I took a selfie the other night and thought it was a good picture to use for practicing my digital make-up skills.
So I put on some digital fake eye-lashes. And I digitally perfected the art of concealing under eye bags and other flaws. I also gave myself the illusion of sharp cheekbones. And I changed the color of my eyes to a lighter shade of brown from their usual black-brown. I probably should have plumped my lips to make them look more youthful and supple but I figured that would have made the alteration of my appearance too drastic.
You could say this is a picture of a fake me…
But I prefer to think of all variations of myself as being part of the real me. I wasn’t born with all the flaws I’ve accumulated over the years. So my various imperfections are no more my real skin than the skin in this picture. In fact, if you think about it, my real skin would more likely resemble this picture if nature and time hadn’t done what they do to skin. We were all born with blemish free skin. So if you make the argument that people shouldn’t wear make-up but should accept the skin they were born in, well, they weren’t born in blemished skin.
Q&A Intermission
Q: Why would you change your eye color? Is there something wrong with your real eyes?
A: No, there’s nothing wrong with my real eyes. I love my real eyes. I think my eyes are my best feature. They’re beautiful and I wouldn’t trade them. I changed the color in this picture just for the fun of it. Because colored contacts exist for cosmetic play, and anyone who wants to try them out should be able to try them out (whether they do it for real or using photo editing as I did) without having to worry that people are going to accuse them of hating their real eyes.
Fake Fake Fake you’re so fake
I wish my skin was this smooth and blemish free in reality…
I do think that going natural is better than wearing make-up. Personally I don’t wear make-up all that often. And if my skin was as smooth and blemish free as in this picture I would probably never wear make-up at all, except maybe for some lipstick and occasionally some eyeliner and/or mascara.
Side note: Back in the day you would never find me without makeup on my face. I wore make-up all day every day. I only removed it when I washed my face in the mornings.Â
These days I couldn’t give a damn who thinks what about my face. I’m comfortable enough in my skin to go out without putting on any make-up whatsoever. And I’m able to appreciate my natural beauty while knowing that no one else can see beyond my blemished, aging skin, the bags under my eyes and all the other crazy things that happen to your face when you reach a certain age. I value everything about myself, but that doesn’t mean I don’t try to improve my appearance. And when it comes to my work, that often means wearing makeup to cover flaws that my skincare routines haven’t yet managed to eradicate. It also means digitally enhancing my pictures to make them more suitable for posting on my blog and my social media forums.
Check me out on Instagram at @monicacubed. I have a few ‘real me’ pictures posted.