It doesn’t make up for it!

« Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder! » Today, I am the beholder. I would be lying if I told you that accentuating or highlighting your best features doesn’t add any value but how far are you willing to go in the quest for perfection? Cosmetic products won’t make up for the fact that you look like you. No matter how much lipstick you put on a pig it’s still a pig.

As a young boy I was told « les goûts et les couleurs ne se discutent pas ».  I am not here to argue with your beauty standards but what I will do is affirm my position as a man who loves and appreciates the beauty of all women.

I am a father raising a boy. I’ll make sure I teach him how to appreciate what’s real, honest, genuine and natural! . The human face will become a very familiar object to him pretty soon and he’ll learn to recognize the common features of a face. I will teach him how the different shapes, shades, sizes and the combination of all those traits makes each and every face unique and special. Another important lesson will be  not to let media dictate what’s perfect or make you believe you need to nip or tuck anything. Your so called imperfections are what makes you YOU. They set you apart and it doesn’t matter whether you fit within the majority or not.

A couple of years ago I got into a fight that left me with three huge scars on my head that are very visible. Of course I learned a great deal from that incident and it changed my perspective on a lot of things. Instead of worrying about how « ugly » these scars would make me, my confidence, self esteem or what some refer to as cockiness took over and I accepted the new me, the new imperfect me. Battle scars and all.

You’re  working so hard trying to fix an internal problem from the outside, you hide your insecurities behind your mascara, thinking that the naked eye cannot see what’s hidden behind that shadow of perfection, sealing your beautiful lips with those colorful sticks, blushing whenever a gentleman stares. The stare you worked so hard to obtain. Approval and validation. There are a lot of areas the foundation of this made up world cannot cover.

I know a great number of women who joined what they call the naturalista movement.  » I’m going natural! ». « Go team natural! ». I say, pump your brakes. All I see is a bunch of ladies that are very far from anything natural, other than their hair of course, which in its most natural state is unnatural to them. They got rid of their weaves and are now ridding the new wave. I think going « natural » should be more than just hair. You wear a half-ton of makeup everyday and discolor your gorgeous skin, your lips are always the latest shade of red, blue or pink available on the market. You go as far as shaving your eyebrows just to use a sharpie to draw them back on. Your beauty mark is in a different spot everyday, even if your hair is chemical free, you are far from being natural.

I think Beyonce lied when she said she woke up like this but you don’t have to. The beauty of the human face is in the acceptance of the imperfections that makes it unique, natural and beautiful. If you cannot be true to yourself no amount of makeup in the universe will ever make up for what you don’t see in yourself!

I’m not here to say who’s beautiful or not… Actually I am! I’m saying you all are!