I remember when I truly started to "learn" about makeup in the glory days of YouTube tutorials, I learned many tips and tricks and began to educate myself about product and textures. Instagram accompanied this with perfectly applied makeup, clean lines and specific rules. I followed some of these rules, adapted others and began to find my style with makeup - I learned so much from my beauty education.

However, now is the age of the Instagram Makeup Artist where we are seeing edgy and artistic looks from professionals such as Katie Jane Hughes, Kirsten Sage Coleman and Anastasia Voevodina - to name a few. Their looks are inspiring because they aren't following the rules, they put rhinestones through the eyebrow, glitter in the crease and mix multiple textures. They are bringing the artistry back to make-up.


So when you're doing your makeup, mix textures you normally wouldn't to see what happens and to learn about what works, what doesn't and why.  Apply product somewhere you normally wouldn't, see how it looks and if it creates a look that feels innovative and new. Personally, I've been loving applying glitter in the crease and on the lower lash line, I find it widens my eyes and the sparkles catches you off guard, adding allure to the eyes. When you have time to play, then throw the rule book out and see what happens...
I am not the most expressive person. I keep a lot inside, churning my thoughts and emotions. On the outside, this makes me come across as judgemental, anti-social or simply a cold, hard bitch. Really, I'm just shy and terrified of embarassing myself. I'm trying to get better at opening up, sharing myself with the people I love. One way I practice this is with strangers on the internet, and by that I mean here, and on Instagram


I share my image. 
I share my opinions, and even my thoughts. 
I pull everything out onto images and text. 
Once uploaded, it becomes just a whisper in the expanse of the internet.



But this whisper is some of my truth. 
This whisper is a shout from a woman navigating her way through this absurd world. I hear people outside of this world look in with judgement about 'greed', 'narcissism' and 'pressure'. There are some cases where this may be true but for most, but I  choose to see it as trying to carve out a place in the world. 




We live, we experience and we love but our images and texts are the sculptures of our lives. We may live without this art and continue to live a full and rich existence. But in a world of change, noise and pain we just want to create something solid, unperturbed by the business of life, something which cannot crack under the pressures we face day to day. We can tell of our pain, our happiness and our greatest memories. We tell these to people, as warnings, celebrations and reminders of what life is, and what it can be. 


But read these images and words for what they are, they are an artist's work, an interpretation or a purposeful depiction of life. It's when you change their words and fill the blanks with your own anxieties and 'have not's' that these images of life turn into comparisons.

These are my words, an attempt to process what I do, and why I do them. 
Why do I take these photos? Why do I share them online? 
I understand that these images don't validate me, as I am at my happiest when submersed with the people I love, not when inundated by likes.
I know that these images don't make me feel beautiful, as I am still riddled with insecurities. 

I think, I share because I want a place to craft a sense of self; a million pixels for each facet of my inner being.

A whisper from me, to you.

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