The 10 Commandments of Beauty

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Happy Easter! I hope everyone is having a good weekend.
I had a lot of fun coming up with this list, I even enlisted the help of MUA. Though not particularly spiritual in any way, I try to follow these rules almost religiously (no intention of being blasphemous here) because they do effect makeup application quite a bit.

1. Thou shall wash thy brushes. Seriously. Dirty brushes collect oil, dead skin and germs- you don't want to put that back on your face. Cleaning your brushes on a regular basis also keeps colors true- for instance, if you use different blushers but the same mucky brush, your cheek color will look muddied.

2. Thou shall never go to bed with makeup on. Doesn't matter how tired you are, wash that face and remove that mascara! I'm personally occasionally guilty of this, and I know that's what causes my breakouts sometimes. Not even mineral makeup should go to bed with you.

3. Thou will prime thy skin. Primers are your friends. It keeps your eyeshadow on and keeps it from fading and creasing and creates a nice smooth surface on your face for any other makeup.

4. Thou will remember that there is a place and time for different kinds of makeup. Bright eye shadows are funy and eye popping, but it's not appropriate for say, a professional work environment, job interviews (unless it's for a circus) or formal/somber occasions (exceptions being clown school graduation and clown funerals).

5. Thou will remember that perfect skin is not achieved by makeup alone, but is a combined effort of good skin care, good nutrition and stress/hormonal management. Oh. And luck (damn you, genetics). That being said, thou will nourish thy skin.

6. Thou will wear sunscreen. Except, you know, me who breaks out from both chemical and physical sunscreen.

7. Thou will accept the color of thy skin as beautiful. Different cultures find different skin tones to be attractive (for instance, a lot of Asian countries sell makeup that is skin lightening and in North America there's tons of bronzers) but there's a certain point where aspiring to change your skin color is ridiculous. Like overly tanned orange girls or skin bleaching.
8. Thou will not use expired makeup. I mean expired as in you're able to see separation in the product or it starts to smell. Different kinds of products have different expiration periods.
9. Thou will not share products that can't be sanitized. This means sharing the same lip gloss, mascara, unsharpened eyeliner, liquid eyeliner.
10. Thou shall embrace makeup looks that look good, not just trends. If you don't think the fuchsia lips from the runways look good, then don't do it- accentuate what you love about yourself.

So, am I missing any commandments?