There is so much gorgeousness in the world today coming out of some incredible ladies who are accomplished, driven, and express themselves with completely individual style.  I want to take the Monday blues and bathe in inspiration – for both new looks AND life goals.  Monday Muse will hopefully be the space where I can do that regularly.

Completely coincidentally, HBO’s Insecure had its second season finale last night.  I haven’t watched it yet, so no spoilers!  I’d actually planned on writing about the show’s creator, writer, and star, Issa Rae and her character’s makeup for awhile, so lucky me that the timing is . . . timely (words are hard, which is why I don’t have my own show on HBO).

From the very first episode of Insecure, I couldn’t stop gazing directly into Issa’s glow (if you’ve witnessed it, did you go blind for a split second too?).  I feel the need to bold the word glow every time I say it, for this is no ordinary glow.  This is an other-wordly, magnificent, incredible brightness that makes me suspicious of her status as a human woman, instead leading me to wonder if Issa Rae has been sent from some higher power to lead us.  Maybe the glow is her spirit of leadership, smarts, and humor shining through her skin as she cannot possibly contain it; maybe it’s just a super great highlighter.  I don’t care where it comes from, I have no ambition to recreate it, I just want to soak it in and hope that our new divine leader forgives me my crankiness with slow baristas.

The glow is consistent between episodes, ensuring that any light shining on her informs the audience that She Is The Star.  I love this as a concept – I’m not sure when else in television that this particular type of makeup or skin care product was used so much, so consistently, and seemingly for this purpose of literally highlighting the main character.  I think most of the time, if a character is actually shining, it’s in a Disney movie and there are singing birds around the corner (full disclosure: I believe birds sing personalized songs to Issa Rae).

In fact, this isn’t the only way that makeup on Insecure is used in a fresh way.  The first episode features Issa getting ready to go out to an open mic night, through a phenomenal sequence of her trying on various colors of lipstick, with an enacting of the different personalities each shade brings out of her.

Aside from all of these shades looking incredible, it’s the first time I’ve seen violet or green featured for active consideration of a television character.  Of course, sometimes you have the Wacky Fun! character – the best friend, the neighbor, or coworker – with the bright makeup or nontraditional colors, but anything aside from red, pink, or nude is typically meant to be for That Girl, not This Girl (the main character).  Only certain folks, with the loud and crazy personalities, can wear something like green, and it’s never discussed as a choice.  That’s just who that wacky girl is!  Now, though, it’s completely on trend (check out Urban Decay’s insane new lipstick line if you don’t believe me) and seen as a possibility for Every Girl, and I love it.  I love that “weird” or “outlandish” or “artsy” makeup is starting to creep into the mainstream – because isn’t the fun of it that we can try it on and take it off?  That, for that super swanky party in Williamsburg full of artists to which my former-heroin-addict-turned-lifestyle-guru friend invited me: I too can wear a gold glitter lip stain!  This is a DEMOCRACY, dammit!  (For now.)

I say all this knowing that – as you do too if you watch the show, and if not, I apologize for this lipstick spoiler – Issa’s character had these thoughts of “Who am I?” as it relates to lipstick as well.  As I said, as she tries on each shade, she “tries on” various personalities according to what she believes this particular lipstick says about her, what part of her it’s going to shine a spotlight on.  And in the end, well . . . she goes for the standard Blistex lip balm.

I don’t mind!  Because again: Those few minutes, to me, set up so perfectly who this person was, what she was about – and especially what she was sort of confused about.  And as a character who basically has their shit together (job, boyfriend, apartment, best friend), they’re still figuring it out.  This fact by itself – together and semi-not – is such a huge gift and move forward for how women are portrayed in television and movies.  Rather than a caricature, with her mistakes (of which there are some) serving as the basis for her entire essence and informing every second of her life, she’s nuanced but overall strong.  Figuring out a lip color is not a big deal.  It’s what happens at the open mic that is, and no matter what she had on her lips: She fucking went!  She went to the open mic!  And killed it, pretty much.

Speaking of “Women as Caricatures,” it comes right back around to makeup.  Remember how I said the standard colors of main characters are red, pink, or nude?  Consider that one of these is associated with sex and/or evil, another with innocence and virtue, and the last with simply . . . existence.  There’s certainly an argument that a nude or pale lip is indicative of filmmakers or makeup artists wanting the actress to shine through with her performance; however, when I think of instances in which a female character had nude lips, typically they were also toned down, quiet, or at least needed to be seen that way.  It doesn’t change either; if you turn on an episode of a television show in its seventh season and compare it to one in the first, most actress’ makeup is extremely consistent, because the overall point is, 1.) to present them in as attractive of a way as possible, and 2.) to be consistent with presenting subtle cues as to their character.

The fact that their makeup is the same is, to me, indicative of another two things.  First, that the character isn’t quite changing or growing either.  How boring.  And secondly, it further emphasizes how out of touch scripts and presentation can be with audiences.  Consistency of a particular fictional world is not exactly a bad thing, but it’s a repetitive thing that creates a sense of the generic – and unrealistic.  I’ve never had a friend who looked exactly the same when I saw them.  If they have the flu and I’m bringing them soup (lol jk I’ve never done that for anyone, ew), they’re not wearing eyeliner.  If I see them at a fancy work function, they’re all glammed up in a sophisticated way, but at another friend’s 30th birthday?  Bring on the silver eyeshadow and purple lipstick!  Typically, though, it doesn’t matter the scenario: Makeup is used most often as a tool to keep characters as basically the same and reliable as they’ve always been.

So, that’s the last What I Love item about Insecure and Issa Rae, which you may have forgotten was what we were talking about.  I absolutely adore that her makeup is shifting and changing throughout the episodes, depending on the situation.  And when I say it’s changing, I mean it.  As in, it’s not just some fake dark circles under perfectly mascara-covered lashes with a soft pink “poor me” lip when she’s tired; there’s very obviously a lack of makeup when any sane person wouldn’t wear it, and a decided “pumping up” of the look on the fancy occasions.

I just adore how makeup is at the forefront of this show – it isn’t something that they want the audience to just assume is a permanent part of this woman’s face.  It can be loud, soft, subtle, fancy, sophisticated, funky, whatever – because this is a human woman who sometimes likes to change things up, both in her life AND in her mirror.

Even Better than the Beauty: Sure, this post was all about external beauty, but Issa Rae is only 32 (!!!!), started a web series on Youtube in 2011 called Awkward Black Girl, started writing Insecure with Larry Wilmore (!!!!) in 2013, and wrote a book called The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl in 2015.  She is GETTING.  IT.  I hope one day she can tell me everything I’ve ever done wrong so hopefully by the time I’m 70 I can accomplish 30% of what she’s done so far.  

Another Update! I found out more about how makeup and lighting is used on Insecure and wrote about it as an update here.