Natural or Not?

You see it everywhere you go. The store, TV ads, posters hung in every mall. It’s even being displayed on the sides of buses! You see what it does, the likes, the love, the shares you can get from it. But do you really know the cost of it? Not the price tag that is on each product, but the internal price tag on its buyer.

What, do tell, could I possibly be referring to? Clothes, a new gaming console, a new weight loss pill? Nope. Not even close. What about a new purse, or nail design? We are getting warmer! Its something found in all parts of the world, and that Michael Kors bag.

Makeup.

That’s right! The big IT right now! Girls, boys, women, and men are dishing out HUNDREDS to cover themselves. A girlfriend of mine told me she blew her entire tax refund check on makeup. THE ENTIRE CHECK!! Do you realize what else she could of spent that money on? Bills she could have paid down, or off?

Some people have went as far as not letting their significant other see them without it! Makeup on twenty-four hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. First, that’s A LOT of makeup, and second, could you imagine having to do that every day, just to see the one person you are to spend the rest of your life with. I mean, my husband is lucky when I leave the house with makeup and something other than yoga pants on!

Why though? Why are we doing this to ourselves? Why do we feel the need to cover every freckle, every flaw? Why do we feel like our confidence comes from looking like we live with a filter on our face? People love you for YOU! Not the makeup you wear. Not the hour and a half you spend to look perfect. Not the HUNDREDS you spend to look like you belong in the Hollywood lime light.

We are paying the cosmetic industry MILLIONS to look completely different. But it’s costing us more than just money.

What about our self-esteem? Our natural beauty? The memes people have made, because they know if we go missing, that is not what we will look like. Our compliments have gone from, "I wish I had your natural beauty" to "Them eyebrows are on fleek!" Just typing that made me want to cry!

We are so much more than our makeup! We are so much more than the flawless feature we are trying to create! Yes, by all means, be an artist and let your face be the canvas. Just never lose sight of who you truly are!

I have a sign in my home that says, “A girl without freckles, is like a night without stars.” I cried when I read it. Not because it sounds like a super cheesy pick up line, but for once in my life I was proud of my of freckles. I was proud to be seen! My confidence grew, by just reading a sign. And it grows every day that I read that silly little sign.

Instill it in to your mind, your children’s mind, that confidence comes from within. It doesn’t, and shouldn’t, come from a $39 bottle of foundation. Or a beauty blender. Or what ever else they will come out with!

The world is a beautiful place. It doesn’t powder its nose or cover up its deepest scars. The world lets people see it just as it is. It lets people see what it really is, and what it really has.

Natural beauty.

What’s your makeup costing you?