We at RunwayRiot spend a lot of time clamoring for more sizes in clothes. But it’s time to praise our homegirl makeup right quick.
I’ve been a whole mixed bag of sizes, and in a turn-around of usual events wherein brands are screwing a lot of women, I’ve waltzed into stores only to be excluded from everything I thought was cool. Because as we know, different body types are just so difficult and just not pleasing enough to dress.
But beauty…ahhh, beauty. Makeup is the all-access, feel beautiful arena in the very helpful world of fashion where finding a jumpsuit that fits is harder than finding an immediate Netflix watching partner.
Makeup is glorious. Cracking open a shiny compact when every shimmery powder winks at you, the sweep of a soft brush making your cheeks rosy with pigment stuff, mascara that makes you bat your eyes like you didn’t realize that you were secretly a doe-eyed goddess the whole time, but you know now so that’s cool. That duck face thing that nearly every woman makes in a mirror when she’s had her makeup professionally done. It’s all gravy, and basically we love makeup as much as the next makeup addict, and we want to praise it for being around.
If not for pots of creamy eyeliner and tubes of highlighter, the majority of women would have precious little to waste money on at a brick and mortar store that at least felt “luxe.” It’s why we need to reiterate how FREAKING great it is that makeup doesn’t have size restrictions. OH MAKEUP YOU PERFECT WORLD OF COLORS, you’re DOPE.
As soon as a new fashion trendlet slideshow pops up, curvier women have to immediately think — shall I be allowed to participate in the cool new groove thang? Oftentimes, nope. There are high-waisted stovepipe trousers or cleavage revealing things, but everyone’s bodies just don’t go like that. BUT makeup’s your around the way girl. Dior’s putting silver moon things on eyelids? On it. Rick Owens is making everyone look like a psychosexual trauma villain? If it floats your boat, every woman can get in on this.
Beauty of course can be far from inclusive – like when all these magazine yaps start yapping about how naturally straight rich girl hair is cool, or companies like Benefit Cosmetics assume one “nude” concealer will DEFINITELY do the trick for everyone. And there is such a thing as “plus-size” makeup that’s all about making your face look slimmer when it doesn’t need to look like that.
A photo posted by IMAN Cosmetics (@imancosmetics) on
It can be ageist too. It can be about “correcting” you and “contouring” you, and wiping away any trace of natural beauty instead of enhancing it. It can also suck in terms of what women are expected to do to look naturally beuatiful, as demonstrated by the song “Girl You Don’t Need Makeup,” courtesy of Amy Schumer. (We love a good makeup-free selfie — they’re important.) But the fact remains. All women can walk in and out of Sephora with something rad that smells like flowers, OK? At least everyone can wear blush while all this problematic fashion and beauty stuff is happening.
Buying new things to wear is a very effective drug that can make women temporarily feel special, especially when life is treating you like a plastic bag in the wind. And makeup can be way more reliable than fashion as long as you’re not clumsy like me and don’t ruin everything. You don’t stain it, you don’t grow out of it, and you don’t need to wash it—even though brushes need to be washed and you should wash your face no matter how late you roll in, as Iskra tells us. When you need a pick-me-up, a swipe of lip gloss is there, and for a brief moment you’re running the hell out of life. All in all, makeup’s an excellent form of pampering and it’s a fun, cheap way to look like the famouses or runway people we see.
Nothing is more accessible in fashion the way pigments on your face are, to which we say shout out to you, makeup. Thank you for being a friend.
A photo posted by DooBop Beauty (@doobopbeauty) on
Related Links:
Miss Universe Wisely Goes Makeup-Free (At Least Online) with #ConfidentlyBeautifulThese Celebrities Went Makeup-Free and Gasp! Survived
