ponienda bonita

Makeup stopped being interesting to me years ago. Mostly, it was a matter of laziness. Then, it was an issue of "what's the point?" because I was so mentally melted down that what I looked like was irrelevant.

Up until the age of 28 or so, I wore full makeup every day, religiously. When I was pummeled by a massive major depression in my early twenties, that was the first time I abandoned makeup. I resumed using it, although much less diligently a couple of years later. Eventually, it seemed like one more thing keeping me from sleeping just a little later every day.

Lately, though, I've been seduced by the pretty colors. I bought some purple eyeshadow at Ulta last week--two shades, in fact. Sophie In The Moonlight restored my faith in waterproof mascara, and Cover Girl Lash Blast is my new best friend. Having really put it to the test last week, I can confidently declare it to be funeral-proof.

My years-old lipstick finally became unusable, so I made a trip to Ulta to buy something new. Nothing too dark or too bright. I'm nearly 50 years old, and I didn't want anything garish. I bought two different shades, and both looked good. The only problem is that I live in an especially dry climate, so I have to use lip balm with the lipstick, and it was getting a bit messy.

The answer was lip stain. Lip stain is my new best friend. I put it on once in the morning, give it a minute to sink in, and then apply super-moisturizing lip balm. The lip stain stays with me all day and it looks natural. I love it. I can keep re-applying lip balm all day long, as needed, with no need to worry about color.

Part of my return to makeup started with mascara. I have blonde eyelashes, so with my glasses, it tends to appear that I have no lashes at all. I would have stopped there, but it was sleeping trouble that brought me to the next step.

I keep waking up at about 5:00. Frank gets up then and is in the bathroom until 5:30. Still, getting up at 5:30 leaves me with a lot of free time before I have to leave for work. Sure, I could use that time to exercise, but that would just make me even more cranky than my baseline morning level. It occurred to me one day that I had time to apply eye shadow along with the mascara. Unfortunately, my eye shadow stash was looking quite pathetic, hence the recent trip to Ulta, makeup mecca.

Now, in five minutes, I can put on a swipe of eyeshadow base (because I don't wear foundation but my eyelids are a little dry and eye shadow doesn't stick that well on its own), a brush of color, some liner, mascara, lip stain, lip balm, and--ta-da--I don't look so washed out.

I don't know that I'll keep up with this, but for now, I love purple eye shadow and berry-colored lip stain. Mascara that makes it through the day rocks my world.

My fiftieth birthday is barreling down on me like a freight train. Surely a little color will soften the collision.