Vanity.

It all started because of the horrible laundry facilities at my building. We've lived here almost 6 years, and the washing machines have intermittently sucked. Sometimes everything goes as planned - dirty clothes go in, clean clothes come out, some clothes go into the dryer, some (mostly mine) get hung up to air dry. A shoddy spin cycle has reared its head enough times that we were over the "laundry roulette" guessing game of wondering whether we'd get clothes that were drenched and needed an extra three rotations in the dryer or an extra two days air drying. We started going out to the laundromat.

I'm not crazy about the laundromat. I've gone on and off, mostly off, throughout my life. It's a drag to have to haul your laundry to your car and participate in a chore that you *should* be able to do in your own building. But the benefits outweigh the inconvenience. We can be completely done with laundry in 2 hours, and we know the machines are definitely working. We usually will go grab lunch while waiting for stuff to dry, which makes the whole thing more "pleasant weekend outing" and less "annoying chore". Most significantly to this story - there is a CVS next door.

As a kid, I prowled drugstores frequently. My elementary BFF and I would get personal pizzas at Round Table - $2.35 with a coupon that came on the back of the grocery store receipt, which both of our mothers saved for us. Pizza and unlimited soda, a candy claw machine, video games (I liked Tekken) and a jukebox. We could hang out there for hours, and often did during our school breaks. I wanted a hangout like the characters in books/TV had: Dairi Burger in Sweet Valley, The Max in Saved by the Bell. Round Table wasn't exactly that, and we were a little young for that anyway, but we did see kids from our school there on occasion. After we'd had our fill of sodas and overstayed our welcome, we'd go get an ice cream cone from the Rite Aid in the same shopping center. We started reading magazines about boys and makeup, then started buying makeup. My cousin and I would go on similar outings when we went to visit them in Orange County - see a movie at the cheapo late-run theater, go to Rite Aid. Practice makeup on each other. I must have been in 5th grade or so. I favored purple eyeshadow because I liked how it looked against my green eyes. I couldn't get the hang of lipstick but I wore shimmery gloss. Like so many teenagers, I wore a raccoon-esque layer of black eyeliner.

My makeup habits and knowledge stayed shamefully similar for most of girlhood. Whether I was 14 going to the mall, 19 going to a concert, 26 going on a first date, my makeup routine was: concealer, foundation, loose translucent powder. Black mascara, eyeliner. Lip gloss. That's it. On workdays, I'd keep it to powder and mascara. Or later - none.

Which is fine. I have never bought into the idea that women in generally, or I specifically, must wear makeup or be particularly adept at it. It's bullshit that makeup is foisted upon women as an obligation, and women feel compelled to apologize for their un-made faces. We will not be free until women are as carefree with their appearances as men are. And yet. As comfortable as I was/am going bare-faced, I knew that part of why I didn't bother with makeup was that it was so out of my comfort zone. So much has changed since I devoured teen magazines in 1997 - BB cream, CC cream, primer, contouring, etc didn't exist. It seemed like the rules had changed and makeup was way more complicated than it had been.

But going to the laundromat and having time to kill at CVS next door reminded me that there was a time when I lived for makeup. I got those familiar feelings of wanting to buy a lot of different things and having to choose. The difference is that now I'm an adult and have a larger income than a weekly $5 for cleaning my room. Over time, I built a good collection. I still am.

A couple of other things happened:

1. Shortly after my wedding I cut my hair - a cliché move of many newly-married women - and though I'd had short hair before, I had to learn how to curl and style this new cut. I had to experiment with products and started purchasing the fancy Italian brand they sell at my salon. I had to teach myself something new. There was a steep learning curve, and of course I'll never be as good as my stylist, but I feel reasonably confident about my ability to execute a hair style now. It occurred to me that it had been so long since I'd forced myself to learn a new skill.

2. I got interested in jewelry. I've talked about this before.

3. I read "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up." Though the book's central tenant is minimalism to an extent that feels unnatural, some of the themes resonated with me. Immediately upon reading it, I KonMari'ed my closet and have since been much better about adding clothes to my wardrobe only when I really like them. Marie Kondo writes about how objects have energies and are "happiest" when they are fulfilling their purpose. She believes that everything you have should be both functional and beautiful (whatever that means to you) with a place it lives when you are not using it - ideally, clothes live in your drawer or closet, folded or hung nicely, with space to breathe.

This particular point hit hard when I thought about my beauty products. All the hair styling items, makeup, and jewelry that I owned was relegated to clear Lucite boxes that I barely touched. A perfume set I'd gotten as a gift in 2010 was still in the box. (I used the perfume on occasion - but not much. Out of sight, out of mind.) Marie Kondo would say that I was not respecting these items by letting them fulfill their purpose.

So here I was with a growing collection of makeup, jewelry, and hair products, having read a book about respecting your belongings, with my own truly sorry storage situation. Beauty items strewn about, under and around a table in boxes my dog had knocked over and stepped on multiple times. Messy. No consideration given to making the items organized.

Before: A Hot Mess

Woof.

So yeah, you can imagine that I didn't spent a ton of time appreciating the things I owned.

I'd always wanted a vanity. At age 32, I finally bought one off Amazon and assembled it myself. Over time, I bought little organizers for my makeup and a necklace holder for my rapidly-increasing necklace collection. I display my perfume and lotion in their own corner. I keep bobby pins, hair ties, and clips in a specific place, so they have a home base and aren't just thrown all over my apartment. I have all my nail polishes out. I've always suffered from a tendency to "have" things rather than "use" them, but now that my things are all displayed, I use them way more. Just seeing this display of items that I find beautiful, that make me feel beautiful - well, that's worth something.

Let's appreciate how far it's come.

Now: A Pretty, Organized Treasure Trove

Top surface is for displaying/using. Bottom shelf is utilitarian - hair clips, makeup wipes, sponges. It's all organized!

None of my actual makeup is in these photos because I store that in the bathroom, and bring it to my vanity when needed. Most mornings I get ready in the bathroom.

Polish, perfume, lotion.

When you see your necklaces on a regular basis, you wear your necklaces more often.

I don't have a ton of bracelets, but don't they look nicer on this display than strewn about?

Crystals I bought for pure enjoyment. The big Amethyst was a gift from my mom, as was the monogrammed hanky.

The whole tableau. It makes me happy to see it every day.

I love sitting at my vanity and doing my makeup on Saturday nights. Styling my hair is a major chore - I hate doing it, even if I like the end result. But doing my makeup? I find it almost meditative. I love to apply primer. I love filling in my brows (never needed much help there, but man they look great with some extra powder). I love to tightline and decide on the fly what my eyeshadow colors will be. There's so much more to learn, but I enjoy the process of experimentation. I love that if I make a mistake, it's easy to fix. I really love that other than major eyeliner spillage or lipstick that looks as though it was applied by Miranda Sings, there aren't really mistakes to make. I don't mind that it takes time. Then when I'm done (generally when I have to leave in 2 minutes), I pick out jewelry and perfume, and look in the mirror, and feel satisfied with the end result before rushing out the door.