A 'Geneological' Lesson in Unique

Being off for the summer, I've been able to get caught up on reading the things that really interest me.  Genealogy, history, even old family documents and letters that my parents recently found.  One thing that I've recently come to understand, is just how unique we really are - our origins, our ancestry, our likes/dislikes, personality, mannerisms etc etc.

It really got me thinking about every time we 'personalize' something - our colours, our style, our fashion sense etc etc.  I think that it can be quite clear with some people wether or not they are a cool, warm or natural skin tone.  It can also be quite interesting to see someone fit in perfectly with a seasonal type.  However, there are always exceptions and there are always people who don't fit the mould, they are the 'uniques' of the world.  Let me give you an example, I've been interested lately in looking at old National Geographic photos of people from all over the world.  I noticed that the most captivating looking individuals are unique in some way.  Remember that famous photograph of the woman from Afghanistan who has clear, green eyes?  Sometimes I think the beauty/fashion world tries to create a box of how we're supposed to look and they don't celebrate our diversity enough.

The same thing goes with colour analysis - I think some people fit in very well within a certain season and I think it's very good and helpful to know what colours work for you!  However, colour analysis doesn't leave room for the 'uniques'.  I've always been interested in learning about peoples cultures and our ancestry as humans in general.  Archeologists are discovering more and more things about different cultures that just blow our minds out of the water.  People and races of people that we never expected to live in certain parts of the world are being found to have lived in those areas.  For example, a mummy with Celtic DNA was found in China and now archeologists are discovering other European settlers in China.  It would be sad to think that our ancestors just stayed in one area - I love that Humans have that inner need to explore, travel.  I'm sure that our ancestors did it more for survival though.  Today, we look around and find stunning women in European areas of the world with Mongoloid/Turkish features and Norwegian/Norse features from Viking conquests in Eastern Europe, France, Germany etc.  Our world is so unique and our personal ancestry is so unique.  I have come to learn that my great grandfather was from the Carpathian area of Ukraine and his ancestors most likely spoke a dialect - I was told he has Hungarian roots as well.  On my maternal side of the family, my one grandfather had a very deep olive skin tone - I seem to be a mix of everyone in my family - a true 'unique' - I don't fit 'in' so to speak and that used to really bother me because I wanted to look a certain way so that I'd know more clearly who my ancestors were - did I have some Viking blood? Turkish? Mongolian? etc etc  However, I had a huge A-Ha moment when I realized that I am a unique mix of many interesting ancestors.  My blood type is proof of that - I'm AB, a mix of European (A) and Nomadic Steppe Dwellers (B).

If I can tie this into my passion for makeup, style and creating looks - I really need to say that the most beautiful looks are the ones that are the most 'unique' - Instead of trying to hide certain things like freckles, moles, a certain skin tone shade - we need to celebrate those things.  We may have a warm skin tone and cool toned eyes or a cooler skin tone and warm tones in our hair etc - instead of trying to look a certain way, why not play up all the things that make you truly unique?  I decided to include a few interesting photos in this post - one is of my paternal great-grandfather and the other of my maternal grandfather: