheekbones, the plumpness of the lips.
Let me ask you a question: How many of you have met a woman (or a man) whom you thought unattractive on first meeting? I have.
How many of you have noticed that the more you get to know them, the more the shape of the nose, the crookedness of the teeth, the width of the chin, becomes less and less important; and the more you understand about them, the more you like them? It’s strange, because you would always believe you would end up going for the most attractive man or woman; but in the end, it is not the looks that are important, but what makes up the whole person. But still we compare.
We worry that our choice may be too ugly, and friends may make fun of us – but then they are not our friends.
Why do we always seek perfection?
Perhaps seeking perfection is a natural process, and we are looking for a mate with “the right stuff.” If that is true, then we will always be drawn to features that some would call beauty. But what I want to know is why we are so critical of ourselves. “I’m too fat,” “I’m too spotty,” “I’m too this, too that.”
We are critical, I believe, not because we don’t love ourselves, but because we are concerned about what others will think of us. “Am I beautiful?” girls may ask. “Am I handsome?” men may question, but if you were not comparing yourself with others, what use would the question be?
Think about it for a moment. “Am I more beautiful than her?” How could you tell unless you use the all powerful media yardstick? The measure that all must compare to – the models. The most perfect. The finest features. The biggest bust. The most slender waist, the most rounded (but firm) buttocks. The longest toned legs (and that’s just the women!).
Let me ask you another few questions. What do you want to look like? Are you not happy in your own skin? Do you want plastic surgery? Do you want a facelift?”
The sorry answer to these questions is that in a lot of cases you do! You must look perfect, like the models.
You listen to what the media says. You read those stupid magazines that tell you how to firm your bust, tone up your legs, and “attract a man!” (The same magazines are on sale for men too.) But there is one thing you are forgetting, and that is that the cosmetic (including diet/fashion) industry, is worth billions of dollars.
Of course they want you to think you aren’t perfect. They know you want to be perfect. They know you don’t have perfect breasts/legs/nose etc. And do you want to know why?
Because they invented the definition of perfection There is no perfect. If you can exercise and make yourself fitter, eat a healthy diet, drink lots of water then the golden radiance we talked about earlier will come through, you won’t need a face pack of cosmetics to make you “appear” healthy and attractive. If you are healthy on the inside, psychologically and physically, and think positively about everything you are and everything you do, you will have a natural beauty far exceeding anything these expensive nothing creams can do for you. By all means keep putting on make-up, but think about one thing: Why? Your skin is perfect (even if you suffer from acne). Plastering on make-up will only make it worse in later years. The adverts will pander to your secret fears of becoming old and unattractive, but don’t listen to them.
You must shine from the inside out, and the only way to do that is not by applying “maxi-hydration mask with 15 super ingredients to make you look 30 years younger in 14 days.”
You are human! You will get wrinkles, it’s a simple fact. Your body will change as you start to get older, the skin tone will loosen, but it is reflecting the fact you have lived! Please explore this topic with me carefully.
We are teaching our children that beauty comes in the form of a lipstick or eyebrow pencil. You have the responsibility to tell your children “You are beautiful,” and to “accept you are beautiful without the need for an artificial mask.” What shame is there in showing your eyes as they are, your lips as they are.
Feel the power of beauty inside. No matter how many layers of the mask you put on, remember you will have to take it off one day. What have you got to lose?
Break free from the control of the cosmetics companies. Break free from comparison. Do not judge yourself or others. Accept. Let go. Y
ou are amazing. You are love. You are radiance. You do not have to wear make-up to find love.
