Sensitive and Impressionable

I will be the first to admit that I have an unhealthy love of lotions and potions.  I try not to be sensitive about it (no, really), though having one friend roll his eyes at my insistence that I'm in recovery, made me reconsider whether or not my hoarding days are truly over.  One thing that I can say for myself is that I have been rethinking my skincare for the last couple of years.

First, my skin has changed.  Once I got into my mid-thirties that oily skin I had so resented as a teenager started drying out.  My previous aversion to anything with the words “cream” or “oil” in it and anything that doesn’t foam started to dissipate.  Then I realized that, with my change in career, I could no longer afford to spend every Saturday at LUSH and Sephora, especially since I was more of a collector than a frequent user.  Next I had to come to terms with a different climate – from Northern California to Northern Virginia.  Finally, I moved to the DC Metro Area and (after I'd settled in – about a week later) I took a good look around me and realized that very few of the women I've met wear full makeup.  In fact, I’m pretty sure some don't wear any.

I am not by any means saying that I felt an instant need to conform to the beauty standard around me, though I do believe we are bound to be influenced by just that.  In this case, what I felt was relief.  I looked around at all these lovely fresh faces and saw how elegant and classy the women looked despite their lack of…well, shellac, and I was impressed.  I came here thinking that DC would be packed with women who wore makeup like war paint.  Women who would undoubtedly pair their heavy makeup with starched politician hair (you know what I’m saying).  And those women are here, too, but the majority of women I’ve met keep it simple and look good doing it. 

Riding on the Metro

The first time I rode the Metro into DC, I sat across from a woman who must have been in her mid-forties and looked more confident and comfortable than I think I have ever felt.  She was wearing an outfit that some of the women I know would have considered “a bit young for her,” and she looked great wearing it.  She wore her hair short and seemingly effortlessly styled with the barest traces of makeup on her face.  I do hope that she couldn’t tell I was staring, only because she couldn’t have known that I was thinking, “Oh lady, I want to be you when I grow up…you know, next year.”

The stranger on the Metro may have been what it took to completely change the way I looked at myself, beauty-wise.  Since all the women I’d met in DC had been younger than me, this woman was the one who had the greatest impact.

Cha Cha Cha

Let me take a step back for a moment.  I love beauty products, but in general, we are really unkind to our skins (I can get away with making that a plural, right?).  It’s hard to know what is truly good for you when you are drowning in cosmetic advertising, a delightful array of new products every season (I am such a sucker for those) and supposedly expert advice being thrown at you from every direction.  What you should do, must do, mustn’t do and should have been doing all these years but, wait, it’s not too late if you use this one miracle product!  In the end, you have to decide what really works for your skin.  If you have dry-as-the-desert skin, it’s unlikely you’re going to love the bar soap my mom’s been using to clean her normal-to-oily skin for about fifty years.  And if maturing hasn’t had any impact on your face feeling like an oil slick, I’m fairly certain you’re not going to want to go anywhere near my favorite cream cleanser. 

The women who contribute to the content of this site endeavor to show you options – regardless  of skin type, whether you love to get made up or love a bare face, etc. -  tricks we’ve learned, mistakes we’ve made and what we love in the wide world of beauty.  We also want to know what you want to know about, so send your queries to DCLostGirl@gmail.com or leave a comment on one of the posts and we’ll see what we can do about it.