“Your beauty should not come from outward adornment,… Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” — 1 Peter 3:3-4(NIV)
“Beauty, to me is about being comfortable in your own skin.” — Gwyneth Paltrow
Francois de La Rochefoucauld once said, “We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.” The only thing some people have is facial value, they lack intrinsic worth; your self-worth and not your face-worth determines your net-worth.

It is sympathetic to know that some women are good looking until they make-up! It has been psychologically ascertained that excessive and overzealous painting of the face is a cover-up for a deeper problem, obsessive addiction to make-up is a sign of low self-esteem. There is nothing more attractive than a healthy self-esteem, once you see your own beauty, so will everyone else. In her song that was nominated for the Grammy award ‘’the greatest love of all’’ Whitney Houston made the world to realize that the strongest form of self-esteem is in our own inner beauty, in our ability to love and cherish ourselves. The introductory lyric goes thus:
”I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside……….”

“When you learn how much you are worth, you will stop giving people discounts!”-Anonymous
Virtually all women need make up, but in a dose that shouldn’t significantly disguise you to yourself and to the world. In applying make-up, your goal should be to enhance the natural beauty that is already there, not to cover it up; some people ‘pound’ make-up on their faces like there is no tomorrow. We should be creative and not abusive with make-ups, we should strive to have healthy aesthetic standards, don’t defraud your natural beauty with too much make-up. Civilizations have used various forms of cosmetics for centuries in religious rituals, to enhance beauty, and to promote good health. Cosmetic usage throughout history can be indicative of a civilization’s practical concerns, such as protection from the sun; class system; or of its conventions of beauty.

The history of cosmetics usage, began with the Ancient Egyptians in 10,000 BCE and has transcend down to the present civilization, but never in the history and evolution of make-up has it been so much abused, over-used and bastardized like the present generation. Society has gotten weird about make-up and ‘heavy’ make-up has now become a social norm. Some ladies use a sum total of 2½ hours every day to put-on make up and for facial cleansing. If those people live up to 80 years of age and we assume that they started making-up at age 15, they would have used approximately 7 years of their life for facial glorification! So many times, we spend a larger part of our lifetime hiding our natural beauty from the world. As a lecturer in an institution, it is appalling when I observe some of my female students going intermittently to the toilet just to do a little bit of disguising to their natural selves. Most young ladies look many times older than they really are just because of their excessive dose of make-up.

“Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself”-Coco Chanel
One of the most fascinating and inspiring stories of ‘beauty and brain’ is that of the literary giant, author, storyteller and astute writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She is an epitome of natural beauty and simplicity, in the age where there is mad rush to look like someone else, she stands out as a model of unadulterated beauty; a true African queen with a flawless and radiant beauty. It is vividly obvious that her real sparkle comes from somewhere deeper inside, somewhere so pure, authentic and real. Chimamanda has both in beauty and writings proved to the world that authentic things need no gloss, polish or glitter to shine! Her life preaches the truth that beauty can be flawless without make-up, she has become a true and authentic model of the word ‘feminism’ while some ladies have abused make-up to the extent that it has destroyed the feminist look in them!

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Leonardo da Vinci.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born on 15 September 1977 in Enugu, Nigeria, the fifth of six children to Igbo parents, Grace Ifeoma and James Nwoye Adichie. While the family’s ancestral hometown is Abba in Anambra State, Chimamanda grew up in Nsukka, in the house formerly occupied by the world-renowned Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe. Chimamanda’s father, who is now retired, worked at the University of Nigeria, located in Nsukka. He was Nigeria’s first professor of statistics, and later became Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University. Her mother was the first female registrar at the same institution. She grew up in the university town of Nsukka where she attended primary and secondary schools and briefly studied Medicine and Pharmacy(for a year and half) at UNN.

At the age of 19, Adichie left Nigeria for the United States to study communications and political science at Drexel University in Philadelphia; she transferred to Eastern Connecticut State University to be near her sister, who had a medical practice in Coventry. She received a bachelor’s degree from Eastern, with the distinction of summa cum laude in 2001. In 2003, she completed a master’s degree in creative writing at Johns Hopkins University and in 2008, she received a Master of Arts degree in African studies from Yale University. In 2003, her story “That Harmattan Morning” was selected as a joint winner of the BBC Short Story Awards and her first novel, Purple Hibiscus (2003), received wide critical acclaim; it was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction (2004) and was awarded the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book (2005).

Her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, named after the flag of the short-lived nation of Biafra, is set before and during the Nigerian Civil War. It received the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. Half of a Yellow Sun has been adapted into a film of the same title directed by Biyi Bandele, starring BAFTA winner and Academy Award nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor, and was released in 2014. Her third novel, Americanah (2013), was selected by the New York Times as one of The 10 Best Books of 2013.

It is very obvious that she wouldn’t have gone this far if she hasn’t been using her time judiciously. When Chimamanda was interviewed about her life-style of simplicity, she had this to say about the parental legacy that has inspired her from the cradle, “I grew up being told that I had to look in the mirror. You know, my mother made history. She was the first woman to be head of the administrative section of the University of Nigeria, and she was very concerned about her appearance, and she brought all her children up to care about how we looked.

I think I just really have come to understand that life is way too short to pretend to be what I’m not, and it sounds very New Agey and clichéed but I just really want to be my true self, and this is my true self.” People who use a lot of their time ‘making-up’ seldom have quality time to do things that are productive. Day and night, they continue the cycle of waking up and making-up without any tangible achievement throughout the day.

Many ladies have become victims of their own uncontrollable and obsessive addiction to make-ups; some have used their ‘idea time’- time to get an idea and work on it- to ‘cake’ their faces, many unwritten books have been lost to make-up times, many volatile ideas have been buried with make-up powders. Ladies of nowadays exist only in two modes; it is either they are making-up or they are about to! In summary of a life that he mentored from a distance, the legendary Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe once said, “Adichie came almost fully made.”

“The greatest secret of a successful appearance is ‘be yourself’”- Edith Sitwell
I look forward to your comments on today’s publication because I will really love to publish it next week in the ‘YOUTHS WITH PURPOSE’ column, please send your brief comments to 08053139316 or [email protected] with your name and location. I sincerely welcome your diverse opinions! I really want to advise our young ladies to spend their time judiciously in 2016, stop the glorification of artificial beauty. Spend your time productively in evolving a better ‘you’; be more of yourself and less of make-up. In applying make-up this year, moderation must be your watch-word.

I am using this medium to tell the Nigerian ladies and women that you are beautiful with moderate or no make-ups. Make-up time is necessary for ladies and women but shouldn’t be your priority in 2016; your priority should be the value you want to add to the world. Chimamanda is blessing the world with her pen, Leonardo Da Vinci blessed the world with his brush, what are you going to bless the world with this year? Watch out for the second part of ‘SOME PEOPLE WAKE UP ONLY TO MAKE-UP!’ Stay natural in 2016, stay beautiful, and stay blessed!