Not Alone Series: Makeup ...and a CatholicTV giveaway!

What are your thoughts on wearing make up? Do you see a tension between a pressure from society and a God-given desire to be and make life beautiful? Is your use of make up compatible with the idea that God sees you as naturally beautiful? (Thanks to Bek!)

I was interested by this topic when it was suggested to us by Bek, because I haven't really given makeup much thought!

Personally, I've had varying experiences with makeup and have used it in different ways over the years. I don't believe that makeup is inherently evil, nor do I believe it is necessary.

In the days when I struggled with emotionally and physically painful acne, I depended on cover-up, concealer, and foundation to keep my self esteem in tact. Should I have pondered the Lord's love for me despite my perceived imperfections? Perhaps. But even now, I don't think that I did anything wrong by attempting to conceal my acne.

There was one Lent when I decided that I wanted to give up makeup...I allowed myself to use only one makeup product every day. Most days, I would use concealer to cover up pimples, but that was it! No eye shadow, mascara, blush, etc etc etc. While it was weird in the beginning, by the end of those 40 days, I realized that I didn't WANT to use as much makeup as I had in the past! For a good amount of time following Easter, I only used concealer and a little bit of mascara...no longer did I feel the need to "put on my face" each morning.

These days, I wear makeup daily, but I'm much less concerned about concealing all of my flaws. Granted, much of this has been helped by my use of the OCM. My acne and oil is nearly nonexistent, and my scarring has all been erased. 

One of the issues I used to have was how LONG it would take me to get ready...like, is this really necessary?! Nowadays, I take maybe 15 minutes in the bathroom...including hair.

At the end of the day, God loves us exactly as we are and doesn't see our "flaws" as flaws. He loves you with your thin eyelashes, pale lips, freckles, etc etc etc. But do I think He is offended by us using makeup as a tool to help us enhance our beauty and/or self esteem? No...I think if we use makeup and it helps us to become better, more confident versions of ourselves, well, I think He's ok with that.

You know what, though? Sometimes I purposefully leave a couple zits unconcealed.

WHY?! WHAT THE HECK?!

Sometimes, I do this to show others that yes, I too have flaws. I remember the first time I saw a classmate of mine who had a red zit on her nose. This was a girl who seemed to have it all together...but wait! She got zits, too?! Just seeing that made me realize that I was not alone in this...and that imperfection didn't make her any less beautiful in my eyes, so hey! maybe I could be less insecure about my imperfections!

Now, I don't think that anyone in my life sees me as having it all together...but if by denying my vanity for one day, I could build solidarity with the people around me, I think that's worth it.

What are your thoughts? Do you wear makeup? Do you think that using makeup is good? Bad? Share your thoughts in the comments or by linking up below!

AND! We have a giveaway today!!!

Bonnie at CatholicTV was gracious enough to give Jen and I a few gifts to give away to you! I will be giving away a CatholicTV care package this week and Jen is giving one away next week! Wanna know what you could win?!

My care package will include a CatholicTV beachtowel, USB stick, refrigerator magnet, and magazine!

All you need to do to enter yourself in the giveaway is comment below answering the following question: 

"If you could give CatholicTV a pitch for a new TV show...what would you suggest?"

The giveaway will end on Tuesday, 10/7 at midnight. At this time, I will assign numbers to each comment in the order published and randomly select a winner via randomnumbergenerator.com! If your email is not connected to your user name, please add that to your comment so I can notify you if you win!!

Good luck!!

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Next week's topic:

Rosary + Single Life

October is dedicated to the Holy Rosary, so we wanted to honor Mary and reflect on her help during this time of singleness. How have you called on her intercession before? What is your relationship with our Blessed Mother like? If you don't know much about Mary or the Rosary, is there something keeping you from getting to know her?

October 14: Modesty
Continuing our reflections about our make-up routines, let's chat about modesty! What does modesty mean to you? Does it just involve the clothes you wear and how you wear them? What about the things you say or do? In what ways can we improve our overall modesty?

October 21: Sex!
Our culture is obsessed with sex. With anyone! At anytime! If you want to, just do it! But, the Church teaches that sex was created for the context of marriage. Why do you choose to abstain? Why aren't you going around having sex with just anyone? How would you encourage others to do the same? How do you remain strong when everything in our culture is encouraging you to abandon your convictions?

October 28: Discernment Challenges
We all agree that discernment is challenging. Figuring out what the Lord is calling you to do with your life can be frustrating and exhausting. But, then add on lack of family support, cultural pressures, and your personal expectations... ugh. And, this isn't just in relation to vocational discernment, but general life discernment, too! How do you keep going? What helps you to push through? How can we encourage one another? What indicators have you experienced that lets you know you're going down the right path?