No Make-up Week is almost over. Already!? It’s been my most rewarding week of blogging on Biorequiem, and I’m infinitely grateful to Rachel of RabbitWrite for inviting me to participate, and everyone who had the chutzpah to share photos and speak up about their relationship with make-up, even when that meant digging up old fears and nasty experiences. I didn’t expect to have such an honest, raw and thoughtful response, so THANK YOU! Seriously getting verklempt over here.
And though it is almost over, there is still the mighty weekend. That’s two days of potential outings and being around people, all without make-up. Can you do it? I plan to. Actually, I went out with a bunch of fabulously made-up girlfriends to a swanky night-zone on Wednesday night, and surprised myself when I felt just fine. I wore a three-piece pant suit, played up my short hair [while conveniently hiding my non-existent eyebrows, natch] and channeled Tilda Swinton as best I could without looking anything like Tilda Swinton.
If you’re playing catch-up over the weekend, check out all my No Make-up Week posts and, especially, the amazing responses:
My request to you is to take pictures once you’re all dressed up to go out, and post them in the comments section, along with your experiences while out. Maybe there won’t be much difference, maybe there will – finding out is why we’re taking part in this experiment, after all. Whatever the case, I’m very curious to see how we all do it up without make up for nights out or hangin’ with friends, and think it would make a nice Monday morning collage, something to commemorate No Make-up Week with.
I leave you with one final No Make-up Week question: has participating changed the way you feel about make-up, and, if so – how?
it hasn’t really changed how i feel about makeup. i still feel more confident with it than without it; people do treat me differently. when i’m feeling especially badass and don’t want anyone to fuck with me, i’ll go bare-faced or heavily dark eyed. nothing in-between. i have a wedding to go to this weekend and am actually a little worried that this short break will cripple my skills a bit. it’s a bit silly. no one there is going to care.
I need to have a “Make-Up” week… I go bare face the majority of the time… However, 8/10 if I am going to post my face on my blog, I’ll put a little make up on.
See, I feel less confident in make up- maybe because I am not good at it. I think I look older/worse in it than without… besides evening out my skin which I need…
<3 Tilda Swinton
I don't think this week has changed my opinion much – I still LOVE makeup and it will always be a part of my life to some extent. But being comfortable in my own skin is nice too…and sometimes, bare-faced is the only way to go for the sake of convenience.
This week helped me become more aware of WHEN I want to wear makeup. There were certainly times when I thought, "I could add a little…" and had to stop myself – it tended to be in situations where we feel a need to socially "impress". Being a gal who doesn't generally care what people think, I found that quite surprising! Subconscious crazies!
I started this week with a very negative view on how I feel make up, and actually a rather unorganized rant about it in a comment here.
At the beginning of the week, I was too frustrated with my classes to really care. I still had a little smudge eyeliner that I hadn’t been able to scratch off, so in a way I still was wearing a little make up.
By Wednesday I was feeling strange. I looked in the mirror and almost didn’t recognize myself. It was so tempting just to put on a little mascara . . . but I held out. I felt incredibly plain, but at the same time proud.
On Thursday I was feeling better. I could look in the mirror and say “Oh, well I guess you’re kind of attractive.” I wore my hair down (its pretty long, almost waist length. Usually I wear it up to avoid hassle) and wore nicer clothes than I usually do to go to school, and this without make up felt pretty good. A guy I’ve had my eye on for a while in my econ class asked for my number (Squee!) which helped boost my no-make-up image of myself.
Now its Friday. I woke up and looked in the mirror and said “Yeah, you look nice today.” Even in a flannel shirt and ripped jeans, I feel pretty without make up. I am at a point now where I can say “Yes, I like wearing make up, I think its fun, but I can look nice without it.” I don’t need it, but if I want to wear it, I will.
Thank you and RabbitWrite for no make up week! Reading a bit back on her journal I found out about a study where women without make up are more attractive to men when they are ovulating than women with make up. I am on the pill, so I don’t ovulate. I am wondering if this has anything to do with my previous hate of feeling like I “needed” make up. Either way, even if I don’t ovulate, I still am in a better place in my relationship with make up than a week earlier.
