My Year Without Make-up
About a year after I quit my job, I stopped wearing make-up when I was at home. Who wants mascara running down your face while weeding the rows in your garden? Not me. While at home in my work clothes and clean face, people would unexpectedly drop by for a visit. My initial reaction would be, “Oh, no, I look horrible!” I would smile real big and apologize for my appearance.
Then one day I thought, “Why am I apologizing for the way I look?” My friends and family came to see me, and make-up does not make me who I am. It was a light bulb moment, if you will. A personal epiphany that I need to learn to be comfortable in my own skin. Being beautiful is such an important part of society. If some celebrity puts on a few pounds, then they receive public criticism from the media. People often say that inner beauty is more important than outer beauty, but do they really mean it?
My husband and I au natural
I decided to stop wearing make-up. I decided to wear only a smile on my face for one year. Saying that, I must confess that I wore lip balm or lip gloss, but nothing else. The first week went well. No one even seemed to notice. They sure did not say anything to me or even let on that I looked different. The best thing was that it did not take me any time to get ready to go somewhere.
As the weeks passed, I grew friendlier to people. I knew that my face would light up if I wore a smile. So I consciously set out to smile as much as I could. Still nobody said anything about me not wearing make-up. In fact I got more compliments about my appearance. Eventually, I did make comments to friends and family about my natural look so that it was out in the open, but I did not tell them it was all part of a personal experiment.
By the end of the year I learned several lessons. First, my complexion looked great. I suffered from no break-outs. Secondly, I have grown comfortable with the way I look. In fact I grew to love all of my freckles. When I was a child, I did not want to smile in pictures because I have big cheeks. When I smiled, they only got bigger. However now after this process, I have learned to love my cheeks as they round up in circles when I smile. Most importantly I learned to focus on my inner beauty and let it shine through the sparkle of my eye and the smile on my face. I know it sounds funny, but I really worked at being joyful and it showed.
Now a year has passed. I still do not wear make-up very often, but I choose to occasionally. It does not bother me one bit to spend all day in town without it and I sure don’t apologize for my appearance anymore. It was a great experience. I am so happy that my nine-year old daughter got to witness my transformation as I hope my new self-confidence rubs off on her.
I stumbled on your blog and have to say I am impressed. I can’t stay home one day without makeup and not feel badly. What a testimony! I worry about my own daughters and the lessons I teach them; specifically that by my actions I teach them to be unhappy with their looks. I will pray for your beautiful courage. God bless!
I came across your blog from the carnival of homeschooling. I’m 45 and I haven’t worn makeup since my college days. One day I decided it really didn’t do anything for me and that was that. Since then, I’ve noticed many women are insecure about how they look and are very uncomfortable going out without their makeup. It really irks me, since it’s so unnecessary. You don’t see a whole lot of men feeling the need to color their eyelids and redden their lips before going out in public. Women are conditioned to see themselves as lacking. So far, my teenage daughters don’t wear makeup either, though I did order some sample mineral makeup for my 18 year old, who is curious about it. She can decide for herself–I’ve lectured her enough! Now if I could just overcome my conditioning and stop shaving….that, alas, is too much for me, though I admire the women who don’t feel the need.
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who goes sans makeup. I haven’t wore makeup since high school (occasional if I want to add eyeshadow or lipstick I will…maybe 1-2xs a year). I think my skin is so much smoother than it would be with the makeup. Thanks for your blog!
I really have never worn makeup on a regular basis. I do put powder on my cheeks occasionally 2-3x / year and I do use undereye neutral coverup(because I have had dark circles under my eyes do to allergies since i was about 16) but even that isn’t more than 4-5x/year. I wasn’t raised with it and even now that i’m married and out of home i dont see the need to waste money on it. When i was in Nursing school a few years ago my classmates gave me a makeover and it stayed on a whole of 4 hours before i scrubbed that icky stuff off. For my wedding i did use a tiny bit of rouge as i was so tired by the actual day that i was sick and pale. Oh and I dont regularly shave my legs either, Maybe less than 10 times in my whole life, Why bother, there are so many other things I can spend my time on
First I would like to say, you are beautiful! I understand the idea of not being “made up” that gets put in our heads. I wore makeup in high school because I felt the need to cover up my ugly skin (really just a few normal pimples). In college I wore some makeup but started a job at UPS where I was working as a sorter in no air conditioning and couldn’t stand the makeup running off my face. Yuck. I wasn’t there to impress anyone, so I just stopped wearing makeup to work. Then I stopped wearing it to school too (to tired most of the time). The last time I wore makeup was on my wedding day 3 ½ years ago, and it was mineral makeup that I applied. I use a dab of concealer every once in a while and lip balm (gotta have the SPF). I can’t stand the idea of putting the liquid goop on my face anymore. My skin completion is better for it too. My husband is bewildered by women with layers of makeup on, and grossed out. He remembers a girl when he was a teenager that “lost” her makeup after jumping in a stream with them. He didn’t recognize her because she looked soo different without it (not bad, different). Most guys I know don’t get it, and like a woman natural. I wish it wasn’t so hard for us to realize that. Congratulations for figuring out that you are beautiful without all the chemicals on your face! What a great lesson to teach your daughter.
Tressa, Thank you so much for your kind words. I am glad that you have discovered for yourself how great your skin can look and how great you can look without make-up. Most importantly, I love the message being sent to our young daughters. “You are beautiful just the way you are.”
Tressa, It’s so nice to see a young woman comfortable in her own skin.
I decided 20 years ago that make-up was a big waist of my time.
Being a farmer, my cows and horses didn’t care that I hadn’t put on lipstick and eyeshadow. My husband always told me I didn’t need it
(sweet guy ) and after seeing women older than me who never wore it,
Their skin was so beautiful. Yea, I can see the lines and wrinkles
creeping up but my eyes don’t burn,nor do I look like a racoon
when I’m picking beans.My daughter wears a little foundation, but is
comfortable without it too.
Throw away to beauty magazines and look at the pretty woman in the mirror. Theres a lot more to see.
LOVE IT! You look radiant, but I believe your glow comes not only from without, but within! I am pondering the no make-up challenge. Being a VERY pale skinned red-head, alot of makeup was never right for me anyway. But I feel almost invisible because of no real color in my eyelashes or eyebrows. You raise a valuable point in that our grandmothers and beyond found their beauty in their character and who they were from the inside out. Cudos to you, first time to the webside, delightful!