I'm not lazy; I'm French?

[jenk]

I tend to darken my eyebrows to give my face definition. I know I can also even out my skin coloring or highlight my eyes or lips with makeup, but I usually don't bother. I thought I was being lazy. Turns out it's the current French "look" (NY Times).

Too much makeup, French women say, makes a woman seem older, or even worse, as if she makes a living walking the streets. [...]

To women in France, the too-made-up look represents something more profound than simply one's taste in skin care. It is also the mark of the desperate housewife type who tries too hard.

"The most beautiful makeup for a woman is passion" is the famous quotation of the designer Yves Saint Laurent. "But cosmetics are easier to buy."

[...] Instead, French women invest more time aiming for perfect, blemish-free skin. If there is an obsession, it is tight pores. Even French women of modest means are much more likely than American women to get treatments in spas or clinics that scrub, polish, buff, massage and cream their skins.

I don't spend much time on skin treatments, either. Pooh.

This quote did make me think, tho. It's from Olivia Hollert, a 22-year-old nurse: "[W]hen you use too much makeup, it means you are hiding from yourself."