For those who don’t know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Beauty company Clinique is helping raise money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation with its Take The Day Off Challenge. This challenge entails taking a video showing how you take your makeup off and posting it on Facebook. The video must be posted with the following hashtags: #CliniqueDonates #TakeTheDayOffChallenge #PinkRibbon25 #CliniqueAmbassador
You also need to tag three friends to encourage them to take the challenge as well. Clinique is going to donate $10 (up to $250,000) for every video to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. It’s a great way to fundraise and raise awareness about Breast Cancer. I encourage you all to participate in this campaign and to take your makeup off for a day.
For me, this is an easy challenge. I don’t wear makeup that often. I’ll wear it on special occasions like certain holidays, parties/gatherings, and dates but not daily. This may seem odd for a young woman in her early twenties, but I don’t have an interest in wearing it every day.
When I was 13, I became obsessed with my appearance and started wearing makeup daily. I would put on eyeshadow, blush, powder, and lip gloss every day. It made me feel beautiful. It took me many years to figure out on my own that I was already beautiful and didn’t need to wear makeup every day.
I now consider makeup superficial and don’t need it as a part of my every day routine. I don’t see the point in putting on makeup to go to work, the grocery store, the doctor, or anywhere else I go on a normal day. It seems wasteful and unimportant. I have had several people at my job ask why I don’t wear makeup and it baffled me. A lot of girls will wear makeup to work and I just don’t get it. It’s work. I put on my uniform, one of my headbands, and some lip balm and I’m ready to go. I don’t see the point in adding anything else. It’s not like work is a special occasion. So to me, it’s not an occasion I would consider putting makeup on for.
I think girls have become too obsessed with makeup and looking beautiful (like 13-year-old me), that they don’t feel they can live without it. They feel like if they don’t wear it, they’ll be ugly and unappealing. That’s simply not true. Makeup enhances our appearances but it’s superficial. That’s not our natural look. We should all be able to feel beautiful without having to put makeup on every day.
If a guy doesn’t like you because you’re not wearing makeup, then he isn’t worth your time. He should be able to see that you are beautiful just the way you are (Bruno Mars anyone?). I went on a date with someone who told me I was unattractive because I wasn’t “all dolled up” and I was extremely offended. Girls shouldn’t feel obligated to get “all dolled up” for anyone. It should be for themselves.
So, here is my message for all girls. You don’t need makeup to be beautiful. You are all beautiful in your own unique way and shouldn’t let anyone convince you otherwise. If you wear makeup, it shouldn’t be for anyone but yourself. You shouldn’t have to doll yourself up to impress anyone but yourself.