I know I’m not alone when I say that how I look affects my mood. If I put an extra 5 minutes into my outfit, hair, and makeup in the morning, I feel like I’m much more ready to take on the day. Finding that 5 minutes is easy – what’s not easy is always finding the time for everything else maintenance – whole body moisturising, hair treatments, eyebrows, nails, washing make up brushes etc.
When my life is getting really hectic and I start skipping the everything else maintenance, it affects my mood and I feel like I’m losing control of everything. Sure it’s super melodramatic but mental health isn’t rational.
ANYWAY what with the end of my contract rapidly approaching, the election, and trying to find time to exercise/socialise/sleep, I stopped. My eyebrows grew out, which made it harder to do them each morning, my cuticles turned to shit, which made painting my nails a nightmare, and I only managed to clean my brushes because I had to for my last post.
http://instagram.com/p/q0FQPWpWNT/?modal=true
Me, lamenting the dismal state of my brows.
I knew something had to be done. I booked an appointment with Lisa at Loft Beauty. Remember when I waxed lyrical about the Benefit brow bar? They were great, at the time. Well, Laura was great. The next time I went back I had someone different and she didn’t even try to arch them. So I cut my losses and went to Lisa, who came highly recommended by almost every Auckland member of Makeup Obsessives.
No shit you guys Lisa has changed my life. Firstly, it’s like a massage parlour in there, you’re not sitting in the middle of a department store. Secondly, she talks you through what she’s going to do, then draws it with powder on your brows so you can see what they’ll look like. Halfway through waxing, I decided I wanted a tint so we discussed how I usually fill my eyebrows in and she based the colour off that.
http://instagram.com/p/q24S4hpWOt/?modal=true
I went back to work (it only took half an hour, so a perfect Friday lunch activity) feeling a lot better about the state of my life. The whole thing cost me $35, so it’s cheaper than Benefit, too.
I had planned to go to the gym after work, and spend Saturday afternoon getting my nails did and going to Lush. Except I still felt a bit blah and couldn’t muster the energy to work out, so I did the closest thing I get to spontaneity and changed my plans and got my nails did after work.
There is something incredibly relaxing about paying $30 to sit in the middle of the mall listening to the nail techs discuss their Friday plans in Japanese (I don’t speak Japanese, they apologised for talking about beer) and finally finally finally get something done about the sad tale that is your nails.
Obviously, there’s a lot of shit tied up in using beauty rituals to lift my mood, and the patriarchy and social constructs of beauty and capitalism etc and sometimes I really struggle with it but it’s also absolutely possible to recognise your influences while still liking what you like, and self care always comes first. Always.
And as a result, I managed to get up this morning and go to boxing, then come home and tidy my room and do all my chores; I’m ready for another week.
With perfect eyebrows and perfect nails, and a less that perfect camera/pose.
Does your life spiral out of control with the state of your brows? Do you use beauty rituals to lift your mood? What are they?
P.s. Guess who just got Instagram, years after it first became popular like the pariah I am.
My Flatmate's Wardrobe 
I definitely relate about feeling better when I take time to make myself look nice. I like putting some trashy to on and doing my nails, or reading while doing a face mask. It’s so relaxing and I feel better at the end. Plus, regularly maintenance is easier than letting everything turn into a mess and have to do a big mission.