Hope your popcorn is ready coz today I’m taking you into a time lapse machine …

*Flashback into the past*

I’m a teenager. I am recalling all those trips to the mall with my sister. She made me stop at every single cosmetic store we crossed just to get make up demos done on herself. I would sit next to her looking bemused as make up was never my thing (except lip gloss). I was always the techy type and would much rather be browsing for phone gadgets. I still remember one Make Up Artist though. Her name was Natalia and as my concerned sister told her “I dunno what’s wrong with this one (me!). She does not like to wear make up!” she smirked in response saying “Don’t worry, she will change after she gets married!” That of course resulted in major eye rolls from me as there was no way in hell I’d be spending money just to color my face when I could easily buy more phones with the same amount!

*Flash forward a few years later*

I’m married. I am now recalling my solo trip to the mall without my sister. I have just crossed a make up store. I’m unsure if it’s the fact that I miss her or seeing all those ladies on the London tube transform themselves with make up, that I decide to voluntarily go inside. I’m now thinking “Hmmm, maybe an eyeliner won’t hurt!” Buying it didn’t hurt, but trying to put it on myself later sure did! As I stood in front of the mirror, I remembered how my sister would always say “When you do change, remember your eyeliner always has to be in a straight line.” Firstly, LOL at her confidence, and secondly LOLOLOL at what I did. While she obviously meant it is supposed to be a smooth line, I took her words quite literally and just drew straight lines over my eyelids and filled in the gaps. Impressed with what I had achieved, I decided to send her a pic. Mistake. She laughed so hard, I think I can still hear the echo in my ears as I remember all of this.

*Moving to a few months later*

Eyeliner and lip gloss are my thing now. I have kinda gotten better at applying an eyeliner. By that, I don’t mean winged eyeliner. Just that it’s a smooth line. It’s time to make the next purchase. Mascara! In a way, I’m glad there wasn’t such a huge variety at the time. Lengthening? Thickening? Non-clumping? Nah, mascara was just mascara. Determined not to repeat the same mistake as before, I decided to Skype with my sister this time. Again. Mistake. Wondering what she’s laughing so hard about this time? Turns out, we all have our own mascara face. You don’t realise it when you’re applying it yourself. But watch someone else do it, and you’ll notice their mouth is always open or in an awkward shape. Why do we do that? By the way, I bought an eye lash curler later too but never used it as my sister scared me I’d curl my eyelids instead!

*Moving to a year later now*

Lip gloss, eye liner and mascara are my thing now. Eyeshadow and blush-on soon followed. Those purchases were luckily a laugh-free episode so don’t think I’ll talk you through that. But I’m sure you could sense my addiction growing steadily. Playing so much around the eyes made it feel like something was still missing. No make up look is complete without applying a good base now, is it? (see, you could almost sense the transition in my voice). It was time to introduce myself to foundation now. Most warnings seemed to suggest not to get it in your eyes. The naive me thought it wasn’t meant to be applied around the eyes area at all. So I would carefully leave out 2 big circles around the eyes to make sure no foundation went in. If you’re into make up, then you can visualise this look pretty well. If you’re not, then let’s just say the look is similar to that of a clown. And to think I actually went to work like that the first few times as well. Surely they double-checked my CV to see if my previous work experience involved a circus act.

*Moving on to present*

Lip gloss, eyeliner, mascara, eyeshadow, blush and foundation are my thing now. I find it incredibly hard to leave the house without it now unless I’m having a complete off day! Chances are I’ll run into almost everyone that day too remarking ‘you look diffffferent!‘ Never figured if that’s a good thing or bad. While my list might sound like a lot to you, but I feel like those are just the basics considering what’s available these days. But, as tempting as it may all look, I think I’ll stick to just these as I’ve always been a believer make up should only ‘enhance’ your features and not change it completely. But then, one should never say never. After all, the sister who was once into make up has gone au natural, and the plain one has turned into a colorful palette! A colorful techy in the house now folks!

So what have I convinced you to buy today? Please don’t say make up remover!

Until the next post,

‘Let’s Keep it Strictly Lighthearted!‘