Yes, I Wear A Lot of Makeup: No, I'm Not Trying to Impress Anyone

I started wearing makeup almost regularly my junior year of high school and three years later I wear makeup daily in some capacity and have a slightly embarrassingly large makeup collection.

One of the things I hear most often is, "Wow you're wearing a lot of makeup, who are you trying to impress?"

The answer is nobody, and typically nobody believes me.

If you think I spend at least a half an hour blending and contouring and everything else that comes along with doing a full face of makeup for someone else, you're crazy.

I love makeup because it's pretty much the only art I'm any good at. I can't draw, can't paint and can't do anything with clay but if you give me makeup I can transform my own face and make myself look any way I'd like to.

Most people seem to think that girls like me wear makeup because they're either too self-conscious to go without or they're trying to impress a boy.

Honestly, I used to be pretty self-conscious without makeup on and I still do have my days where I hate my skin or lips or eyelids or whatever and just want to cover them up, but I wear makeup because I enjoy it and love the way it looks when I get it right. But when people make comments about the amount of makeup I'm wearing, that's when I get self-conscious.

And as for boys? If you think I spent half an hour trying to even out my winged liner to impress a guy who doesn't know the difference between felt tip and gel liner, then you're crazy. I do it for me and only me because, typically, I'm the only one who notices it anyway and that's fine by me.

Makeup is art, it's expressing yourself and I love the creativity it gives me. It makes me stand out, everyone is going to give you a second look with your eyelids are covered in yellow glitter and your lashes are touching your eyebrows. You're going to look put together when your lipstick matches the color of the design on your t-shirt or when your eyeshadows and lipstick are all the same color.

Not to mention that it makes me look older, and depending on what I do with my face, it can make me look more professional. How professional do you look walking into work with bags under your eyes and chapped lips? Not very and that's why I spend the time applying concealer and foundation and lipstick and eyeshadow.

Foundation and concealer make my skin look almost flawless and lipstick gives my face a pop and eyeshadow and mascara both make my eyes look more open and make it appear that I'm wide awake and ready to go. Not to mention the fact that I'm pretty short and get mistaken for a high schooler on a regular basis.

Don't get me wrong, I love going into Ulta and having the girls working there tell me how much they love my lipstick or eyeshadow or that my brows look good, who doesn't like to be complimented? But the entire reason that I love to get compliments like theirs is because they understand the effort and artistic side of it and so do a few of my friends. Don't get me wrong, when someone compliments your image it feels great, but when it's your artistic ability, something that's more than just your pretty face, it's pretty great.

No, I don't need "ten pounds of makeup" before I go to this next class, but I've got a few hours to kill and I'd rather look somewhat put together and just a little bit nicer, so I will put on makeup and no, I'm not wearing ten pounds of it.

I'd rather look somewhat put together, slightly older than 15 and almost professional and I even like to get creative every now and again. But don't ever think I'm doing it for anyone but myself.