How Do I Look?

Have you ever looked at yourself in a mirror? I haven’t.
Most of my family and friends look at themselves when they get ready or just before they leave their house. I’d be willing to bet my fantastic eyesight that a majority of sighted people do this. I mean, if I could check for spinach between my teeth or a stain on my shirt before I found out from someone else, I’d totally be down. It seems natural to me to want to make sure you look presentable. But what happens when you can’t?
I’ve not yet come up with foolproof systems for matching clothes and makeup that work for me. I do wear makeup, but only sometimes, like when I’m going out, or I’m going to a wedding, or if I’m doing something I decide to be important. I don’t spend an hour or 3 standing in front of the mirror, shaping my face and giving myself a “smokey eye,” whatever the fudge that means. It’s like a 10 minute job that I find more boring than photo albums, silent movies, and optical illusions combined. I use neutral makeup: no pinks or glitter, for fear that I will put on too much and it’ll look awful. I use touch for everything. That means that all of my makeup is powder so that it is easier to apply. I have to have an awareness of my face so that i can brush things on in the right areas. I’ve found that eye makeup, excluding mascara, is easiest applied with my finger.
When it comes to matching clothes, many blind people have labeling systems for colors. Some use safety pins, patterned in certain ways, to signify different colors. Others use electronic devices with labels that stick to the tags of clothing. For the most part, I use neither. I have a color identifier that tells me the color of my clothes, and some items of my clothing are labeled, but in all honesty, I do not really have a system. Although I cannot see them, I prefer to wear shirts with colors and patterns on them, meaning that not all of my clothing is one solid color. This makes it difficult to appropriately match my tops with different colored bottoms. Therefore, I mostly wear jeans or black leggings: almost always guaranteeing that I match. Sometimes I think it would be good to have more diversity, but that would mean taking the time from someone sighted to label things properly; time that I imagine would be better used elsewhere.
I have a minor shoe obsession. One time, I went to school wearing two mismatched, exactly the same feel, Old Navy flip-flops. I got a little embarrassed when a friend mentioned it to me, and I ran out of school in shame. Just kidding. I totally owned that hot mess. From that day forward, I vowed to be incredibly careful when putting away my shoes. Lol because I’m totally lying to you again. Sure I’m careful, but not incredibly. I’m not too sure how I’ve survived 19 years of such organizational failure.