I didn’t really start wearing makeup until I was almost thirty. Before that, I’d thought of cosmetics as something one learned to applied skillfully to hide one’s flaws, or something one should choose carefully to match skin tone and eye color in order to look naturally attractive and/or good enough at faking it. That was really unappealing to me, so except for a few bouts with insecurity-induced camouflaging attempts. here and there in my twenties, I didn’t really wear any makeup.
It was a great delight when, as one of many transitions around the time I came to New York and started working at Next Island, I started seeing makeup as decorating my face! So many lovely colors and so many pretty things to try!