<3
This really has been an interesting week. I’ve never felt like I need makeup, but I didn’t realize how much I really did depend on it until now. Its exactly how you put it, a shield. Well tonight I’m casting it aside and hitting the town, and surprisingly I’m feeling really good about it.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_t1-ghOeph5c/TJ0lFiumwEI/AAAAAAAAAQM/Dpu4SM8HabI/s512/2010-09-24_18-22-33_756.jpg
I would love to say the reason I didn’t participate is that I’ve been looking for a job, but the truth is, I’m just too much of a wimp to try going without. I’ll own up to it. It’s not like I have ten pounds of foundation on- I usually just do my eyes but I’ve been all broken-out cos of stress- but there’s such a huge difference in the way I feel. Going without even a smudge of eyeshadow kills what little confidence I have.
Of course, I don’t walk around the house without a bra and I refuse to eat breakfast in hotel lobbies before I get dressed. So there you go.
It reminds me of a quote from a movie that I think was from a book; “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he’ll tell you the truth.” And that’s how I honestly feel. If I can hide behind sparkly, brightly-colored eyeshadow and my thick, black plastic glasses and my color-changing hair, then I feel like myself. Having to dye over my green locks just to find a job made me feel like I was letting go of a piece of myself, like I’m having to hide who I am to make people who don’t otherwise care a thing about me a tiny bit more comfortable.
Again… I’m a confidence-less wimp. I admire the Hell out of everybody that participated in No-Makeup Week, and I hope that eventually I’ll get over my hang-ups and will be able to feel like I don’t need the mask in order to be myself.
I mentioned in a previous post that I’ve never worn makeup, so this week was the same as any other week. Sometimes I wish I did, when I’m feeling particularly crappy about myself or think I look like hell one day. But, this is just how I am, even when my skin is shitty. It’s been great hearing everyone’s points of view, though! These blogs have been so interesting.
Anyway, this is what I look like on any given day, before I chopped my hair off. I think I look okay, if not particularly dramatic. It’s harder for me to stand out when I go out with friends, and sometimes that bothers me, but mostly I’m okay with it. Maybe one day I’ll get over it and start wearing makeup. Who knows.
Oops, forgot the picture link! http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs428.snc3/24670_385126699035_571904035_3717794_5462302_n.jpg
Dressed up in my stretchy tux-shirt and hoochy bootleg trousers. Drippy earrings. Chocolate Wine.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4144/5022639727_d7b6af1c08_m.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4107/5022639637_542163f215_m.jpg
To be quite truthful not only to myself but to all others who participated- I cant really say that NMUW has been an enlightening experience for me. As a MUA, its kind of my job to be lookin’ fine all the time and besides, doing makeup is among my favorite things to do. Perhaps the sad part is that, as the last few days without makeup have passed, I thought I would have this personal acceptance of my own “beauty” and not feel compelled to have to wear it every day- but that didnt happen. Instead I found myself almost constantly looking at my face and noticing the uneven complexion/blemish/dark circles… bleh bleh bleh.
Ive stuck to NMUW despite it all though [the tearing at my face, the clutching of my makeup brushes… the calling out of my new urban decay NYC pallet. The shrieking in the night…]- and I praise those of you who feel like they do not need makeup anymore/or every day- because some of us, though confident and still quite sassy just somehow….. arent the same without it. Takes guts to walk around so naked! :)
For someone wresting with some pretty fucking scary mental illnesses, it has been enlightening and soul-strengthening to go out every day for two years without some kind of “armor”. It’s like allowing everyone to see into my life, in a way, if they care to look. The fact that I have social anxiety and I’m still able to do this really makes me happy. So, even though I’m still quite scared to talk to strangers, this important ability to show my broken capillaries, frizzy hair, (often) dark, swollen eyelids and (not too often, but at least weekly) red eyes from crying to the world is a notch on my belt. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have the strength to keep up a beauty routine that extends well past a shower, and to have some war-paint on when I emerge from my safeplace, but I’m very happy that I can live this way.
