How I Reconstructed My Toxic Relationship With Makeup

And cut out the filtered baggage.

Photo by Annie Gray on Unsplash

I miss the days before social media when you could smudge black eyeshadow across your lids, go to bed with it, and wake up in the morning with skin that’s good to go after a wash.

Maybe my teenage skin was that much more tenacious. But, I often reminisce about that time when we could do anything we wanted without judgment.

Do you ever feel crushed under the weight of it all?

If you wear too much makeup, that’s a self-worth issue; too little, and you are a cave person. You spend years buying the right brush, blender, and sponge for every step, and then the Guru’s change it up and advocate natural makeup, using your fingers instead.

You save up and buy the highly anticipated $40 highlighter and then hate yourself a little for being so vain.

Video tutorials call out insecurities about myself I didn’t know I had. Pro techniques can never be mastered. An in-between does not exist between consumerism and minimalism. The bag of tips and tricks is bottomless, and after a while, I simply cannot keep up.

Will this new mascara solve my problems?
Maybe it will be a go-to product, and I will own just one for a change.
And the question comes to mind, should it…