I was eleven years old, standing in the checkout line at Kmart, when a colorful tube of Maybelline's Great Lash Black Mascara caught my eye. At a young age, I dreamt of applying cosmetics and becoming a replica of my mother with her full, dark red lips and voluminous, jet black eyelashes. Therefore, with my mother’s image in mind, I ecstatically purchased the cheap mascara and I attempted using it the very second I got home. After what felt like thousands of failed attempts of poking myself in the eye, I never stopped persevering. Through the tears and smudged mascara, I never lost my ardor for makeup and beauty...even if I looked like a raccoon. Perhaps this was due to the aid of a few handy Q-tips, but we may all assume that it was due to my strong determination to succeed. After what seemed like an eternity later, I was finally able to get most of the mascara on my lashes rather than on my eyelids and cheekbones. This is when the begining of the end began. Buying makeup became an unbreakable addiction that evolved into the extensively expensive makeup collection that is still continuously growing to this day. I mean, dorm desks are just storage for toiletries and beauty products, right? Who needs textbooks? Along with my wallet weeping from purchasing all of this makeup, I began learning how to properly use and apply each product. My friends and I spent countless weekends and hours watching makeup tutorials on YouTube, playing with different foundations, lipsticks, and eyeshadows. I can proudly say that blue eyeshadow is no longer a thing. Eventually I graduated to a “high end makeup counter” at Macy’s where the workers had explained to me the differences between a cream and powder, matching foundation colors to your personalized skin tone, and how not to promote the movie “IT” by looking like a killer clown. As the years went on, I began buying more expensive and luxurious products and thus, I quickly became a VIB Rouge member at Sephora. Dare I say this with confidence, this feat may only be accomplished by spending a whopping one thousand dollars within each calendar year. Overall, having the freedom to paint my face with a multitude of elaborate colors gives me the power to express myself in an amazingly creative and artistic way. Moreover, I have not been able to find any other creative outlet other than doing my makeup and personalizing it to match my style.
