{"id":8699,"date":"2012-03-28T04:00:35","date_gmt":"2012-03-28T11:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145696.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=8699"},"modified":"2012-03-28T04:00:35","modified_gmt":"2012-03-28T11:00:35","slug":"the-naked-face-project-my-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/articles\/the-naked-face-project-my-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"One Week Without Makeup: My Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"the<\/a><\/h3>\n

Last week I wrote about a project that is underway called The Naked Face Project<\/a>. Two women decided to forgo makeup, hair products\/styling, and any primping for sixty days. I challenged myself to go a week without any of the aforementioned as well.<\/h3>\n

Makeup has always been something that I’ve loved. As soon as I could, I was wearing mascara and blush and different eyeshadows. My friends and I would have slumber parties where we would do each other’s makeup and hair and take our “head shots.” This love for makeup eventually led me to wanting to become a makeup artist. I went to school in Los Angeles and loved it. Makeup had always been an art form to me; a different canvas and different paints but art just the same. I never felt as though I looked at makeup as something that I needed to feel confident or something that helped to define me.<\/p>\n

Fast forward many years later to last Wednesday morning when I got up for work and didn’t put any makeup on. I felt naked. I felt exposed. Vulnerable even! I was shocked at how difficult it was for me to just put on sunscreen, brush my teeth, and walk away. My makeup routine in the morning was nothing extreme: I would put on some concealer, blush, and mascara. That’s it. Yet, for some reason, without those three little products I felt slightly less complete. All of a sudden I could see imperfections (to me) that I probably would have never noticed before. The no hair styling aspect of this challenge was not really an issue as I have to wear my hair up and in a scarf for work everyday-always zero styling involved, especially at 4 am! While I was at work I tried to forget about the fact that I wasn’t wearing any makeup, but it honestly distracted me. I was taken aback by my own internal reaction to something that I assumed was going to be a walk in the park.<\/p>\n

The next day I felt slightly better, but that may have had to do with the fact that I hit the snooze once since I didn’t have to put anything on! It was still on my mind, though, and I realized that I was very self conscious without any makeup on. Almost as though someone would notice and say something or they would ask me if something was wrong or if I was tired. To my surprise, this never happened. I began to realize that the only person that had a clue I wasn’t wearing makeup was me. The second day also brought an interesting twist of sorts to the challenge. I was having a friend over, of the male variety, that I’m interested in. The idea of not putting my best face forward, so to speak, had me a little anxious. Again, to my surprise, he didn’t notice or act differently towards me. It just didn’t matter.<\/p>\n

After that second day I began to feel exponentially more comfortable in my exposed skin. It started to feel very freeing. It almost felt like an announcement to the world of “Here I am, take it or leave it. Flaws and all!” With each passing day I looked in the mirror less, thought about it less, and eventually I didn’t think about it at all. I still have a love for makeup and I’ll continue to wear it to some extent- I doubt that will ever change! The Naked Face Challenge helped me honestly<\/em> realize that my made up face doesn’t define my beauty and it doesn’t define or alter what I have to offer. The challenge also made me realize that I care more about what others think of me and my appearance than I thought. I had always thought of myself as a body and face confident woman; it didn’t matter if I covered up that blemish or wore mascara around someone that I like! After doing this challenge I realized that I said those those things with confidence without ever making myself do it! It’s easy to say that it doesn’t matter if I wear mascara or not while I’m wearing it, but then to make that statement unmasked is completely different. I CAN now say, with true confidence, that I’m beautiful with or without makeup!<\/p>\n

Did you do The Naked Face Challenge? I would love to hear about your experiences as well! Feel free to leave any comments, questions, or links.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My thoughts, feelings, and experience with The Naked Face Challenge! More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":8700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[129,661,11,5082],"tags":[1855,37,6345,1860,6346,5637],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/nakedfaceproject.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8699"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}