‘I Stopped Wearing Makeup for 2 Weeks—Here’s What Happened’

Could I actually go makeup-free around my bosses? I tried to pump myself up about it: “It doesn’t matter what other people think of me,” and “This is going to be a wicked-cool experience that my inner feminist will love,” are things I told myself. Well, it turns out I ended up learning a whole lot in the course of going two weeks sans makeup.

Here’s what happened—and what didn’t—when I committed to the #NoMakeupChallenge:

1. I caught a few extra Zzz’s. No makeup? That meant I could give myself an extra 30 minutes of sleep. My inner Snorlax rejoiced big time.

2. A LOT of people asked if I was OK. “Are you sick? Did you and Matt break up? Did someone die? You have more color, did you go on vacation?” No, no, no, and no. I’m just one of those lucky girls with mild rosacea. Seriously though: At first, people thought I was ill because of how blotchy I was, paired with the fact that I have super-light eyelashes, which makes my eyes kind of fade into my face instead of popping out. For the first few days, I politely said no without an explanation. But once I hit the mid-week mark, I ended up telling people that this was all for an assignment. Which brings me to my next point…

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3. I was applauded for being courageous (and I wasn’t really a fan of that). As the resident feminist in my group of friends, I’ve always had a strong opinion about the way women are sexualized in society. I hate that we’re made to feel as though we need to look a certain way to be considered beautiful. So I didn’t really like when people complimented me for being “courageous” for living my life without makeup.

4. I could be totally carefree about scratching my face. I could rub my eyes to my heart’s content if they felt itchy. I have to admit, it was pretty liberating to not have to worry about messing up my makeup.

5. I learned how important it was to take care of my skin. Despite being sent lots of products to sample (#workperks), I’ve always been on the super-lazy end of the skin-care spectrum. But this presented me the perfect opportunity to create a dedicated skin-care routine. If I couldn’t wear makeup, I at least wanted my skin to look as evenly-toned and nourished as possible. And guess what? Serums and moisturizers really are all they’re cracked up to be.

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6. I gained a whole new sense of self-love. As a beauty writer, it’s no secret that I love playing with makeup. I’ve always felt that when my makeup was perfectly applied, I looked my very best. But this challenge allowed me to fall in love with my real face. In fact, now that I’m no longer being held to going makeup-free, I’ve yet to return to my normal routine of primer, foundation, concealer, contouring, highlighting, lining, shadowing, endless strokes of mascara, lipstick, and setting powder to keep everything in place. To be honest, I don’t know if I will ever return to that routine again. For starters, now when I put on makeup, I feel like my face is weighed down. And for someone who hasn’t gone more than two or three days consecutively 100 percent makeup-free in almost a decade, that’s pretty huge. What’s more, this challenge taught me to see makeup for what it really is—something to accentuate what you’ve got, not something to cover up what you don’t have.