Reading all these lovely stories has made me remember what it was like to wear makeup, and what it was like not to (damn scary). It had been so long since I’d worn it that I seemed to have passed over the monumental accomplishment I’ve made. This experiment has made me remember. So, once again, I thank you very much Zoetica. AND, I thank all of you wonderful people for your stories and photos. You have helped give me something very valuable that will certainly come in handy next time I am having a rough day. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb452/arilfotos/Public/nsi1.png
i lived with just my older sister for many years and she has been an employee at Nordstrom for quite some time, in the sales department (meaning she was also required to look nice everyday so she wore lots of makeup)
our bathroom that we shared was always cluttered with makeup. Since she made much more money than i did, most of the product was expensive belonged to her. and since she was nice enough to let me use hers i never bother to buy my own.
Then out of the blue my sister was offered a manager position at a larger store with better pay in a neighboring city, so she moved. and moved all of her makeup with her. and because i was pinching my pennies, buying makeup wasn’t my biggest priority.
it dissolved out of my life.
it’s funny because it was until then that i never realized how much prettier i am without makeup
so no makeup week hasn’t really effected me. but i have enjoyed the recent posts and reading all the stories.
i’d love to see my sister try no make-up week, but that is not likely to happen, sadly.
i’ve been disappointed this week. i’ve had to work each day, and work basically requires make-up for the ultra-feminine look. i have, however, made a point of coming home and removing all of the day’s paint – and even venturing out “without my face”!
i’ve noticed that i am quite self-conscious without make-up. it’s just not how i picture my…”self”. i’ve also noticed that it’s improving my skin. lately, stress, health, and cosmetics have been taking a toll on my complexion, so this conscious desire to take part in No Make-Up Week has made me think about proper removal in an ASAP time frame. my skin, in return, has been thanking me – and by extension, you! and as a result of my skin being a bit better, i’m less uncomfortable leaving the house without a face full of make-up. it’s a pretty nice cycle.
Since I started wearing makeup I have not spent a full day not wearing makeup. This project was something that had never crossed my mind and to my surprise, it was life changing. I have always been a very self conscious person, and I have spent a lot of my youth feeling ugly, not good enough, or simply worrying what others though of me. Through this week I have finally achieved something I thought I never would. I no longer care what others think about how I look. I like the way I look, with or without makeup. I like who I am and that’s all that matters. Thank you for introducing this to me.
I almost never wear makeup (if I’m lucky I remember sunscreen before I spend a day in the sun, but ordinarily I just wash my face once or twice a day, and maybe use burts bees if my lips are really dry)…
Here’s a picture from Saturday though, and I’ll post Sunday at the club when they show up on ladead. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4791636&fbid=438036249779&op=1&o=global&view=global&subj=1713408394&id=728054779#!/photo.php?pid=4791636&fbid=438036249779&op=1&o=global&view=global&subj=1713408394&id=728054779
And a why I don’t wear makeup? I have never been girl enough to learn. I read your tutorials and others and occasionally try to play with my eyes, but I suck. I’m also lucky that I inherited excellent skin from my Greek Mom & her family, and that I can play with my mohawk (colors, styles, adding lights, etc) to give my face some focus without makeup. The hawk went up with lights last Sunday, and came down after Malediction society last night… I’ve gotten quite good at showering and sleeping around my hair.
This isn’t relevant to this post but one of my friends wrote on facebook “I feel like a tramp when I wear make-up. I’m selling my soul to get a job.” And I thought I would share it in the spirit of makeup week. I personally love my makeup, but I only really use a foundation, eyeliner, mascara and sometimes dark eye shadow. I want to branch out into more colours and maybe even some lip-type-things.
I accidentally participated in most of “no make-up week” because I don’t wear make-up to work! It really isn’t “necessary” or even “suitable” and also I am “lazy”. We are lucky if I even brush my hair before I go…
(No hair-styling week?)
On the other hand, this weekend, I was conscious of how much make-up I DID wear. I did realize that in fact, I do only wear makeup to highlight the fact that I want to look like I don’t wear make-up. I’m not sure if this is good or bad. Just foundation powdery stuff and the lightest touch of eyeliner. It was like my bare-face after a fresh wash but better, because it lasted all day. Probably horrible, because if I liked how my face generally looks without make-up, why wear it.
No, I have learned I can’t handle being an oily faced Melissa. Noooo. No red splotches! In the end, I suppose No Make-Up Week DID teach me something. Maybe? If only that I really should stop buying eyeshadow, because I never actually wear it.