Is Wearing Makeup Worth It?

For many people, makeup is a form of art and a way that they express themselves. It is also a way to feel more confident, put together and pretty.

However, wearing makeup daily can also be a hindrance.

Putting on primer and foundation, perfecting your highlight and contour and getting brows and eyeliner just right is a time-consuming process. Girls that wear full faces of makeup to school must wake up at least two hours before the morning bells rings.

Many of the ingredients in makeup are also harmful, containing carcinogens which have been proven to cause breast and cervical cancer. Secondly, heavy layers of foundation, concealer and powder clog pores and cause blackheads and acne.

It’s not like I have never worn makeup.

For most of my freshman, sophomore and junior years, I wore a full face of makeup to school.

In some ways, I miss always looking put together at school, but in the end, I simply don’t have the time.

Senior year has involved more stress than any of my other four years. I applied to six colleges, all of which involved extensive applications and essays.

On top of that, I had AP classes, sports and service clubs to juggle. Waking up two hours early to do makeup just isn’t feasible, especially when I often don’t get to bed until after midnight.

I have actually really enjoyed wearing little to no makeup this past year.

My skin is a lot clearer, and I no longer have to worry about smudging my makeup whenever I touch my face.

I still wear makeup for really special events, but mostly, the foundation and highlighter stays in a bottom drawer in my bathroom.

Junior Horojah Jawara has never worn makeup to school in all the years I’ve known her, mostly because of the labor involved.

“It’s honestly too much work to get up early in the morning and try to impress people, because that’s not what I care about. I don’t like how there’s pressure as a girl to know how to perfectly do makeup and to always look good,” Jawara said.

Jawara also wears makeup for special events.

“I like how it makes me look pretty so I wear it to dances, debate tournaments and events at the mosque,” Jawara said.

I think one of the very problems with makeup is that people wear it to look pretty. Wearing makeup is not necessarily a sign of insecurity, but it is certainly a side effect of caring too much about what others think of you.

Makeup should really be there to enhance your natural beauty, not cover up or change your appearance.

Girls at school don’t want to look “tired” or “shabby,” so they wear makeup. I understand that, but I also believe there’s a deeper level to it.

If wearing makeup was really something you did for yourself, you would wear it on the weekends when you’re stuck at home doing homework. However, most girls don’t tend to bother with makeup when they’re at home.

Why? Simply because no one is there to see us, or judge us or inwardly think we look bad. But in public, and especially in high school, someone is always judging you, and you want to look your best.

So the question is this: When I get up two hours early to do makeup, and I am doing it for me, or to impress people and influence their opinion of my face as we pass in the halls?

If the answer is the latter, than I really don’t think doing makeup every day is worth it. Because honestly, does it really matter what others think of you?

However, for some people, the answer to the question is the former.

There are thousands of makeup artists all over the world who love experimenting with new looks and styles. For them, makeup is a form of art, but instead of painting a canvas, you’re painting your face.

Dimond graduate and UAA freshman Fortesa Fazliu wears makeup every day whenever she goes out.

“I love trying new looks with eyeshadow and lipsticks, that’s something I find really interesting and fun. It’s really an art,” Fazliu said.

I also like doing makeup for the fun of it, but at six in the morning, I’d rather sleep than have fun.

As I have gone through high school, I have definitely become for confident, and I realized I wasn’t doing makeup for the fun of it, I was doing it for others.

Today, I don’t do makeup for other people. What I do do for other people is volunteer, and try to make their lives a little bit better. I think that means more to them than seeing me in makeup, and interestingly, when I look in the mirror, I don’t feel I look “bad” at all.