I was never one to wear extremely heavy makeup. My abundance of freckles always deterred me from wearing foundation, lipstick managed to fade several minutes after most applications and eyeliner always smudged beneath my bottom lid. Despite these few minor deterrents, I've worn at least minimal makeup almost everyday of my life since my freshman year of high school to my freshman year of college.

Most days, I was able to skim by with a few strokes of mascara and a touch of eye shadow, but when I had extra time, I would apply smoky eyeliner and lipstick to make myself look extra appealing. I did my hair most mornings and took the time to pick out a cute outfit that might score a few compliments. The routine was not exhausting, and I was satisfied when friends told me how good I looked on a day I had spent extra time on my appearance. Applying makeup was almost fun. I would wake up feeling unkempt and within 30 minutes I could become a whole new person. I never spent more than an hour getting ready and figured compared to other girls, my look was natural and minimalistic.

I never considered giving up makeup until I got to college. I am not going to try and claim that I had some huge body revelation that caused me to throw out all my makeup to make a statement about natural beauty, because that definitely did not happen. The truth is I simply became too lazy to continue applying makeup everyday. I stopped making the effort to continue reapplying after every swimming excursion or trip to the gym. I found that the 30 minutes I could spend putting on makeup, I also could spend napping. It wasn’t an act of bravery or defiance; it was simply that I was tired. But giving up makeup led me to discover more than I thought it would.

The first few days without makeup felt really weird. I no longer had the comfort of knowing my face looked exactly how I wanted it to, and that made me self-conscious. But as the days went by, I received no negative feedback about my natural look. The reactions were more positive than anything else. My friends told me I looked healthier and they enjoyed my face without makeup. This gave me a new confidence in my natural beauty. There is something to be said about embracing yourself exactly as you are. I used to wake up in the morning thinking I looked ugly because I hadn’t put on makeup yet. Now, I look in the mirror and I don't see ugly or pretty, I see my face, the way it looks all the time. I don’t worry about if my eye shadow is smeared or if there is lipstick on my teeth.

I think that makeup distorted my vision of myself. Me with makeup on was different from me without it. I lacked confidence when my makeup did not look good. Now that I am makeup free, I have been able to build self confidence around my natural beauty instead of the beauty I perceived I was given through makeup. There was always constant stress about whether my makeup stayed looking good throughout the day. When I looked in the mirror and saw a smear, I would focus on that image for the rest of the day. I would sometimes be late to work because I had to put makeup on before I left the house. Now I have this stress lifted off my shoulders, not only of maintaining my makeup, but maintaining a healthy self-image. I don’t have any good-looking days or bad looking days, because I look the same everyday. I also now have the ability to sleep in later because I am not worried about getting up in time to do my makeup. I have tried to put on makeup a few times after giving it up, but each time, I immediately took it off. Putting on makeup feels unnatural, it feels artificial and when I look in the mirror I know I am not looking at my real self.

I am not trying to say that wearing makeup is bad and that anyone that does has a distorted view of themselves. I think the problem occurs when makeup becomes a necessity. There is beauty in embracing a naked face. There is also freedom in living a life where your perception of yourself is not controlled by how well you apply your makeup in the morning.