Ever heard the expression “Living in the monkey house”? When you walk into the monkey exhibit at the zoo you think, OMG! It smells horrible in here! But if you stay in the monkey house for long enough, you don’t really smell it anymore, right? Everyone else who enters the monkey house has to plug their nose, but those who have gotten used to the smell don’t seem to notice it at all anymore. How does this relate to beauty? Getting used to your look, your style, and your makeup techniques can all be detrimental to your outward image!
You know that girl that always has the orange base line around her jaw? Do you think she realizes that she looks like an oompa loompa? Of course not. She thinks she is hot stuff with her “tan” face! Other people that she meets recognize that she could use a lighter color foundation and maybe a lesson in blending, but again, she has been living in the monkey house with this orange face for far too long and can no longer recognize how ridiculous she looks.
What about the lady with the poufy bangs? She loved how they looked in the early 90’s so she decided to keep them. Now she has become accustomed to how they look on her, and she thinks she would look weird without them. She and her bangs are happily shacked up in the monkey house.
And then there’s the woman who has had a couple of kids and has let herself go a bit. She started off by omitting blush and eyeliner to shave some time off of her morning routine. Nowadays the morning routine has been whittled down to the use of a hair brush and maybe some powder and Chapstick. She slowly cut out one beauty product after the next until she had completely crossed over to the homely side without even knowing it. She certainly doesn’t think she looks her very best, but has an “it’ll do” attitude about her appearance. This situation is a slow fade, but in the end, she and her housewife appearance have definitely taken up residence in the monkey house.
What these hypothetical women need to realize is that sometimes you need to look somewhere other than the mirror to see how you really look. Check out what’s current by grabbing the newest People, turning on E!, or just noticing what other women are doing. This is not to conform, but simply to stay relevant to what is happening today.
Think about who stands out as beautiful in your eyes. Whose style would you like to emulate? Who has the look and the class that makes you say, “She always looks great!”? I say Jennifer Aniston is a great example. Well, do you see Jennifer Aniston wearing 3 inch acrylic nails? Nope. Maybe it’s time to lose those. Is she wearing Crocs? Well, maybe those aren’t the most fashionable style of shoe on the market. Is her lip liner 4 shades darker than her lipstick? No? Perhaps that’s because that look does not work for anyone! It’s a harsh fact of life, but if it doesn’t look good on anyone else, it probably doesn’t look good on you either.
A good rule of thumb is to never go longer than 3 years without reevaluating your look and making some updates. Whether it be changing where you shop, your hair style, or your makeup shades, if you want to look your best, change is necessary!
Pardon the cheese factor in this quote, but “If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies.” – Mary Kay Ash
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