Vanity, Vanity, All is Vanity

I used to have flawless skin. My hair is kind of mousy brown and my body was ok, but I had Ivory Girl flawless skin. And then I turned 30 and had a child and now I have adolescent acne. Go figure. And I really don't have it everywhere, I just seem to have small volcanoes that erupt in my chin, nose and forehead. And I am somewhat of an insomniac so I have started getting bags under my eyes and that exhausted raccoon look of new mothers, except Noodle is 5 and I didn't look this bad when I was a new mother.
(Hubby is probably reading this and thinking to him self 'she is so full of shit' and that is one of the reasons I love him as much as I do).
About 3 years ago I started wearing make up. I mean, I wore it in highschool but by college I gave up trying to apply it since I looked like a clown. And then I wore it a few times between the ages of 18 and 32: my wedding, Cape Buffalos' wedding and my mom's 60th birthday. But then I woke up and realized my skin was getting blotchy and my eyes were getting puffy and I no longer had that beautiful skin of my youth since I didn't wear enough sunscreen when I was a kid and I don't drink enough water now and I certainly don't moisturize enough (speaking of which: I need a great daytime moisturizer, clinique's dramatically different doesn't moisturize enough anymore, ideas anyone?). I started wearing Origins and then I flipped to MAC. I was wearing MAC until about a month ago when, at 3 in the morning I was clicking through channels because I couldn't sleep...again...and I.got.sucked.into.an.infomercial. I am not normally a sucker for infomercials.
It was for make up and the 'before and afters' were so amazing and the women were applying the make up themselves and you just had to swirl, tap and buff. And I thought, I could do that. I must have that. I need that. I want to look that pretty. I bet if I wear that I will get a promotion and win the lottery. The very next day I went to Sephora (vexing store that it is: so much good stuff, so expensive) and I had one of the very nice women there apply the swirl. tap.buff product on my face. It took her 5 minutes. I looked lovely. I was shocked and exhilarated and then immediately bought a starter kit and went back to the hotel. And I tried to apply the stuff myself and it took 10 minutes and it was easy and I didn't look like a clown.
I then fell asleep (at 2 am) and got up and applied again, now it took 7 minutes.
I went to the office and all the men (all the consultants I work with are men) in the office asked if I had gotten a good night's sleep because I looked well rested.
Score.
Noone can tell I am wearing makeup.
Sweet.
I love this stuff.
I never thought I would ever say this but I love my make up.

PS - I still don't wear make up at home unless I am going to a kid's birthday party. I am really insecure at kids' birthday parties. Mostly because the kids my kid hangs out with all have moms who are beautiful over achieving moms and they make me feel really insecure, but NOT by anything they do because they are all lovely, nice, funny, intelligent women. I am insecure because I am a freak.

Added later: This morning (wearing my awesome make up) I was told I look tired. So maybe this 'looking great because of my make up' thing is all in my head.