Feeling 'Pretty'

There are so many looks that women can create with their makeup: glam, natural, bohemian-chic, classic, dramatic etc etc.  I've been thinking about what my personal journey is with makeup and what my 'intention' is behind pursuing makeup artistry!  I think that every woman deserves to feel pretty and beautiful - regardless of what look they love or what their best colours are - the end result is to look and feel pretty.  I would feel honoured and completely happy if I can bring this feeling of 'pretty' to someone.  I also realized that in order to do that, I have to get over some of my personal insecrities and channel this same feeling.  I recall reading a book where someone equated makeup to wearing a 'mask' and that makeup 'hides' the true beauty of a woman.  I decided to give this a lot of thought - what is makeup anyway?  We learned in class, that its the process of using colour and products to alter ones appearance.  But is makeup essentially creating a 'mask' to cover up your appearance?  I came to the conclusion that 'no' makeup is not a mask and 'altering' your appearance to feel pretty and beautiful is not a bad or negative thing!  We alter our diet to look and feel better - we alter our clothes to make them fit against our bodies - we alter our personality to remain calm under pressure or present our best self to others - yet, none of these things are negative - we do it to be our best possible self and I think the same is true with makeup!!!

Part of my personal journey is coming to terms with using makeup to present my 'best' self - to stop compulsive and 'impulsive' makeup purchases to constantly be in search of the 'perfect' colour or product - I've blogged about this before - for me, my jounrey has led me to declutter what doesn't work and stick to classic shades that represent my true autumn palette, my soft classic-chic style type and compliment my lifestyle!  But I still had to ask myself - do I feel pretty?  Does the makeup I put on my face to alter my appearance make me feel beautiful?  I think I have finally discovered a look that does just that - but before I was able to fully embrace this classic look, that feeling of 'pretty' needed to be discovered 'within'!  Yes, Makeup can alter your appearance for the better, clothes can alter your body to fit you the best, but unless you have that inner feeling of pretty 'within' first, thats when makeup becomes a 'mask'!  Its time to remove the mask of our insecurities, so that the makeup we wear truely helps us embrace that inner 'pretty' that we all deserve to feel!!!  Here is my 'Inner Pretty' Look:

For this look I used NARS tinted moisturizer in St. Moritz, Secret Camoflauge #4 as a concealer, MAC's Gold Deposit Mineralize Powder, Refined Golden bronzer as a contour and Arena shadow as a highlight.  For my eyes, I wanted to create a subtle, yet classic look, so I used arena as a base, romp shadow from the lid into the crease (both MAC) - I then lined my eyes with Brown-Copper eyeliner by Laura Mercier and smudged the upper lashline with galapagos eyeshadow by NARS.  I used Make Up For Ever #70 blush, a pretty terracotta shade.  I then used Chicory lipliner and Strength lipstick by MAC!  I also wanted to take a photo with this makeup using flash for an evening look - the 'only' change that I made was to deepen the lipliner to 'auburn' by MAC, but other than that - the makeup is completly the same:

Its amazing to me how much flash can alter a photo, but its also nice to be able to see how a particular makeup look will look in evening lighting or flash photographs.  I think that the auburn liner is perfect with the Stength lipstick - it takes it from a copper-brown shade to a stunning Warm brick-red shade!

I hope that you enjoyed this post about makeup and feeling pretty!  I think that if you feel pretty on the inside, this energy will make you glow and finding the right makeup colours will just enhance that inner glow!  So 'Shine On' and give yourself permission to always feel and look 'Pretty'!!!