Skip to main content

Second Opinion

The Mild Wife generally likes to do her research when she buys things that are going to last a while. I mean, it makes sense: you're going to have this thing around for months, if not years, so you might as well make sure you make a good investment. No one is going to raise an eyebrow if you do your homework before buying a car, for example. It's an investment, so you want to make sure you know as much as possible before you buy it.

As I've pointed out before, though, this habit also extends to makeup. Now, it's not as big an investment from a pure financial standpoint, but as I've discovered, many of these products are meant to last many, many months. What's more, you are literally putting this product on your face. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to slap on something that made me look terrible. So, she does her homework. Like I said, this makes sense to me.

However, skin tones are not an exact science. It's not like there's a hex code for your skin that precisely identifies you skin tone. What's more, even if that did exist, people's skin is not always uniform all the way across their entire bodies. So, it takes serious time and effort to try to find something that matches your skin tone, looks the way you want it, and comes at a price point that you're comfortable with.

What makes it even harder, at least for the Mild Wife, is that sometimes she isn't directly in front of a store sample when she's curious about a particular product. I mean, if she was there in store, she would probably swatch a little bit of it on her forearm to see how well it matches her skin. But that's not always the case. In fact, I'd argue that scenario actually makes up a small minority of the times when she's curious about a particular product. So, she ends up looking at websites and other social media to try to judge whether something looks like it'd match her skin tone.

Lately, though, she has taken to getting a second opinion on these things: me. I don't think I'm particularly good at this or anything, but I'm around, I understand what she's trying to do, and I happen to have the benefit of seeing her frequently. I'm not going to be biased by what she already has in stock, plus I probably see her face more often than any other human on the face of the planet. So, as it turns out, I qualify as a good impartial judge.

This has led to discussions about "rosy undertones" or whether something is "too matte." Let me tell you, I never imagined this would be a part of my life, yet here we are. I know the Mild Wife appreciates the input and I'm happy to do it, but the whole thing makes me chuckle. Every so often, I find myself trying to help match a random picture on a makeup website's to my wife's face, and the whole notion that I'm trying to judge makeup makes me chuckle.

Second opinion, indeed.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

From Scratch 2

A few months ago, I tried my hand at making home-made dumplings . It came out all right, and it was definitely passable for a first attempt, but we always said that we should have another go at it. After all, if we liked it all right when we made it with no first-hand experience, it should come out even better after having at least one rep under our belt, right? We found out this weekend. First of all, the Mild Wife helped with the dough preparation this time around. I knew to be wary of making the dough too sticky this time around, but because she has more experience with baking, she was able to guide us through the pitfalls. What really surprised me was just how little water you can/should add at a time. We're talking about a tablespoon at a time when you're trying to make a ball of dough. I mean, I knew not to overwater it from previous experience, but it still surprised me to add in that little water at a time. Still, there was a method to this ( including the trusty sanduk...
Post a Comment
Read more

All Good Things ...

August 8, 2009. Over twelve years ago, I started blogging with this simple post . I didn't really have a great reason for starting the blog, other than I wanted to try it out. I wanted to try writing and putting it where others could read it. I don't know, it just seemed like a new adventure to try. Along the way, there have been all sorts of posts and all sorts of life events, but through it all, I kept writing. It just became a part of what I do at some point. It wasn't a matter of whether I was going to write a blog post, it was a matter of when. The Mild Wife has described it as a "writing practice," and it was one of the reasons why I kept writing. Honestly, it's good practice, and it gives me an opportunity to hone my craft. I'm no professional author, but we all have to write stuff in our everyday lives. Why not give yourself reps to get better at it? However, I think it's time for that practice to change. My weekly anecdotes sure kept me amused...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pink

Way back in high school, there was a male teacher that all the girls thought was attractive. It was an open secret that a bunch of them had crushes on him. In fact, the school newspaper even did an article about him that quoted some girl saying, "he's so cute, he even makes pink look good." Yes, he had worn a pink shirt to school one day, and it had apparently been a big hit. I was reminded of this story when my sister-in-law suggested that she would choose pink as the color for her wedding and bridal party. I don't think I've ever made a color look good before, but I remember thinking, "well, I know it's possible to not look stupid in pink as a straight guy, I guess I can try." And I think that's almost exactly what I told her. I also happened to own a gray suit, so I figured the combination would look all right. However, I was pretty much the only one willing to play along. My sister-in-law's brothers wanted absolutely no part of th...
Post a Comment
Read more