School Girls and Make Up

Source: Huffington Post

First up, this isn’t meant to be a controversial post, but it does involve my personal opinion…

On my way to work each morning, I pass a couple of secondary schools.  Whilst stopped at some traffic lights earlier this week, I was horrified to see a school girl heading into school wearing red lipstick.  Horrified may seem like a strong word, but that’s exactly how I felt.  This school has a 6th Form, but this girl was clearly under 16 (school uniform gave it away!).  Most of the girls are caked in foundation and eyeliner, but the red lips just shocked me.
At the risk of sounding like an OAP at 25, when I was at school, I wouldn’t have dared to wear lipstick, let alone such a provocative colour as red.  Girls did wear makeup at my school; the popular girls kicked it off after one school holiday.  I think it must have been Easter or something, but on their return, the group of four ‘Mean Girls’ turned up wearing foundation in a shade which can only be described as orange.  Yes I’m a little bitter, I was bullied at school and far from popular, but the stuff was literally orange.  Their white school shirt collars were covered in it, which always amused me.  Anyway, inevitably, this filtered through the year group and more and more girls started to wear makeup.  My mum bought me a tinted moisturiser from Estee Lauder, which was tested, but to be honest, was a nice shade of orange.  I didn’t wear this to school, it was only for weekends.  I did try my luck at black eyeliner and some bronzer, at which point I was marched straight back upstairs to have it removed.  I remember being rather irritated by the whole thing, but my mum was completely right.
Our maths teacher started to bring in baby wipes and hand them around the class to have the girls remove their makeup.  At 14 you think this is cruel and humiliating, but looking back now, I think the teacher was totally right.
Andrew’s little sister was asking me about foundation last week and I told her not to buy it, she is 16, and has such beautiful skin, she doesn’t need to slather a thick formula over it.  She doesn’t have redness, she doesn’t have black circles, and her skin tone definitely doesn’t need any help to be even.  I don’t think there is anything wrong with some mascara and concealer for those pesky teenage spots.  
It’s such a different age now, there is so much pressure on young girls, there are so many products on the market now too, CC Creams, BB Creams etc. which means they do not have to slather their faces in foundation.  If you want a little colour, try some everyday false tan on your face, don’t hide your beautiful young skin, you have so many years ahead of you to try and hide every imperfection on your face!
Mascara OK, a little bit of bronzer here and there OK, sparkly lip gloss OK, but red lipstick? Save it for a few more years.
Lauren xx
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