I've been having lots of beauty thoughts lately, some of which I wanted to share to commiserate and others to get some outside feedback. Sorry no pretty pictures or anything this round :-)  Here we gooooo!

1. I'm kind of tired of being beauty obsessed, and I don't know what to do about it.

To clarify, I'm not tired of blogging, reading blogs or testing product out or anything like that. But I'm a bit exhausted about the constant thinking about beauty that I can't seem to help. It's an obsession that, for the moment, is making my head spin because all this stuff just never seems to stop. Seriously...there's ALWAYS SOMETHING!

There are always new products being released. There are always new lines to discover. There are always sales and GWP's. There are always oldies but goodies that I don't even know about. All these Limited Edition products make my mind go nuts - do I really REALLY want it or only want it because it's LE?? But what if I decide I don't want it and then decide I do and then can't get it because it's already sold out? But then what if I get it and then don't like it and can't return it and I'm stuck with something I don't want and it completely goes against my goal to have a stash I love?? 

Then there's the whole other level of my stash in the first place...clearly most of the items I own aren't getting the use they so well deserve. I have more eyeshadow and eye related product than I could possibly use in YEARS, yet I'm drawn to buy more. Same with blush. What is that?? And skincare...though I've been much better about not buying so many backups that won't get used, I still do it to an extent and I also have so many new items I haven't even tried yet...and realistically don't foresee using even in the near future (try as I might!). So what am I doing??? I'd like to call it a lovable collection, but am I really hoarding (GASP) these things? 

Oh and then there's the constant reading of reviews. I get obsessed with a particular product and will spend until the wee hours of the morning reading/watching reviews about it. And then do it again the next day. 

Beauty has always been a passion of mine, but it's not been until I started reading blogs, being on MakeupAlley makeup board, watching YouTube videos, being on social media, etc that I realized just how vast a world I had been missing out on. I feel my beauty life has been so well enriched by these things, yet somehow I've gotten to the point where I almost feel it's too much. How is that possible??? 

I'm someone in general who prefers silence to being in a crowd, and right now I feel my head is filled with so much noise. I want to just curl up in a corner and read a good book like I use to. Jane Eyre. Wrinkle in Time. The Zahir. Books I love and have read umpteen times. Try to do that now and every other paragraph my noisy mind betrays me by wandering off...thinking about whether or not the new Summer collections will be good or not...oh and should I order that eye pencil that everyone says doesn't smudge?? Even watching movies that happens. And at work. Or trying to take a nice walk. 

I think a big part of it is the feeling of not wanting to miss out on something amazing. Something possibly Holy Grail. Some color so astounding and gorgeous that it'll make my knees weak. Some cream that'll make all my imperfections disappear for good and never come back. Some brush that'll make me look 10000000x's better and application 5000000000x's easier. 

How do you quiet a beauty loving-obsessed mind?? Or do I instead find a way to try to temper it a bit??? Help???

2. My eyelids are now not only crepey (yes, visually like crepe paper), but I all of a sudden have lid wrinkles too!!! 

Last July in my Getting Older post (HERE), I wrote about how my eyelids had lost volume. Well guess what. I can also add that my lids are now crepey and wrinkly. How swell. Seriously, within the span of around a year, my lids have gone from nice and plump and full to now wondering whether or not my eyeshadow emphasizes my lids too much. I noticed the crepe late last year, and the wrinkles seem like they recently appeared overnight. 

It's not hugely noticeable right now (IDK I HOPE???), but I notice it. And it affects my eye makeup and how it looks. For example, because of the little lid wrinkles I'm having trouble making my shadow appear blended. Why - because no matter how well I blend, the wrinkles are situated so that when my eyes are open, the wrinkle part makes the blended part disappear so that it looks just like a solid line of shadow. How the F*&K am I supposed to fix that?? 

I knew this would happened eventually, but I didn't expect it to happen NOW. Nor did I expect it to happen so suddenly. I know I said it before but it really does seem like the crepe and wrinkles happened overnight. I'm 39, do I need to be reminded of that right NOW??? 

It just stinks. Other physical things are happening as well and I feel like I'm falling apart. It's so weird. And if all this hasn't started happening to you yet, don't worry...you'll get your fun someday. 

To somewhat counteract all this, I've been trying to get maintain my skin and get/keep it in really good shape. Because the better I feel about my skin, the better I feel with minimal makeup and the other stuff is just fluff. Or is it. I don't know. See #1 above. 

I don't mind getting older...I just wish things didn't seem like they happened overnight!!

3. General makeup rules are really starting to annoy me. 

You know...the general rules that every tutorial and advertisement and whatnot seem to have:

* Why does every eye look need an inner corner and under the brow bone highlight?

* Why do I always need to contour?

* Why do I always need to highlight down the nose and on the cupid's bow? 

* Why does everything need to be set with powder?

* Why does EVERYTHING need to be corrected and concealed?

* Why does every eye look need an outer V crease thingy?

* Why does every look need 'warming up' with bronzer or whatever?

* Oh, and why are brows so drawn on and unnatural looking? 

* Why does every eye look need false lashes?

I have no problem with these things individually, or even altogether. But it seems like soooooo many do ALL of these things all the time. Whey can't this be like a menu...you pick and choose according to what you are trying to achieve and what your particular features are. 

Eh, what am I trying to say here??? I'm ready for some fresh ideas...a new take on things...for makeup to look a little different. But I'm not a makeup artist, so I don't even know what those things would be ha ha!

...aaaaaand that's it. For now. LOL :-)  Care to share your thoughts on any of these things, commiserate about them or generally just comment? Or maybe they've sparked some other thoughts?