Make Up Make Over

There's no denying getting older.  June 2016 marked my 50th year on this planet.  That's half a century!  That's frightening!  That's exhilarating!

As I've gotten older, I've noticed changes.  I'm the same old me I always was, but when I turned 40 I noticed that line in my forehead.  I can't call it a wrinkle.  Wrinkles are what I have around the corners of my eyes.  (And have only just recently become deeper and more visible.)  It was a giant line.  In the past 10 years it's only gotten deeper and it's found some friends.  Now instead of one line, I have 3.  The top two I can pretty much hide with bangs, but that one original line.  It just stays there and gets deeper as the years go by.  (And yes, I have tried creams, lotions and all sorts of potions.  Most of them have been given to me by my mother.  Thanks mom!)

Then I noticed my neck.  Nora Ephron warned me about it.  I Feel Bad About My Neck is a MUST read for ANY woman of any age.  Where else can we find the wisdom:  "...our necks are the truth. You have to cut open a redwood tree to see how old it is, but you wouldn’t if it had a neck.”  In your 30s and maybe your 40s you won't think it's true.  But trust me; Nora knows all.   After all she also said:  “Anything you think is wrong with your body at the age of thirty-five you will be nostalgic for at the age of forty-five."  TRUTH!

But back to my neck and my décolleté.  Decollate is a wonderful word.  I used to have a wonderful one.  I never had great breasts, but the décolleté.  Yes, I just like saying the word.  It sounds so much better than that expanse of skin in between your neck and boobs that you expose to the sun all summer long and looks so wonderful and bronzed until one day it doesn't and then you discover the word crepey!  Yes it is a word...and Jane Seymour taught it to me one day while I was flipping through the channels and found out that my skin (not only on my décolleté, but on my arms and legs too) had become "crepey." It took every ounce of strength for me not to rush to my phone and/or computer and order crepe erase for only $39.95. (Even as I type this I am fighting the urge and who knows what might happen within the next hours?)  After all, don't we all want smoother, firmer younger looking skin?  Don't we all just want to be smoother, firmer and younger?

I can cover my forehead with bangs.  I can cover my neck and décolleté with turtlenecks and scarfs.  But there is my face.  It's a nice face.  Not perfect in any way, but acceptable.  (See:  http://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-many-flaws-and-imperfections-of-bfth.html).  Since sometime in my teens (or maybe I was a tween...of course that was many decades ago before the word actually existed), I've worn make up.  I LOVE make up.  I love playing with makeup.  I can remember my first real make up "experience" and getting a whole big kit of eyeshadows, blushes and lipsticks.  (Thank you Ultima II, where have you gone?)  Yes, I overdid it.  I probably still do.  I love color and the "natural look” (browns) just don't look natural on me.  I try not to be too dated, but I do use blues, greens and purples.  I think they look good on me.

Or they did.  Very recently I noticed that I just don't look good.  My eyes, which I think are my best feature (or so my mom reinforced in me) look a bit sunken.  The sparkle seems to be gone (and I'm not just talking about the sparkle/glitter of the eyeshadow).  I might have dark circles (or darkened under eye area).  I'm pale. (Yes, I know its winter).  What blush I do were doesn't blend.  No lipstick looks right. What the hell is going on?

Now it could partially be the winter.  The light is funky and gray.  Or it could be my hair, which I haven't had cut and colored in over 3 months.  (And don't tell my hairdresser that I cut my own bangs.  I didn't a shitty job of it too, so I can't go to the salon and get my hair done until it grows out!)  Or it could be age catching up with me; telling me that it's time for a new look.

Now I am loath to get rid of the makeup that I have.  I WONT get rid of what I have, but I'm thinking it's time to go with something new.  Something that is simple and age appropriate.  The question is where to go to do this?   There is no Ultima II cosmetic counter and I currently use brand name/drug store beauty supplies.  There are plenty of cosmetic counters, which one do I try?  Am I too old for Sephora?  I need to find someone who can help me look "normal," not glamorous or outrageous.  I need a simple make up routine.  (I've already got a "skin" regime, so let's not go there now.)  I'm not trying to look better than I did when I was in my 20s (okay, maybe I am!).  I'm just trying to look "my" best...whatever that may be.

While I do some research on how to go about this, I'm open to suggestions.  Let me have yours!  (Even if you are still "young," I promise not to hold it against you!)

And now as the siren call of Crepe Erase calls...(don't push that BUY NOW button...DON"T push the button!!!!)