Challenge Yourself

Makeup.

You either love it or you don’t.

You’re either good at it or you need practice or you’re completely hopeless.

The middle description—of the third sentence—was the one that directly applied to me last year.

Because of the pandemic, I felt the need to challenge myself; to do something constructive with my time and to keep my mental health at a stable level. So, I decided to sharpen my makeup skills.

Why you ask?

Because I wasn’t great at it…but I also wasn’t horrible at it either.

I was just…mediocre.

The extent of my makeup knowledge stemmed from my theater days—in order for one’s expressions to be seen at a great distance—but other than that, I hardly wore it and certainly not on a daily basis.

But I digress.

This all came about in September. I was wandering about my Instagram feed when I came upon beautiful lip and eye looks. I wanted to do them so badly but lacked the necessary skills in order to do so.

But as I observed one purple monochrome look, a thought suddenly came to mind.

Why couldn’t I?

Why couldn’t I do these awesome looks?

If I really wanted to, I was sure that I would be able to. I just needed the patience, effort and will-power in order to do so.

So…I did.

I bought what I could, gathered together the products I already had and looked up monthly challenges on Google where I found three: one for October, November and December, each.

When my first day came, I was ready but also very nervous; however, I pushed through. The tasks consisted of: an Ice Queen look, a Halloween look, an alien/Sci-Fi look and several winged liners. It was fun! But when it was over, my face practically yelled at me to take a break from anything theatrical.

So, when it was November, I was extremely thankful that I had the foresight to choose a lip challenge. I had lots of supplies where that was concerned and I was more than ready to undertake this. I had: reds, oranges, pinks, mauves, clear and glittery lip glosses so when a variety of choices presented themselves, I did them all and easily. I also kept it interesting by doing the rest of my face, as well—particularly my eyes and lashes.

Now, the latter was difficult for one reason.

I had never done it before and the last month didn’t count.

Before October, fake lashes were a wonderful mystery to me. I admired people who wore them but doubted that I ever could because it seemed so complicated; however, when I actually tried them on…they weren’t so bad. I had to adjust them a couple of times, right a movement or re-glue once or twice, but once I got the hang of it, I was good! I had been exaggerating before but I can’t be too hard on myself.

I didn’t know.

I was just going with a visual assumption—one that was completely wrong.

When December arrived, I had an array of challenges to perform and I was excited. It was a mixture of the last two months, with lip choices and themes, but it definitely had more of a “holiday inspiration” due to the season.

“Smokey eyes”, “a pop of color”, “animal inspired” and “red lips” are the ones that I remember the most and not because they were the ones that allowed my imagination to fly but because I had fun doing them.

I enjoyed every stroke, flair, crazy expression and decision I ever made and that would never change.

During the three months, I grew in experience and came up with decent looks, which I’m extremely proud of. Not only that…but I also posted them on my Instagram and got amazing feedback from my friends, which only elevated my mood and made me happy that I pushed myself to do something as daring and bold as the majority of my looks!

Challenge yourself.

You never know what you’re capable of if you don’t. Wonderful things can happen if you just push past your insecurities and overcome your mediocre hopelessness.