A Reminder That You’re Beautiful No Matter What

For many women, getting their makeup done professionally is an exciting experience. You get to sit in a chair and be pampered for a few moments.

The process, from start to finish, beautifies you and highlights your features.

However, what many of us don’t mention, are the insecurities that come with sitting in that makeup chair. What we don’t talk about, is how triggering moments like these can be when we’re surrounded by seemingly ‘flawless’ women and the thoughts hereafter, which say, I’m not enough.

You know, those moments when a makeup artist nonchalantly says, “This will cover all your flaws.”

You stare at yourself in the mirror, suddenly aware of the reality that the world views people in a superficial sense; it makes you shrink in your seat.

I know I’ve had this experience more than once while sitting in a makeup chair; staring into the perfectly made-up face of a makeup artist. I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and pretend to like what I see just for the sake of saving face.

In this moment, what’s supposed to be a joyful experience, instead, turns into nit-picking at every flaw you see. You might even subconsciously compare yourself to a standard of beauty and wonder why you don’t fit this mold.

However, it doesn’t just stop with your face. You then begin to criticize every inch of you that you deem imperfect. You exhaust yourself with statements like,

“I’m not enough.”

“I wish I was pretty like her. ”

“I would be perfect if so and so was fixed.”

It isn’t your face that needs to be fixed, it’s your soul, it’s your mind; it’s the false perception that you have of yourself.

It’s the false perception that you aren’t enough.

It isn’t your fault that you even think this way in the first place because society has failed every single woman by putting these standards in place that are not even in reach for any of us.

Society has failed us by teaching us that flaws are things that separate us from the ‘norm’ and in order to be the standard, we must aim for perfection.

You and I both know perfection is unattainable.

More importantly, we know that true beauty lies within the soul.

Beauty isn’t just defined by the women you see on TV or social media. Beauty is your uniqueness, it’s your confidence in the midst of weakness, it’s your ability to light up every room you enter.

Beauty is your aura, your light and your spirit.

Beauty exudes from within you.

I’m not telling any woman to put down the makeup, because we all love to get dolled up from time to time.

What I’m saying, is that in those moments, where you break in private or shrink when you fail to see your own beauty, remember how special you are.

From the day you were born, you were handcrafted with love, created as one of a kind.

You are beautiful.

You might cry today and want to hide from the world tomorrow.

I know. I get it and I have lived it. Sometimes, over and over again. It isn’t easy being a woman who fights to love herself.

But remember, one day you will. Just keep pushing.

Look in the mirror at your bare face with your scars revealed and try and tell yourself that you are worthy. Even if all you manage to do is believe that for today, for this moment.

Because you are worthy and you always have been. No matter how you feel.

You are worthy simply because you are alive.

To the woman struggling to feel beautiful, you are, even without the makeup.