Pulling a Natural Look

Going to the mall on a Sunday afternoon turned out to be more interesting than usual. My friends and I went out to shop for a few necessities and stopped to grab a bite at the fast food situated in the mall. After ordering Pizza (subsequently pausing our routine calorie count), we picked a table and sat, each anticipating the meal which appeared to be taking forever! To ease our anxiety, we decided to enjoy the scenery and assess our surroundings (girls tend to do that a lot). Seated at the table adjacent ours were two gorgeous-looking men who were having a meal of fried rice and chicken. We whispered to one another about their impeccable table manners and talked about how very few Nigerian men bothered about their manners. Still on this topic and stylishly glancing around for a new one, we saw a girl walking towards the counter. She was wearing an extremely tight black pencil skirt with a white collared shirt and six-inch high heeled stilettos. She looked gorgeous but judging from how she walked, those heels were killing her. My friends giggled and I shook my head. “I love heels but sometimes my feet need to rest, especially on a Sunday noon”, I said. Suddenly we heard a loud laugh, we all turned to the direction the laugh came from and saw one of the gorgeous men laughing so hard we taught he would cry, his friend was trying to contain his own laughter but was not doing a very good job of that. We were puzzled and curious about the reason behind the amusement so we decided to eavesdrop and thank God we did because we learnt a few things.
The first guy said, ‘Na wah o! Women get plenty wahala. Those shoes be like chop sticks’, he sent his friend into more giggles; ‘did you see her face?’
The second guy, still chuckling said ‘I see am. Na wah for that makeup o! She resembles masquerade with those red cheeks and that mascara she put…’ The second guy interrupted ‘which mascara, e be like say she fix am.’
At this point, I was irritated. These men are obviously gossips who ‘beef’ the poor girl. Maybe one of them had approached her and she turned him down and now he is embittered. I voiced my opinion to my friends but they told me to look at the girl closely. When I did, I started to notice some things; she was wearing fake lashes that she did not bother to trim, so the lashes did not look anything close to real. Her facial skin appeared to be thinned out from bleaching creams and the red blush only made matters worse. She wore very loud make-up on a hot afternoon, it seemed she had too much concealer or foundation on and she had powder stains on her collar. After listening to subsequent conversation from the men, it was apparent that they were making fun of her makeup. They said she had far too much makeup on and believed ‘she would be more beautiful if she removed eighty percent of what she was wearing now’.
The girl, oblivious of what was going on, placed her order and went to sit at the far end of the room. The men kept looking at her and giggling at each other’s comment. To make matters worse, the poor girl brought out a compact powder and started to apply more to her face. The guys burst out laughing that everyone turned to look in their direction. I felt uneasy and wanted to shut them up but I just sat there and watched. My friends were also dumbfounded and two of them brought out mirrors to check if their makeup was appropriate.
Finally our pizza came and about the same time the two men got up to leave. I stared at the one who made the most fun and he caught my stare. I held his gaze for a moment, revealing my disgust and utter dislike before I looked away.
When I left the mall that day, I was still somewhat upset at those men, and then it dawned on me that it was not their fault the girl was clueless or over-knowledgeable about her makeup. Some men will always be jerks but it is up to us not to create an avenue for them to display their childish whims. I needed a second, third and maybe fourth opinion so I decided to interview different men from different walks of life and ages and the results I got were not really surprising.
Eight out of ten men prefer subtle makeup. They don’t want a woman wearing green, blue or some other loud colour on the eyes. “It makes them look really fake,” says Kevin 30, “are we supposed to believe that they have really blue eyes, I thought make up was for enhancement not for façade”.
“If she must wear colour, let it be delicate and let it complement her outfit.” Emeka, 32. Six out of ten men prefer nude lips. “I don’t see anything appealing when I look at super red lipstick in day time; what if I wanted to kiss her?” Yomi, 24.
Some men said that false lashes make women look doll faced. Some men like the lashes but are offended by shimmery eye shadows. “Why would you want to wear that during the day time?”
“Makeup should be subtle. Not invisible, but so that it isn't noticed unless someone is looking for it. If someone asks if a woman was wearing makeup and I can say she was without looking at her again, it is too much. If I can see it across the room, it is too much; but if I can only see it when looking closely, no problem. Subtle makeup is no more "wrong" than effective hair styling” Remi 29.
“I prefer women wearing makeup that makes them look natural. That is, I prefer women wearing makeup that makes them look like they're not wearing makeup.I think some men say they like the natural look only because they don't know that women are wearing makeup and have worked hard to make it look natural”, Victor 28.
A lot of men want their women to wear a natural looking makeup. ‘, says Kunle 26. “The less we see the better”
I asked how often they wanted to see makeup on their women’s faces, forty percent said all the time, fifty-five five percent said only when necessary. I guess when necessary will be determined by the women because I don’t think I want a man dictating to me when and when not to wear makeup. Normally I am not a huge fan of too loud makeup, I don’t wear fake lashes because I use a very good mascara, and the idea of putting glue close to my eye sounds terrifying. I wear foundation and a good powder, though my skin is not flawless, I scrub frequently and this gives my skin a healthy look. I am not against wearing makeup but I don’t believe they should be worn all the time or in the same way or same colour.
. Experts say that if makeup is worn everyday for a couple of years, the facial skin begins to lose its youthfulness, in order words, if you suddenly stop wearing makeup after years of constant application; you will look old or ill. If you line your eyes with black pencil, you look at least a year older.
I don’t pretend to be an expert when it comes to makeup but I think that too much make up leaves skin looking cakey, fake, and broken out. If you want to make your makeup look natural and still help your skin survive the ordeal, here are some few points you may want to consider:
· Always cleanse and moisturize your skin before applying any makeup.
· Apply foundation before the concealer.
· Wear only subtle eye colour during the day time. If you want smoky eyes, then your lips must be nude (lip gloss must be close to your natural lip colour).
· Both your eyes and lips must not be loud at the same time; if your eyes are loud then your lips must be subtle.
· When lining your eyes, go for soft black or coffee brown pencils. This gives the eyes the defined impression without making them look old.
· Never and I mean never line your lips with black pencil instead opt for colours that complement your lipstick or lip gloss. For instance, if you are wearing pink lip colour, get a deep pink pencil or a light brown pencil and carefully trace out the edges of your lips and use your index finger to gently rub it in, carefully blending the pencil colour with your lip colour to give a more natural look.
· We dwell in a tropical country, so you must be exceedingly careful when putting on makeup. Except you will be moving from an air conditioned environment to another, you may want to get a good powder that wont run with your sweat. Your pencils and mascara must be water resistant.
· When you sweat, use a white handkerchief (white so you know how much make up is coming off) to gently pat away the sweat. Try not to add more compact powder when you sweat or your face gets oily, instead wipe well with soft tissue and put on loose powder.
· Don’t go to bed with makeup on. Remember that most makeup have chemicals that are harsh on your skin so before going to bed, thoroughly wash off the makeup and swab your face with a cleanser. Follow that with rose water to help rejuvenate your skin.
· Scrub at least twice a week to get rid of dead tissue and reveal a healthy skin.

Men don’t like that much makeup so cool down on the application. Any make up that takes more than 25 minutes to apply is too much; the more natural looking, the better.