Stop Hating On "Faking"

Self-tan. Lash strips. Coloured contacts. Acrylic nails. Hair extensions. Hair dye. Lipstick.

What do all of these have in common? They're all fake, of course! And pretty fucking awesome ways of making ourselves look more like the way we want to look for a little while. Yes, I absolutely adore having a tan. But do I want to be tanned while rocking my favourite jumpers and boots in mid-Winter? Not necessarily. I am currently loving having pinky-purple hair. Would I want my hair to naturally be that colour and stay that way my whole life? (Maybe…)

If you’re reading this, then odds are you are in the lifestyle/beauty blogger community. Hi there.

We are a bunch of people that LOVE make up and celebrates the different products that help us to express our personality, bring out the things we like most about ourselves and hide what we don't love, be it with glitter brows and purple eyeliner or simply concealer and mascara.

And no one says anything. No one judges. We’re all “You do you, boo” and “YAS QUEEN SLAY”. (Aka a collection of my least favourite phrases to ever be spoken on earth and that make me want to peel my skin off).

 But I see so many people bashing the fake freckle trend. Like, what?? Why? Worse still, they’re not bashing it because they think it looks stupid, either. They seem to have some moral opposition to it. And that kind of bothers me.

I adore freckles. I always have. My mother is literally covered head to toe, and my sister has the most adorable spattering of freckles over her nose, even Martin is super freckly. I’m the only red head on earth who isn’t freckled HOW IS THAT FAIR? WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS CURSE? Actually, I have a little cluster on the right hand side of my nose and over the right side of my forehead. When I wear makeup they get completely covered and that makes me a bit sad. So on an every day "no makeup” day recently, I’ve been drawing them back on (very faintly with eye shadow then patting it into the skin so it’s hardly visible). I’ve even been evening them out and putting some on the other side of my nose to match.

IT’S FASHION. IT’S A TREND. IT'S TEMPORARY. Don’t make people feel bad or stupid or wrong for embracing a trend and giving themselves some freckles. Is it really that different to people with mega sparse brows drawing on killer instagram brows? I don’t think so. I get people have been teased for having freckles, but now they are being embraced. Why can’t we just love that?

On a similar note: Fake piercings. I was so guilty of this in my younger days because, I think to many people piercings are a status symbol. I was “Emo” in my teenage year. CRINGE CRINGE CRINGE KILL ME NOW. I had my lip and nose pierced along with a plethora of ear piercings. I still love them and in the last few years I’ve had an industrial/scaffolding piercing, among others. Some of my school friends used to wear fake lip rings and it used to really annoy me. "You shouldn’t wear fake piercings", I thought. "I went through the pain of the piercings and have to go through the cleaning rituals and I get in trouble in P.E and got shouted at by my parents and will be left with a scar when I inevitably take it out in a few months/years time. If you want to look cool with a piercing, like me, you should go through it all too". Don’t fake it, basically.

 Now in hindsight: Who was the stupid one? I’m left with a scar of a piercing that got infected. On my damn face, to make matters worse! It didn’t even look that good at the time. I’m neither knocking real piercings or “fake” ones, but these friends of mine managed to embrace the look they wanted for a brief period of time without any hassle or pain, then took it out when they didn't like it anymore. Voila.

A few months ago I saw fake septum piercings in Primark, and I thought they were the stupidest things ever. If you want to wear septum jewellery why not go get it pierced like the rest of the world? I’ve always wanted a septum piercing, but it was the one piecing that really scared me and I never wanted to commit to it. So you know what I did? I bought a pack of fake ones. Half to test the water to see if I really liked how it looks before taking the plunge, and half to trick Martin on April fools day…  I love how it looks and I thought I had FINALLY decided to get it pierced. I’m starting a PhD in September and will be working in secure forensic units and in a very professional, academic capacity. Is a septum piercing appropriate? I personally don’t think so, and I think the other psychologists would agree. So what’s wrong with wearing septum jewellery on the weekends or on a night out? Absolutely fucking nothing at all. In fact, just try and stop me.

Do we look down on people who wear clip on earrings? No. Do we judge someone for wearing a ring or a bracelet? No. I hate how we have this culture that is simultaneously all about self expression and make up and hair dye and woohoo individuality, but it’s only certain expressions that we accept. Grow your beard, cut it pointy and dye it lime green and that’s completely fine. Cover your WHOLE ARM in ink that will stick for the rest of your fucking life, that’s cool too. Put a piece of plastic in your nose or draw some little dots onto your face? Nah that’s too far sorry, mate. Not cool.

Tshirt - Topshop (old)

Shoes - Primark

Dungarees - ASOS

Sunglasses - Primark

Necklace - 

Earrings - ASOS

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