Beauty and the beholder.

Slack or sensible? Apathetic or altruistic?

Last night hubby and I got to go out for a rare "mummy and daddy without kids" social event. A lovely restaurant, adult conversation, adult "juice" (wink, wink) and a chance to exchange my normal somewhat casual attire for something a bit more dressy...What an effort. Apparently it isn't the done thing to wear scruffy old slippers to a classy Chinese restaurant. They want a touch more class to go with their salt and pepper lobster. So I actually had to make an effort to scrub up.

It took me 26 minutes to get ready. 10 minutes to shower, brush my teeth, do my hair, spray some nice smelly stuff on my decolletage (don't you just love that word?), get dressed, find shoes and a bag and some earrings. Then 16 minutes to find anything that resembles that stuff you smear on your face to make you instantly attractive to the opposite sex, dimish your wrinkles and increase your self confidence by 1 gazillion percent.

That magical thing. Make up.

The only problem is that at this stage in my life I don't wear the stuff. It's not that I have let myself go as a stay at home mum. I still practice hair removal for pete's sake. But my daily morning beauty routine consists of applying a bit of hair mousse, deodorant and some tinted moisturiser. And it's not that motherhood has made me this way. For years I have been less and less inclined to use makeup on a daily basis. I tell myself that it will give me better skin as I get older but it probably just that I don't see the point is pretty-ing myself up to buy toilet paper, drop my child at kindy or to put the garbage bins out.

It's also a darn lot cheaper. A friend and I feel under-appreciated by our husbands that we are low-maintenance chicks. No monthly hairdresser visits for colours and tips, no facials, manicures, pedicures, massages...

I watched a bit of an Oprah show a couple of years ago. The story was about a 3 or 4 year old little girl who refused to leave the house without having lipstick on...because every day she saw her mum put lipstick on. Then there was the slim 6 year old who was asking if she looked fat- because her mother was obsessed with her own body image.

A bit scary, really. We all know that our kids want to imitate us. My 2 and 1/2 year old daughter certainly wants to use my hair mousse when I do or pops on one of my necklaces when she is playing. But I do wonder if the reaction of those kids on Oprah is an extreme reaction. I would say that it is but it still shows the strength of our influence. At the moment my daughter is destined to have a coffee fixation. I can see her will happily leave the house for kindy without lippy- as long as her double-shot-white-one-sugar-morning coffee is in her hand.

So anyway, with 2 minutes to spare I found some foundation powder, some mascara that wasn't dried out to oblivion and some lip gloss that vaguely matched my dress (is lip gloss in this year or was that a really tragic fashion faux-pas?) The kids ooh-ed and ah-ed as they tend to do at unusual novelties.

Now I just need to put my makeup things somewhere where I can find them next time I need them. Maybe it would just be easier to get permanent lash and lip tinting done. I wonder what Dr Phil would say about that?