make-up shake up

Those who know me know that I don’t do make-up, wear dresses, tweeze my eyebrows, hate high heels or sing in a high pitched voice. It’s not me. Sadly, this has been the case since I was a toddler. Occasionally, my parents would put me in a dress; this included kaba and slit, “3 sisters” and a few others. All those moments have been captured on film and I will release it sometime in the future when I write my biography. As I didn’t have a choice as a child, I wore them. The only things I could do was to act defeated and my mum, God bless that woman, knew that something was up. She noticed the change in demeanour and never quite bothered me with dresses or skirts any more after I was 9. Friends and family who thought they were being nice and bought me dresses for my birthday and such other occassions did me wrong, but they didn’t know it.

All my life, I can literally count the number of times I’ve worn a full dress or matched a skirts with a top. It’s a rare occasion which involves days of planning and psyching myself up. I have an older sister who adores dresses and has a wardrobe full of dresses of all colours and a dressing table overflowing with make up kits.

When in secondary school, I wore a skirt once and by the time I went from my house to the dining hall, half the school had already heard the momentous occasion that had befallen them. I think my entire class was made to stand on their tables because they were making so much noise during Prep hour. I, on the other hand sat at my desk, even though I couldn’t study the entire period. So in short, wearing a dress is a big deal for me. For one, they are uncomfortable to wear. And when you wear them you have to sit in a particular way as you don’t want to reveal certain private areas. Second you can’t walk as you naturally can, especially in high heels, which obviously leave you helpless in the hands of gravity, making you prone to spilling over.

[caption id="attachment_142" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Why would any body want to wear this?"][/caption]

While in the university, I wore a skirt and top, all of 2 times of was it 3? It was for matriculation and in my 3rd year for a faculty dinner. And for the record, that weekend of the awards night, I was unwell and my best friend, coerced me into it. Had I been fit, I would have wriggled myself out of the situation. Growing up didn’t change matters. I’m close to thirty now and do not own more than 5 dresses - 3 kaba & slits for family funerals and the other two for emergency situations.

Recently, a very good friend, she’s older, gave me make-up as a gift. She doesn’t know me that well so I pardoned her mistake. It was an assortment of Chanel lipglosses so it’s not that bad. Of course my sister had wanted to hijack it, but I didn’t let her. She usually wears my dresses when people buy them for me. My brothers on the other hand, go into my wardrobe when they have to go to a party and don’t have any clean clothes. I don’t mind. Soon after I got the lipglosses, my brothers came into my room and saw the lipglosses on my table. They asked “who bought this for you?” I’m like, don’t you think I can buy my own make-up? They simply laughed and said; “just answer the question, who bought you this make-up?” I refused to answer the question. So what am I saying? I’m simply saying that I am me. An uncut diamond. I present myself as naturally as I can and if you can’t take that, well I make no apologies for that. If you think I look ugly without it, fine, like it that way. When I decide to wear a skirt/dress, it is simply to gain attention and get the mood a little lively, and not to impress anyone. Simply just for kicks. It can almost be equated to wearing a costume for Halloween.