Makeup & Confidence

Credit: Hayley Bolan, Flickr.

It’s difficult as a makeup wearer to convince people that I’m confident with my natural appearance. To an outsider I must look like I’m deeply insecure about the way that I look if I don’t take the time to ‘put my face on’ in the morning.

Of course I have the usual insecurities every once in a while, for example if my skin is breaking out or I’ve not had a lot of sleep and I look and feel like death warmed up, but I’ve never seen makeup as a way to cover up or something to hide behind.

Naturally in a world where women’s flaws are pointed out and exaggerated in every advertisement for cosmetics, some of us are bound to feel like we ‘have’ to buy Revlon’s new concealer for £7.99. But my relationship with makeup doesn’t really stem from that basis.

For me, makeup is more an extension of myself as a person. I love to experiment with different styles and looks, and I enjoy creating new things. When I look at models in magazines and think ‘I want to look like that’, it’s not because I think I’m unattractive, it’s because I’ve identified with whatever image that model is projecting and want to incorporate it into my own sense of style.

It’s not that I lack confidence and so need to put makeup on to feel good about myself – I am sure enough in myself to walk down the street without any makeup on whatsoever. It’s just that I feel more like I’m expressing myself when I do wear makeup, because I know I’m projecting the kind of image I want to imprint on the world.

Everyone has an idea of the type of person that they want to be, and it’s not unhealthy to want to create a good impression. Nor does it mean you’re insecure. I’m not claiming that by wearing makeup I’m being my ‘true’ and ‘natural’ self, but it seems absurd to me that women are labelled as ‘unconfident’ and ‘insecure’ for wearing makeup when, really, all they’re doing is having the confidence to be the person they want to be, and create the impression they want to create.