Beneath the Skin :: Make up Fashion Personal Narrative Papers

Beneath the Skin I bought new makeup yesterday. It’s a new kind from Almay called ‘Nearly Naked,’ which is supposed to hide the wearer’s imperfections but still let her skin show through. Obviously the idea is to make it seem like there is no makeup and that yes, this is how I look when I roll out of bed. Isn’t that what it’s about, though? Hiding one’s imperfections from the world while trying to convince the world that it’s the â€Å"real you†? So here I sit, face freshly washed and devoid of makeup, ready for examination to see what can be discovered about my life from my facial features. Let’s start at the top: the forehead. Not too big, not too small (though I’m sure if I stare at it long enough that sentiment will change). Two little indents serve as a reminder to when I had the chicken pox, age eleven. During the sixth grade, all the kids in my class got chicken pox, and I was one of the last to get it. At the time we were living in England, and my mother’s friend was visiting from the U.S. I didn’t want her to see me with all these terrible little marks on my skin. I wanted to hide in my bed for two weeks. There were pictures of me during that time—I’m holding my hamster and not looking at the camera—but I cut out the little part of the photos with my hamster in them and threw the rest of the photos out. I wanted no reminder of how sick I looked during that time. So now, years later, small bumps and irregularities are scattered across the once smooth surface. My shaggy eyebrows should be plucked in order to banish those tiny strays under the brow, but I can’t be bothered. I used to have very high-maintenance eyebrows back in high school. They were arched and tapered to a beautiful finish at just the right spot a little further out than where my eye ends. But I was a different person then—someone I’m not now. While those eyebrows were fun they represent someone else—perhaps someone who was not as comfortable with herself as she is now. Someone who was just coming into her own and feeling slightly awkward, and decided to make her eyebrows as pretty as possible, to give the illusion of maturity.