Oh, there you are……..

The history of wearing make-up goes as far back as 6000 years. Most of our ancient cultures wore it.  Ancient Egyptians wore their dramatic eyeliner, Ancient Greeks and Romans had their dangerous lead based favorites, Persians had limits to its use, Chinese with their fancy nail colors, Japanese and the Giesha used it with dramatic effect. In the middle ages in Europe the wearing of makeup was deemed sinful by the church unless of course you were royal. Bottom line is..make-up isn’t going anywhere.

When preparing for this trip to India I didn’t think twice about packing up my daily make-up arsenal and hauling it across the world.  There safely packed in my classic Henry Bendel brown and white striped makeup box sits the true secrets to my outer beauty. Without it I am a plain Jane, I will go as far as to say down-right ugly.

It would NEVER occur to me to answer the front door without something on my face (which is just so silly and vain) be it a swipe or two of mascara, a brush of bronzer and a dab of lip gloss. God forbid I am seen “naked” after a workout. The codependency of makeup in our society is a sad reality.

Somehow when faced daily with the brave, beautiful women at the Motherhouse I feel different now. I went to apply my regimen and I decided something has to go so I left off the eyeliner, the next day the eyeliner and bronzer. Today I was bold and I gave up the eyeliner, bronzer and eye-shadow. It was surprisingly easy… because if you can imagine looking into the face of a dying woman stripped of everything but her faith yet she is beautiful you quickly realize that these things just really don’t matter and that true beauty comes from within. These women are perfect, they came into this world perfect and will go out of it perfect. It is truly a beautiful thing.

Tomorrow I am going commando! No make-up at all…not even my beloved lip-fusion lip plumping lip-gloss.  To strip away the layers on my face and of my ego takes time, it’s a journey and I know that it is only until you can do this that you will find your true inner beauty and when you do you will be looking into the face of happiness.