Preen & Proper
“You don’t need all that makeup”. “Smile”. “She could put a little more effort in”. UGH. Barf.
Confession: I love my things. It is fascinating, really, the dialogue around women and our “stuff”, our “things”, our “potions”. There is conflict, in its lightest form, between men and women as to whether we “need” that lotion, that makeup, or that sparkly jewel. My answer is simply, yes. We women critique one another with Holier Than Thou comments about what we will not “waste our time” with etc., to position ourselves as more confident, stronger, or perhaps less silly. More deeply there is the weight of responsibility because we’re drawn to these frivolities. The use of beauty products framed as dependency is often weaponized and thrown back and forth between people, genders, and social circles.
I have had countless men tell me women should not wear makeup, or less of it, try less hard, etc. Alternatively, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a boss sit me down with the sole mission to get me to put more effort into my appearance. I know many women are familiar with this push and pull throughout our lives. Who decided that our faces weren’t good enough?! Wasn’t it you, Patriarchy? Now you want to tell me it’s silly to apply products and potions in an effort to look “good”? It seems that, for women at least, it can be difficult to accept a compliment, and any critique is jarring, to say the least.
Yet now, with more of our power back in our hands, we face the choice of what we deeply believe. One thing is for certain - we need to release the belief that we are not enough. We can know we are beautiful and however messy that becomes, it gets to be true. We do have that right. So… where does that leave me and my relationship with my favourite skin serum? We damn well know the answer to that. My skin serum is for me.
One thing is for certain - we need to release the belief that we are not enough.
To Adorn can mean to practice self love and self care. The fine, or perhaps messy line, lies within our motivation. If there is an energy of love behind your hygiene or product application, applying mascara, or the donning of your favourite scarf, that’s love. It’s when we feel we NEED it in order to be good enough for this world - those are the rough edges and wounds to explore.
Now if we’re gonna talk preening on a vagina mist blog… let’s talk vagina adornment, shall we? We wax, sugar, shave, clip, trim or let our fur run wild to our liking. We dress Vagina up in her Sunday best, her sexy bikini, let her run naked or arm her with period panties. We already know that perfumed products and soaps are a no go for Vaginas. And great pH balance support and sweaty vaginas at the gym aside, we also created Freshbox for fun. Personally, we wanted something gentle and safe to adorn our most vulnerable, yet incredible, body part. We are good exactly as we are, and hey, so are our damn vaginas.
