In my first blog post I talked about the Forbes article, 7 Ways You’re Hurting Your Daughter’s Future. Shane and I are doing a good job avoiding these 7 things that could hurt Charli’s future, except for one…

7. You criticize your own body, and/or other women’s bodies.

Let me be completely honest for a moment – I HATE talking about body image and appearance. There will always be someone skinnier and prettier than I am. There will always be someone who considers me to be skinnier and prettier than her. It’s a terrible, vicious cycle.

That being said, I know that I can teach Charlotte a lot of things about being an intelligent, successful woman.

I cannot teach her how to be self-confident [as it relates to appearance].

Why? Well, friends, I can’t teach what I don’t know. Therefore, I have set out on a mission to boost my own self-esteem.

Step 1: Make Me Up

I have never been good at hair and makeup. My best friend of 10+ years will attest to that! She’s been great about teaching me the basics of makeup application. She also taught me how to curl me hair with a curling iron when I was 16. Unfortunately, I’m not a great student when it comes to these things, so I recently became obsessed with a professional, Bobbi Brown.

I’ve been two of her books for makeup guidance and self-confidence boosters. Her newest book, Pretty Powerful, has been a blessing for my new makeup endeavors.

My attempts at improving my makeup skills are proving successful. I still have a lot to learn, but I’m much happier with my appearance now that I am forcing myself to wear makeup.

Here are a a couple before & after examples of the magic of makeup.

Getting ready for Kristen’s birthday.

Practicing for our ’20s holiday party. *Please note that I am only wearing eye makeup in the photo on the right – hence the circles under my eyes.