Pretty Is As Pretty Does

I bought a new lipstick last week.  It was bold and purple and maybe a little bit obnoxious and I loved it.  I loved it so much that the next day I got all dressed up for church, put my new bold purple lipstick on and took a selfie.  A few days later, I uploaded the selfie to my Facebook profile picture.

 And, because I have really sweet friends, the comments started rolling in:  "So pretty!"  "Gorgeous!"  "You are beautiful!" and, my personal favorite, "You shut the front door right now!"  I'm not gonna lie:  It felt really good to be told those things.  But my great-grandmother used to tell my mother who used to tell me who now tells my daughter something really important.

"PRETTY IS AS PRETTY DOES."

If pretty is as pretty does, sometimes Lipstick Pamela isn't so pretty.  Sometimes she gives a grumpy cashier a dirty look without considering that the cashier might have had a rough day.  Sometimes she yells at her daughter for not picking up her toys the first three times she is asked.  Sometimes she starts an argument with her husband over a ring of water on the dining room table.  Sometimes she just can't understand why her son walks so... dang... slow.  Lipstick Pamela is anxious.  She's a perfectionist.  She wants everything to be as orderly as her lip liner.  Sometimes she's not as pretty on the inside as she is on the outside.

Also, she often looks different.  Lipstick Pamela turns into...

Zit Cream Pamela.  You're welcome. 

See, friends, I've been deceiving you all these years.  Lipstick Pamela puts the kids to bed, scrubs off her makeup, moisturizes, changes into yoga pants and her favorite Blackburn College sweatshirt with the letter A that's peeling off, slaps zit cream on her chin, brushes her teeth in her bathroom with the yellow shower stall circa 1979, sits down on the couch with a bag of Cheetos and a glass of wine (Yes, she realizes she already brushed her teeth.  She's a hot mess, y'all!), and watches Netflix until bedtime.   Somehow Zit Cream Pamela has never posted a selfie to Facebook.  I don't necessarily consider Zit Cream Pamela to be the best outside version of myself, but she is myself nonetheless.  She is the woman who Hubby kisses goodnight, and she is the woman who takes Smarty Pants to school.  She is the woman who has tea parties with Sassy Pants, and she is the woman who scares the UPS driver when he rings the door bell for a delivery.  She's sometimes prettier on the inside than Lipstick Pamela.  Probably because she didn't spend an hour painstakingly curling her hair and drawing on her eyebrows. 

Anyway, after all of the compliments and the make-up talk, I felt obliged to come clean.  Sassy Pants watches me put on makeup most days.  Sometimes she puts makeup on also.  But I hope she never thinks that her beauty comes from a tube.  Please know that whether you wear four thick coats of mascara daily like Lipstick Pamela or not a single stitch of makeup ever, you have the potential to be beautiful.  Pretty is as pretty does, after all.