A Little on the Origins of My Personal Love of Beauty

Just for something a little fun and different today, I thought I might offer you a little bit more of a personal look into my life and history with beauty. I consider myself a lover of all things artistic and beautiful. I am an actress and musician by training, and while these are my greatest loves of all, this passion for creativity and artistry does extend into the realm of aesthetics. I can remember sneaking up behind my mom on tiptoe, watching her outline her gorgeous green-brown eyes with shades of navy and black and thinking how cool it was how she could make her most beautiful feature all the more beautiful and dramatic with just some simple lines and color. Then, there was the day she let me roll my hair for the first time with her hot rollers for church on Easter morning when I (not knowing that the rollers were eventually supposed to come out) looked at my "done up" reflection in horror and bluntly claimed that I looked like Mozart for the white curlers being reminiscent of his powdered-wigged portraits. No. not all of my first beauty memories were of me being joyous of the art and process, but they did leave an impression on me as to how these rituals could transform and add fun into my days.

There are memories of my older sister making me up years before I was allowed to wear a full face. showing me what she thought my ideal colors would be for when I would enter middle school and then sometimes making me up to look just like Christina Aguilera--dark teal eyeshadow, glitter and all-- because I was obsessed with her and her music at the time. Frankly, I pulled it off rather well for a precocious eight-year-old, and my sister thought so too, though our parents probably disagreed. But for the few hours remaining in the day after my makeover, I felt a queen and a rockstar all-in-one, glamourous and confident and ready to take on the world. To this day, special makeup looks always make me feel this way.

As I got older, I of course got the freedom and learned how to play with makeup on my own terms, find my own hairstyles, and really develop and claim my own look. I went through many stages, trends, and evolutions as most people do, and I am still evolving. But the one neverending constant is that makeup and beauty has always been the three- fold combination of creative form, means of self-care, and also means of communion and fun with many of the people I hold most dear. My best friend and soul sister (the one who designs the website for La Petite Rose and inspired me to start the project from the get-go) and I now wax lyrical over skincare and new Glossier finds and gush over clothes and face shapes too as we each try to come up with signature looks that will take us thriving into our thirties and well beyond. It is this means of connection and communication and sharing that means the very, very most to me, which is why I love writing these articles, sharing not only info and a little bit of personally-derived beauty tips with you, but also expressing the love of beauty products as a construct in the first place.

Whatever makeup may mean for you, may it always be a source of pleasure and delight. Thank you for reading a little bit of my personal story about the love of beauty, and may you always find and add to your own too.