Praise be to the fashion and beauty bloggers who give us inspiration for those cute and fresh “make sure you don’t look like you spent the night at Marston Science Library” looks. From my first palette of Claire’s eyeshadow in the sixth grade, my makeup has been there through my highs and my lows. My thoughts on makeup can be summed up as “I’m hot without makeup, but with makeup I’m hot with longer eyelashes.” But that’s been a recent development.
This summer gave me a lot of things: a waitressing job at a restaurant, a new major and my mom’s new job (okay, so this one is more her, but I helped!). What this summer didn’t give me was a lot of time. Makeup had become such a big part of my morning routine that I didn’t feel right running to the store without it on. I was incredibly busy this summer, and winged eyeliner and praline-colored shadows aren’t fun when you were rushing every morning. So I stopped wearing makeup. Okay, maybe not quite, but I quit for a week or so, and it seriously helped me pull myself together.
It turned out that my bare face kind of scared me. Not because I thought I looked like a dinosaur that could potentially terrorize a small town, but because I realized that over the last few years, the only times that I had seen my face look so naked were the wee hours after I woke up and got ready, and late in the night before I went to bed. And it was weird.
I remember when I used to hang out with my grandma as a kid, and she told me once that because she was a “traditional woman,” she had never taken her makeup off in front of my grandpa, and that she dressed nicely for him even when she had nowhere to go. I also remember finding that to be really annoying. I kept that to myself until I was older, and I decided I wasn’t ever going to look nice for anyone but myself. Who was I doing the winged eyeliners and the praline-shadows for anyway?
It took less time to leave the house and less time getting ready for bed when I didn’t have a film of Covergirl to wipe off. I could finally find more time to appreciate little things, like the nine or so freckles I have on each cheek, my less-than-on-point eyebrows and even my wimpy lashes.
Also , I actually learned that my morning face (i.e. the blank slate I start with every morning) is kind of cute, undereye circles and all. Other perks to not wearing makeup? Being able to rub my eyes freely and walking to my car in the rain without having to duck my head for fear of smudged mascara. I ended up feeling prettier and better about myself in general. I had already made peace with myself a long time ago, and loving my face was no problem. But my makeup had somehow become a security blanket instead of a hobby over the years, and I had begun to feel like I needed it. I used it to define my appearance. It’s like a really great brunch plate: your makeup is the side dish, your face is the main course and it should never be the other way around.
Everyone wants to do the Beyoncé thing and wake up looking fab. We always find the “natural look” so appealing, except we also know that looking natural, especially when you consult beauty how-tos, is always a little more complicated than it should be. So maybe we should simplify things? Maybe the “natural look” doesn’t take a million different concealers. After all, nothing is as natural as your all-natural, grade-A face. I highly encourage you to take a break from your daily makeup routine — even if it’s just for a week — to experience for yourself just how beautiful the real you is.
Photo credit:www.cosmopolitan.com