We are so excited to introduce to you our fabulous guest blogger Samara O’Shea!

Samara O’Shea, Author.

Samara O’Shea is the very talented author of: For The Love Of Letters: A 21st-Century Guide to the Art of Letter Writing, and the much anticipated new book, Note To Self: On Keeping a Journal and Other Dangerous Pursuits. Samara is also a blogger for The Huffington Post.

This is Samara’s first time guest blogging for Talking Makeup and we can’t wait to bring her back and write for us very soon.

So here it is:

BEAUTY AS FAR AS I’M CONCERNED By SAMARA O’SHEA

Before I begin, I must thank Marta for inviting me here to the Mecca of make-up. TalkingMakeup.com is a Web site both resourceful and fun-that’s a tall order and she delivers with panache.

Speaking of make-up, I’m going to talk a bit about how I came to terms with, well, basically my face. I, like many, went through a period in my life where I allowed other people to determine how I felt about myself-especially about how I looked. Case in point: I wrote the following journal entry at the age of eighteen.

November 1997
I enjoy watching my lips move. My lips are incredibly fleshy so my mouth requires more effort than most mouths. I enjoy looking at my face. Because it’s beautiful. But it’s only beautiful when I’m alone. As soon as another enters my presence the beauty fades. Why must it be that way? Why can’t they see me when I’m pretty? Why can’t my face ever be appropriate for them? What do they want? It’s so unhealthy for me to be here like this admiring myself. Because my position will be shattered as soon as I walk out the door. I’m the only one who’ll ever be obsessed with me.

What’s obvious to me now, and wasn’t back then, is that I thought I was okay. What I saw in the looking glass was beautiful, and I even had a favorite feature-my lips. Unfortunately, “As soon as another enters my presence the beauty fades,” which is how it was until I was about twenty-five. It was at that age I started to fit into my own skin and not let others have as much influence on how I felt about myself. Nowadays, not only do I allow myself the freedom to determine whether I look good or not, but I grant others the same privilege. If I see a woman (or a man) with heavy black eyeliner, hot pink lipstick from the eighties, or an outrageous hairdo I think Good for them! Makeup (or lack thereof) is a form of self-expression, and each of us should consider our face a unique canvas.

More on Samara’s insights into beauty, spirituality, love, and career pursuits in her forthcoming book Note to Self: On Keeping a Journal and Other Dangerous Pursuits (HarperCollins) due out on July 22, 2008.

And, for more on Samara and her books visit www.OnKeepingAJournal.com .