My family and I are staying with my parents over the long weekend. I only visit my parents’ house a couple of times a year. It’s a beautiful house with a lovely master bathroom. My mother designed the bathroom to have it’s own vanity area that picks up the natural light streaming in from the bay windows. Every time I come I look forward to spending a good ten minutes just sitting at the vanity table inspecting and then testing whatever new designer brand of make-up she has set neatly against the mirror.
Being a believer in the power of cosmetics my whole life, I apply make-up every single day. But given the hectic nature of my mornings, I rarely think about what I’m putting on. I usually just apply and go.
But when I get to my mom’s vanity, it’s very different. I take my time. I examine the new colors and the combinations of hues and tones selected by the department store make-up expert. I delicately try each piece and wait to see how it will respond to my skin and eyes.
A whole slew of emotions arise. I remember why I truly love make-up. Without fully realizing it, I step back in time to when I first experimented with make-up. All the colors, textures, brushes, mirrors were tools for transformation. And every “look” created — sweet, daring, sophisticated — expressed my hopes for an exciting, glamorous future.
It’s been many years since those beginning, experimental moments with cosmetics, and for many folks my age you could say that make-up is a source of maintenance more than creativity. But I guess I’m still a believer that an even more exciting, glamorous future awaits. I’m looking back not only at what I was but what I can be. And thanks to the continuous evolution of cosmetics there’s always another look to try or a different image to experiment with.
