How do you Define Beauty?

After a long week and a not so good night of rest, you wake up, ready to take on a new day. As you sluggishly walk into your bathroom and look into the mirror, what do you see? As most women will admit, the first thing they look at are their imperfections and what they can do to “fix” them. After giving yourself a “pep talk,” so to speak, on how to glam up, you proceeded to take a morning shower, get dressed, and re-visit that same bathroom mirror. Questions run through your mind like “should I wear my hair down today? How about a ponytail? A quick French braid? Or since I’m off from work today, a cute and trendy messy bun?” These thoughts and procedures are simply a few steps a woman may take each day to make herself feel beautiful.

            As defined by Merriam-Webster, beauty is “the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit.” Generally speaking, beauty or the state of feeling beautiful all comes down to how you see yourself and how that image of yourself makes you feel.   

To help satisfy that urge to feel beautiful, some women will find themselves going to their favorite store to purchase what I like to call, “beauty enhancers,” better known as cosmetics. While there is no problem with doing this, the question can come to mind as to how much is spent on these items. Just from taking a quick glance at some of the most popular makeup brands, a tube of lipstick will cost anywhere from $10-$90. Taking care of how you would like your lips to look isn’t the only thing. A woman will fight with the thoughts of “are my cheeks bright enough? How about my eyes? Contour-contour-contour! It’s summertime, so I need to make my face “glow” and use bright colors….I guess?” However you may view these actions, may it be comical or just plain disheartening, it is a day in the life of a woman. 

There are also some women who may take a more practical approach on how to make themselves feel beautiful. Some members of society may view this as being “lame or boring,” but it has been widely seen in the media just as many times as you will see a Mac Makeup ad or commercial. This “new” trend has even brought about discussions and hashtag events on social media, started by some of your favorite celebrities.

Concerning the “natural” look, celebrities such as Jennifer Garner, Zendaya, Kim Kardashian West, Chrissy Teigen, and Gabrielle Union, to name a few, have shamelessly posted images to their Instagram accounts to proudly proclaim, “I woke up like this,” and so does every woman in the world. As the classic quote goes, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” and whomever you are trying to make yourself seem visually appealing to, it all begins with that person you look at in the mirror every morning—yourself. 

While creating a work of art on your face is entertaining, sometimes stopping to ask yourself “why am I doing this?” can lead to a good discussion with yourself internally. You may begin to ask yourself, “am I doing this for my own happiness, or simply following a trend?” Whatever the case may be, this article was written as a reminder that there are so many ways beauty can be perceived, it all just begins on how you view that person in the mirror. You can just clean your face and style your hair in a way that you feel comfortable with or enhance it with a variety of colors and additions/subtractions of hair, it’s all about making yourself feel happy.

Written by Sade Bolling.