The Ugly Truth

Do you ever trawl over google images and think to yourself “If only I could have Mila Kunis’ big brown eyes, Kim Kardashian’s flawless sun kissed complexion or Penelope Cruz’ luscious glossy locks”…Yeah, same here.

We live in a world where celebrities are the holy grail and we are constantly faced with images of perfection, so is it really any wonder that we are left feeling less than content with our own looks?

I have a lazy eye, uneven eyebrows from an adolescent over plucking incident (which my mother called the second I got my hands on a pair of tweezers) frown lines from a life spent pondering what to write next and a nose I spend hours contouring in a desperate bid for it to appear slender, more button like if you will. An impossible feat, due to the fact I don’t have the skill required and more to the point it’s not in my genes to have a pixie nose.

I have never been a fan of the bare faced look because, quite frankly, the times I have braved it and gone without make up I’m met with concerns such as “are you ill”, or “you don’t look too good”. Thanks guys, talk about a confidence boost or what. Pass me the concealer pronto. And despite the fact I have a boyfriend who continuously reminds me how beautiful I am, even without make up,  I have to say that sometimes, (most of the time) those compliments fall on deaf ears. Us women are genetically wired to be super critical of ourselves, and of one another. We always want what we don’t have. We want to be taller, thinner, smarter, more beautiful. But what we are really saying is we would rather be less ourselves and it’s exhausting.

So for me when I see pictures of Mila Kunis looking less than glamorous and Kim Kardashian a lightly paler shade than I’m used to, I don’t turn my slightly too wide of a nose up and stare in disgust. I applaud them, and think finally at last we get to see the real them. The face behind the layers of make up and artistry. This is their god given looks.

Why do we feel the need to judge one another without our slap on anyway? Is it because we do in actual fact look as rough as we except or is it purely because we are so desensitized by the media that we accept nothing less than perfect?

I suspect it’s the latter and that the flaws we spend hours critiquing and crucifying ourselves over are not as bad as we make out and that yes, we might not look as good as we do with a flick of mascara and dab of gloss, but the reality is that we are not that awful after all!

Now is the time to embrace our natural beauty. To strip away the layers of make up and accept our faces. Just the way they are. Flaws and all. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t resemble a hollywood starlet underneath your foundation, because the fact of the matter is, that without the make up, the hair extensions and the style teams these celebs don’t look so “hollywood” themselves. Perfection is and always will be only an illusion.

If we continue to compare ourselves to other people we will never feel good enough, pretty enough or worthy enough, and that my friends is the ugly truth.

By Sophie Maguire

Keep your eyes peeld for our follow up when team MSL bare all for the sake of natural beauty