Facial reflections

Today is a no make-up day. I love these days. That means I can be a hermit, I do NOT have to mix with the masses--not even my closest friends for whom I almost always at the very least paint my lips.

I was never that big into make-up. Granted, in high school I would sneak it to school in my backpack to put it on in the girls' room before early bird classes; my mother forbade me to wear make-up. Had it been allowed, there would have been no need for the "sneakage-factor." I vow to not ban that with my daughter, but instead guide toward responsibility and good-taste in application.

I grew up with a boy whose PTA-active mother was an ex-Berkeley hippie and heiress of a certain very well-known luggage company. Rich. She wore so much makeup, with huge amounts of blues and greens on her eyes, arching all the way up to her eyelids, that she made Tammy Faye Baker look modest in her make-up application techniques. This contributed to my aversion to the made-up look.

However, even then I was only interested in putting some eyeshadow on my eyelids and some lipgloss on my lips. In college, I would never leave my dorm room without putting on lipstick; indeed, in the wise words of my sophisticated freshman year roommate (she was a junior), "one never knows when one might meet the Man of One's Dreams at the U.C." My university boyfriend always said he didn't like to kiss a girl who wore foundation, as it made him feel like he was eating clay. Ugh, what an image!

I have since only really graduated to a bit of eyeliner and lipliner, rarely using eyeshadow except for some workdays. Foundation makes me feel like a clown and I can't wait to get the base off my face if I ever have to wear it for some reason. Once in a very long while I might put on powder instead, but not much of that at all. Mascara is a thing of the past as well; I could never make it not touch onto the skin below my eyes--I must have long eyelashes--and would always end up with smudges and black marks below my eyes, just what I *do not* need!

Today is, hence, a day celebrating simplicity. After all, make-up is to make a woman feel good about her appearance. If I have no reason to worry about how I look, then I will just avoid mirrors today and all will be well!