No Makeup!

Makeup is so common these days. Everyone (with rare exceptions of a few very individualistic girls who usually go to Steiner schools or something) wears makeup. I say this with surprise because I come from a "natural-is-good-makeup-is-evil" kind of background myself.

Even now I spend most of my time without a single makeup product on. When I go out, whether I put any on depends only on how much time I have to do so.

It is fun to layer on the blusher, eyeshadow and lip gloss like crazy when you have a big party to go to or are doing it as a sleepover activity. Putting pretty makeup on can also be a fun and calming thing to do when you're on your own. It can be rather like art therapy- it's pretty and enjoyable, and something you can get really good at.

However, I think it's a shame when girls feel like they have to have some kind of artificial coverage on their face at all times in order to feel complete. The belief that people actually care about it dominates them.

Often the difference between how you look makeupless and your natural look are too big not to be very noticeable, and if you went out without anything on your face one day people would notice the change. We're used to our made-up look, that's why we can easily begin to feel uncomfortable and bare without it.

But it doesn't have to be like that. You have probably heard it said a million times over that natural is beautiful, and it is- just in a different way to the heavy paintedness we're bombarded with in magazines, TV shows, and on the Internet. Try it- to get used to it, first just wear a little of the products that really make a change to your appearance, such as eyeliner, and gradually lessen it to even less, and finally nothing.

As many of you will have seen from the influx of special no-makeup selfies being posted on Facebook at the moment, there is a campaign going on in which you get sponsored to do this. The money goes to cancer research.

What better a way to start ditching the cosmetics and helping charity at the same time? Others aren't going to judge you, especially if they're also doing it themselves!

My own no makeup selfie

-Barista Sabita-

Image: Lexie Terry, Barista Sabita