I started wearing make-up in seventh grade. Throughout those seven years since I started, I have developed a complicated relationship with make-up. While I sometimes enjoyed make-up, the majority of the time I viewed it as a chore that I had to complete every morning. In order to help me better sort out my attitude toward make-up, I decided to not wear any for the month of November. Here are my thoughts:
Starting out the month, I expected the main benefit to be my skin drastically clearing up. My skin cleared up for the most part, but there were also some bad skin days too. These days seem even worse when you cannot put on any make-up to cover it up. I want this to be an honest evaluation of my experience, though, and I think that you can have clear skin if you wear make-up every day. I think it might take a bit more work, but I don’t believe that clear skin is an exclusive benefit of not wearing make-up.
One benefit from not wearing make-up that I did not really see coming was the amount of time I saved every day. The time it took for me to complete my morning routine was dramatically cut down, and I was able to read the news in the morning or simply sleep in. However, it also saved me quite a bit of time other places. Before, if someone has spontaneously asked me to go out somewhere, it would have taken me about fifteen minutes to get ready. And to be honest, I would honestly turn down going places with my friends sometimes because I was not ready and did not have the time or desire to redo my make-up. Now, though, if someone asks me to do something with them, it takes me five minutes to change clothes and quickly fix my hair. When that’s all it takes to get ready, you’re a lot more willing to put in that small amount of effort to go hang out with your friends.
At the beginning of the month, I felt quite uncomfortable seeing people when I was not wearing make-up. Even on my laziest days, I normally wore at least powder and mascara. The first few days of the month a wore a t-shirt and jeans because I felt weird dressing up while wearing no make-up. But as the month progressed, I began to adapt to not wearing make-up and started wearing what I normally wore again. I had a professional event that I attended without wearing any make-up, and at first I worried that I would look unprofessional, but there was not much difference. I realized that a lot more goes into determining my appearance than just my make-up.
