Dear Sephora,

Damn you. Damn you and your multi-colored goodness, your great music and hip little shiny bags that I seem to have been collecting a lot of lately.

I’ve recently been bit by the makeup bug. A good friend of mine sent me a Sephora card for Christmas last year and….well…I’ve been hooked ever since. I have to keep myself away from that side of the mall, lest I find myself wandering in and buying more eyeshadow and lipstick.

I wasn’t always a big makeup person. When Alex was younger, I didn’t have any time to put makeup on in the morning, let alone wash my face at times. But now I feel all weird in the morning if I don’t put my foundation, my eye shadow and eye liner on, like I forgot to wear my pants and was about to go out into public.

I blame it partially on age. No, I’m not getting any younger. This is a fact that is illustrated every time that someone asks me how old I am and I honestly have to think about it and do the math. The laugh lines are starting to show up (EEEK!) and sometimes, when you’ve spent a day in a houseload of testosterone (even from the cats), you just want to feel pretty.

I also blame it on that attraction that all humans have to color. We love color. It brightens our rooms, highlights our moods and attracts us to certain things over others. Would you eat a white apple? Of course not. But when it comes to a sparkly orange eye shadow set….how could you possibly turn that down?!

Alex likes to shop there too. He’s recently discovered how nice those brushes feel on his face (without makeup, of course!) and he likes to watch me put on my makeup.

But when he’s in Sephora, he likes to bop around to the music and look at all the colors. Just yesterday, he discovered that some of the colors are now within his reach. “Oooooh! Look at the shiny bright red lip gloss samples! Lemme stick my fingers in them! And look over there! It’s bright blue eye shadow! What does that feel like? Better yet, what does it feel like smeared all over my face?”

I need to keep his mall cart a little further away from the displays next time.

And may I just say - Philosophy, I love you. Your yummy Cocktail Party (set of three with Margarita, Mimosa and Melon Daiquiri and if you’re bored while you’re in the shower, you can memorize how to make these drinks with the recipes on the bottles) has made me an instant fan. And I love your perfumes too. Nice clean scents without being overwhelming. I’m not really a huge perfume fan but the Grace scents are really nice and I know it’s good when Beeker doesn’t take one sniff and run away (it’s happened).

So next time you see a mom in Sephora with a toddler with lip gloss smeared all over his face, chances are it’s me. Come and say hello.

(PS - I like Sephora gift cards. And yes, Matt. This is called a hint)