Making Up

I drove to Little Rock in the rain this morning. Not a big deal, but I normaly use any excuse not to drive to Little Rock. I had an appointment that I had to reschedule from when everything in LR shut down due to the "Big Snow" we had a while back. (Those of us in Arkansas know it only takes a flake or two for the entire state to go into full emergency mode.) So, I couldn't put it off again, as it took me a month to get it rescheduled. As I drove carefully and no faster than the speed limit, vehicles were flying by me. It's as if they were oblivious to the danger of hydroplaning, and believed they could all stop on a dime, on a rain soaked highway. It boggles my mind.

Anyway, as I was driving along, I was listening to a local radio station out of LR. The Morning Rush on B.98 had as a guest, a professional makeup artist. For those of you who aren't in state, the Morning Rush has three hosts, two being male. I was very surprised at this particular topic, but the female host is very witty and fun, and I bet she usually gets her way. One of the males was off for the day, but the remaining male was lost as a goose. He kept saying, I don't understand but I'm just sitting here listening and learning. Heh heh. Poor guy.

What I learned, I thought I'd share. A few things stuck out in my mind. The main one being that she said when you reach the age of about 50...... (as I will in September, boo hoo) you need to change your makeup. The older you get, the less makeup you need to wear. Now why is that, you might ask? Because it sinks into all those wrinkles and makes them more noticable. Hmmmm. You don't say? And if I understood correctly, in years past, older women used to wear more and more makeup as they aged, and it only made them look that much older. (In my mind's eye, I can see my grandmother with her eyebrows shaved off and penciled back on, cheeks with big circles of rouge and ruby red lips.)

So, I'm thinking, oooookaaaayden, what should I do? She suggested no mascara on the bottom lashes, and not much of it on the top. And using more moisturizer instead of foundation. I'd love to think I could go without makeup altogether and look halfway decent. Fact is, if I don't use three coats of mascara, I look like a zombie. So, I never, ever, leave the house without mascara and concealer on my raccoon undereye circles. I guess I'll experiment and see how long I hold out going with the whole "less is more" idea. Vanity will raise its ugly head in no time I'm sure and I'll begin pasting on all the makeup again, convinced it's hiding all my flaws. Just call me Grandma.

Another thing that stuck with me, was that if you have brown eyes, one of the best eye shadow colors for you is plumb. Hmmmm, I like that idea, but if I'm going with less, that's irrelevant isn't it?

She stressed eye cream, even for 20 year olds. And lots and lots of moisturizer for your specific skin type and lots and lots of sunblock. She said going without it was the most aging and damaging thing a woman could do. She stated that moisturizer would keep your oil pores smaller, because they wouldn't have to open up to produce moisture for you.

The male host did actually ask a pretty good question at one point about acne. He said for a woman who had a pretty bad case of acne to pack on the foundation, trying to hide it, really didn't seem like a good idea to him. It didn't hide it at all, but only made it look worse in his opinion. The artist was in total agreement and said that it even makes the acne worse. And she stressed the importance of using a clean disposable sponge when applying the foundation, especially when you have acne.

So dear listeners, I've shared the knowledge I learned this morning. I'm sure the men are very interested in this post, but hey, maybe they will get a little insight into what a woman is thinking regarding makeup. I'm sure most of our husbands would tell us we are beautiful without any on at all. And they should. It's their job to make us feel beautiful.