Valentine’s Day looks for the Practical Feminist

Valentine’s Day –a day we celebrate love, relationships, and happiness. It is also a day many of us experience crushing expectations to look as sexy as possible for a date.

Here we have outlined some practical tips on looks for that infamous night of love as we redefine sexiness into terms of celebrating your body and loving yourself. With these practical feminist tips, you can spend more time enjoying your partner this Valentine’s Day and less time worrying about how you look.

When it comes to makeup, you could lean towards a natural look. While many of us feel pressure to look our best, that does not always have to translate into heavy makeup. Try a natural tint or glowing foundation: it will make you appear healthy and happy. Toning your eyeshadow down and brushing a bit of blush on your cheeks will give you that “bright-eyes and bushy-tailed” look that is timelessly attractive.

If your date is planned for the evening, add some highlighter to your routine. You may not need the full ‘face beat’, but a little shimmer on your cheekbones can cause dimmed lighting to catch your features and enhance them. Similarly, you may want to go for a more natural lip. If you are eating – or planning on kissing at any point in the date – you won’t want to be worried about smears, stains or residue left on your teeth. Instead, try a lip liner only slightly darker than your skin-tone. Apply it just a tiny bit outside of your natural lip line and fill it in with a moisturizing stain or gloss of the same tone. This way, it is easy to reapply if you wish, but it won’t be too noticeable if you are having a good time and don’t want to excuse yourself to run to the mirror.

If your date is during the day, you may want to consider a relaxed outfit. If this is your first date, it’s a good time to wear something casual. Try wearing darker tones as your basic outfit pieces, with lighter or bright colours as accents. Not only is this slimming, but it will make your clothes less distracting from your personality while still allowing your style to shine through the accent pieces.

If your date is in the evening, you may be feeling pressure to add that wow factor to your outfit. Maybe this is a first date, or you and your partner haven’t had a night out in a while and you want to make sure you remind them of how sexy you are!

We need to pause here and take stock of sexiness and how it relates to our own bodies. Rather than dressing to be an object that is sexy for someone else, confidence and existing for yourself has always been on the top of the sexy chart. Attractiveness is not simply on the surface, but when you love and claim ownership of your body, does it ever show on the surface! How we present ourselves often says a lot about how we feel inside.

Now, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dress in a revealing outfit if you want to. It’s all about what makes you feel comfortable and if that involves showing some skin, then show it off baby! Perhaps you could take a moment to think about what part of your body you feel the best about this Valentine’s Day –and then put the focus on it. Maybe you have made some serious booty gains in the gym this winter and you’re loving how you look in those yoga pants. Wear something that emphasizes it! The message we want to send here is that you love this about yourself and you want everyone around you to know! You are breaking away from the complex and demeaning narrative that if someone shows off their body, they are seeking to get attention from others. By celebrating what makes you happy about yourself, you will not only be in a positive headspace for your date, but you are battling sexism and claiming ownership and love of your body. So, have a wonderful Valentine’s Day and celebrate yourself!