Yesterday I was all excited to get an email from Sephora, an online cosmetics company, about a sale of theirs. I have no idea why. (Why I was excited, I mean. I know why companies send email about their sales.) Sephora gets a lot of mention in the women’s magazines, as they carry some of the high-end make-up lines that don’t seem to show up in department stores, at least not those outside New York. So I am curious about some of their products, but I don’t think I want to pay those prices for something I can’t even try on before buying.
I’ve been wearing more makeup lately, and I’m not sure of the reason for that either. Lots of women in my office don’t wear any, so it’s not peer pressure; I have pale skin and dark eyes, lashes, and hair, so I don’t look ill or washed-out without any. And I’m sure as hell neither a girly kind of girl nor the sort of coiffed woman who never goes out without her "face" on. When I do wear makeup, it’s usually subtle enough that the fact I’m wearing it may not be obvious to a casual observer. (Or that’s what I think it looks like, anyway. I don’t hear strangers hissing, "Hey! Tammy Faye! Mimi!" as I walk by.)
Part of it is that I live in Arizona. I don’t wish either to develop skin cancer or elephant hide, so most days I wear at least a tinted moisturizer with a sunscreen in it. I could of course wear a moisturizer/sunscreen without the tint, but it seems logical to even out skin tone with no extra effort, as long as I’m already protecting myself from the ravages of sun and hydrating my skin. (At least three phrases in the preceding sentence are straight out of cosmetics ads.) Even with something that sheer on, though, the skin tone ends up a little too even, and I look a little too monochrome, so I end up putting on mascara, to accent the eyes, and a "natural colored" lipstick. And of course at that point, it’s no trouble to throw on an eyeshadow or three. All of them still in natural, unobtrusive colors, of course. Of course.
I don’t have time for all of that. I don’t care that much (at least because "before" and "after" really don’t look all that different) and I’m sure no one else does. Next week, I’ll skip the makeup.
But I think I’ll get some colorless (and not sticky) sunscreen, first.
Posted by dichroic at June 21, 2001 02:31 PM