Welcome!

"Love of beauty is taste.  The creation of beauty is art."
     - Ralph Waldo Emerson

This quote for me really captures what makeup artistry is all about.  When you really start to experiment with makeup, your face becomes a canvas on which to make art.

That's a super overused metaphor, but it's all I've got.  I really can't do this whole talking about makeup like a motivational speaker schtick. I think it would be boring to read and cheesy, anyway.  I'll probably spend a lot of time trying to be funny while I try to find my writing legs. Or whatever.

What I said about makeup as art isn't untrue, though.  You have thousands upon thousands of paints, hundreds of techniques that you can mix and match, and a canvas that can be repeatedly wiped clean and reused as many times as you want.  In the beauty world, we see a lot of talk about certain colors or looks being "wearable" or off limits for whatever reason.  We see rules like bright pink and blue should have stayed in the 80s, people over 30 can only wear mattes, smoky eyes are only acceptable if you're going out at night and trying to get laid, yadda yadda.

Frankly, I believe that stuff is nonsense.

Those rules are rooted in the idea that makeup exists and is used only for the sake of other people.  The basis of those ideas is that we have to care so much about what other people think that we have to let them control everything we do.  The choice to use makeup and how to apply it is all about expression.  It's about what makes us feel beautiful and special.  It doesn't make sense to let others' opinions of us control how we outwardly express ourselves.  Obviously there are limits, but I hardly think blue eyeshadow is the most offensive thing one can do.  The only thing that should control how you use makeup is how you want to use it, and I mean how you actually want to use it, and not how you think it will be acceptable to use it.

This blog will spend a lot of time breaking all those arbitrary rules.  My mom is 50 and I encourage her to wear as much glitter as she damn well pleases.  I have blue eyes and yellow-toned skin and I wear cool colors, because I just plain like cool colors way better.  Heck, I get compliments when I do unusual things with makeup.  This blog, with its ridiculously lame name, aims to break down makeup barriers and show how to see the art in makeup application and show how unusual techniques and colors can be flattering.

Enjoy, I guess.  There are lots of tips, tricks, reviews, and shameless pictures of my face and my friends' faces to come. I've never had a blog before, so it should be interesting.