Some students buck trend, choose to forgo applying cosmetics for quicker, easier choice

By Julie Kippenbrock
<[email protected]>

It only takes her 10 minutes to brush her teeth, get dressed and put in her contacts before she is out the door to catch her bus for school. Unlike many high school girls, sophomore Viviane Linos foregoes the long morning ritual of makeup application, not because her mom won’t let her wear it, but because Linos said she believes she doesn’t need it.

“I don’t think I need to wear makeup. I believe in natural beauty, plus, I just think makeup is gross,” Linos said.

Linos represents a population of girls that goes against this society’s tradition of wearing makeup to look prettier. In fact, she said, she hates wearing the stuff. “Last year I was on Homecoming court and my mom made me wear makeup to the dance and for the Homecoming day at the stadium,” she said. “She forces me to wear makeup for any important events. I also have to wear stage makeup for choir concerts, which includes dark eyes and bright red lipstick. I hate doing it.”

But people like Linos may be a dwindling population. Lori Boykin, a makeup artist at Merle Norman Cosmetics in Castleton Mall, has worked there for six years and says that in the last few years she has seen more high-school-aged girls come in to buy makeup. “I’ve had girls coming in here as young as 12 years old with their moms asking for foundation,” Boykin said. “I think teenage girls should slow down a bit. It seems like girls are wearing makeup younger and younger these days.”

Boykin said she has also noticed that many mothers have brought their daughters into Merle Norman to have a makeup artist break the bad makeup habits their children have picked up from friends. “The key to makeup is looking natural without looking like you have too much makeup on,” Boykin said.

Linos said she has seen many makeup blunders herself. “The problem with some girls who wear makeup is that they overdo it and it actually makes them look fake. It’s the worst when a girl’s foundation doesn’t blend in correctly with her skin and it leaves a streak on her neck. That doesn’t happen very often but when I see it it’s pretty bad,” Linos said.

But not all students avoid wearing makeup. One student who wears makeup every day is junior Angelina Van Vlymen. “I like to present myself nicely when I go to school,” Van Vlymen said. Van Vlymen said she began wearing a little makeup at the end of seventh grade but the end of freshmen year was when she really started wearing makeup. It normally takes Van Vlymen 20 minutes each morning to apply makeup and another 15 minutes to do her hair. “I think that when some girls put on makeup, they feel prettier and more confident and I think that’s a good thing,” Van Vlymen said.

According to Linos, her mother said she wishes her daughter wore makeup more often. “Sometimes my mom chases me around the house to wear makeup but when my sister Effie, who’s 12, wants to wear it, she won’t let her. I don’t understand why, but Effie finds a way to wear makeup anyway. She just steals it from my mom’s room,” Linos said.

“Makeup isn’t a bad thing, it’s just not for me,” Linos said. “I feel that many girls my age should slow down though. We’re only teenagers.”