Sex Kitten

How can you not buy an eye shadow named Sex Kitten?  While browsing my favorite brand's website, and praying they still make the color I'm running out of I spy the name Sex Kitten.  I was smitten.  Who isn't intrigued by a color that proclaims itself Sex Kitten?? 

When I was a kid I'd see my mom putting on her makeup every morning, regardless of what she was going to do that day.  It was her daily ritual.  There wasn't much to it, no powders or liquid foundations.  Just cream, eyeliner, and mascara.  I'd watch her sitting in her chair in front of her 70's era light up magnifying mirror as all else fell away for her and she took a moment to do something for herself.  Didn't matter to her that there was no man to please, or that it was her day off and there was no way she would be cajoled into leaving the house.  I didn't understand it then, my daughter doesn't understand it now.

I know when I'm depressed.  I know that icky feeling in the pit of my gut, I know not wanting to get out of bed, I know not looking in the mirror for days at a time, even though I check to make sure my teeth are clean, to pop that pesky pimple, or to check the status of my grey roots.  I know that.  When I'm depressed I don't put makeup on.  I don't care enough about myself to bother.

My thing with makeup is, I don't wear it for anyone but me.  My makeup reflects my mood.  Light, clean and fresh when I'm feeling energized, dark and mysterious when I'm feeling playful, blood red lips when I'm feeling vampirish.  And on those morning when I'm feeling blah, when I haven't really seen my reflection in the mirror, my makeup helps me change my mood.  I'll decide what mood I'd like to be in, then I go through my own ritual, applying my moisturizer, swirling and tapping my foundation.  Feeling my icky feelings start to drift away as the soft bristles work their magic.  Plucking just the right color from the wide assortment of eye shadows and applying it in just the right way for that day.  Cat eye?  Smudged slept in look?  And when you've come across a color named Sex Kitten, well how can you feel anything but? 

For me, my daily ritual works either way, either by bringing the inside out, or the outside in.  And on those days when I'm feeling a funk, I'm glad that I can reach into my train case instead of a pill box.  Maybe that's why some women love shoes, or purses, or jewelry, or clothes.  But me, I love eye shadows.