I generally think of myself as a low-maintenance person. My daily make up routine usually consists of eyeliner, lipstick aaaaand usually that’s it. It’s useful for me to have a small makeup collection consisting mostly of the essentials, and a few bonus items usually left forgotten at the bottom of the bag. If you need to pack everything into a small weekend bag, or like me you are a very weak human being who cannot carry too much in their luggage, you can’t be doing with things you may only use in a blue moon and will probably lose somewhere anyway. And I’ve seen others cram massive makeup bags into suitcases, taking up valuable space.
My sister commented recently on trying to cut down on makeup usage, mentioning if I did it I would be going around bare-faced. Truth is, one reason I refrain from having an extensive makeup collection is because I hate the idea of women purposely trying to completely mask their natural face with contouring etc. And I know I don’t want to get into that habit, because a) it’s far too much effort to keep up with and b) I want to have the confidence to be able to look at my face even with all its glorious/hideous imperfections.
My hair witnesses my biggest high maintenance- trying to reduce the frizz and amplify the curls means it sees quite a few products on wash days. Even so I only started sporting curly hair after becoming too lazy to straighten it as I would nearly every day as a teenager. Nowadays I only straighten the fringe, which I’ve contemplated growing out just so I don’t have to. (Yes I’m very lazy…) But since ditching the straighteners almost 100% it saves me 20-30 mins of getting ready, which can be used for more important things such as hitting the snooze button or taking my time with a morning cuppa.
And a low-maintenance life doesn’t just apply to the beauty stuff – people who are low-maintenance are generally chilled about life and quite easy to please. We don’t freak out the minute something goes wrong, instead we shrug it off and take it in our stride. It makes us the perfect house guests because we’re just happy with a place to rest our heads, and arguably as hosts we are nice in that we won’t be hovering over you and fussing about too much.
And in the modern age I think it helps to be low-maintenance when there are social media accounts for everything. I have an on-off love affair with social media: some days I feel like posting any random thing, other days I’d rather not be randomly popping up in people’s lives who I haven’t spoken to in forever. If you’re less concerned about your image, you’re less reliant on “likes” for social gratification. And in all honesty I find people who update the internet incessantly about their lives, or have to have a selfie for every occasion or even no occasion a tad irritating. I want interesting, poignant articles about the world shared, and maybe a few articles on why FRIENDS is still relevant. I don’t care if you have a sore throat.
And although sometimes I feel like I should try a little harder with my make up routine (at least for big events), and bad hair days frustrate me more than they probably ought to, it feels good to fall under the low-maintenance category. To know I can just roll out of bed and begin my day. To not get too worked up over the things that don’t matter. When me-time can resemble something similar to an at-home spa routine, or can just be a nap.
Inside a Mind 