When I Make Overthinking Looks Pretty

In the beginning, this is supposed to be the kind of post where I review a few of my favorite things under the tag Photographs and Toys and with the title "My Current Favorite(s)" I even finished an introductory paragraph (which I resist to delete):

I'm not usually confident to do the self-proclamation on anything but for a couple of facts that I am sure of, including this one: I have a good visual eye. That is why I mostly follow Instagram accounts, other than my friends and people I know, who show pretty things (read: eye-pleasing photographs). Some of my favorites are Sezane, Wish Wish Wish, Olive Clothing, Anthropologie, and Urban Outfitters. When they were still active bloggers, I used to stalk a lot The Cherry Blossom Girl and Park & Cube for all their pretty stuff and talent at arranging things in aesthetically good ways. And if you've been following this blog for a while, at this point, you may already read some of my old posts and know that I'm a sucker for everything cute as well as my occasional hobby to take pictures of things that amaze me (at certain times).

Obviously, with my initial idea like that, no deep thought would be involved throughout this post. I just wanted to make an excuse to play with my camera while escaping the current reality that frustrates me a lot for the past couple of weeks. Anyway, back to the point - while I was trying to write this post, some thoughts have been replaying in my head, which then completely changed my original intention. Instead of writing reviews or stories behind my favorite things, I'm more intrigued to talk about my recent thought on "changes"

It has become a habit of mine to review some old posts before writing the new ones on my blog, just to prevent something repetitive and to kill my curiosity - whether there is a difference in the point of view of my past and present self. Like now, I did a preliminary search on the keywords of "changes" on my blog. Some old posts appeared and this one particularly caught my attention as I found some of my thought back then is actually quite relatable with the one I currently have.

A couple of weeks ago, I watched a movie in which there was a conversation between old men. One of them said, "People don't change. We just grow old and we adapt to learn how to enjoy simple pleasures in life".  I get stuck on the words and wondering if it's true that we change only because we want to enjoy the little things in life. The image of how many changes have happened and how much I've changed, popped into my mind. You know that under no circumstances whatsoever is it okay to look back on your life and see how it's been going so far. Sometimes we focus too much on what we want to accomplish now as well as prepare for the future until we forget to learn from the past. 

I found myself smirking while thinking that, unwittingly, I have always been the kind of person who is vigilant about the fact that we won't ever stop changing as long as we breathe. No wonder if every now and then I keep being over-conscious of some temporariness in my life. From the smallest changes like when some things are no longer interesting, but some others are suddenly fascinating. Like when last summer I lost some weight, and now in winter, I've gained it back. Like when there are times, I can effortlessly write up to pages, but in some other times, I'm stuck to write even a few sentences. But this thing (about changes) particularly unnerves me when there are significant shifts involved, like a change in mindset, condition, and relationship, or taking the leap to a whole new stage of life. I'm not going to discuss this topic any further (I will probably do it on another day though) because I personally think that it's nice to read a post where the use of images can more or less represent the writing. So, I'm going to talk about some changes I've been through lately in terms of my perception regarding two things: fashion and beauty stuff. 

Having been raised in a family who are fashion-literate as well as my long interest in the fashion industry since I was young, I've been familiar with many brands; from streetwear to high-end brands. Like many people, I was once too obsessed with owning any branded item. It was a few years ago when I finally realized that there is hardly something good out of pursuing them, so I decided to push away my interest and hold back my desire to purchasing designer items. Ever since, I prefer to save my money if not spending them on travelling, food, books, and homewares. My self-control when it comes to impulse purchases was apparently higher than I expected to the point that I just didn't bother at all to buy something else other than what I really need whenever I went to some stores and even designer outlets. Before I knew it, I became the person who chooses the functional (and obviously aesthetic) aspect of an item over the brand. 

Unlike my familiarity with fashion, I was never an avid user of beauty products nor someone who spend a lot of money on makeup. I've talked about this several times already - that until two years ago, my beauty regime only includes cleansing and applying moisturizer. While my definition of "bare makeup" was almost close to its literal meaning - I only wear eyebrow pencil and lipstick. I think other than my thought that I don't want to cover my flaw, it was mainly because my mom raised her daughters to not care about those beauty products - simply because she didn't really use one. The only "beauty product" she introduced us was perfume. It's not so surprising that I grew up by knowing and depending more on perfume than foundation or mascara. 

I think it has something to do with age (I doubt this though) that I have experienced what they called as "personal paradigm shift." It then led me becoming a bit different person since God knows when. I'm no longer confident to go outside without wearing concealer and compact powder. I even add blush on and eye shadow to my daily makeup - not always and instead depends on my mood. I have this thought that if makeup can make us look better, then why not? I'm not saying that it should transform us into a completely different person. However, if applying a little touch of concealer helps a lot to make me look fresher by hiding the dark circles around my eyes, then why not? I also experience this paradigm shift over branded items. The main reason I used to stop purchasing them was that I disagree on the idea within our society that we judge others based on what they wear, which then subconsciously encouraging another idea that what we wear reflects our status of living. Throughout the past few years, I have been able to transform my thought process and found that it does not necessarily always work like that. I understand that maybe for high school and college students, and even early jobbers, wearing designer items can be some things that they use to show off. At some point in our lives, nonetheless, owning something that we have wanted for so long, becomes a kind of reward to ourselves.