I rarely wear makeup, particularly since I’m a full-time college student and I spend most of my day and week at the university. I’ve never really had an issue with this or felt self conscious about my bare face but I thought, as an experiment, I could try wearing a full face of makeup, something I see many women do on a daily basis, every day for five days. The goal of this is to see whether this will gain a different reaction from people, whether it will change my perception of myself and just what effect doing this will have on my day to day life.
Ground Rules:
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I must wear a full face of makeup for most of the day (about 10-12 hours or more).
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I can wash my face and re-apply the makeup throughout the day.
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I must wear a different makeup look each day.
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Full face of makeup is equal to foundation or bb cream, powder, eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, contour and/or highlight and lipstick.
Day One:
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I started the challenge on a Monday after my 8am racquetball class, not my best idea. I had about 30 minutes to do my makeup which seemed fine at first until I couldn’t pick a makeup look. I asked my best friend and I ended up with green glitter eyeshadow and dark purple lipstick. Let’s just say I wasn’t particularly fond of my jokeresque look but didn’t have time to do anything about it. I continued about my day and found that I felt really self conscious about how I looked, which isn’t really something that happens often. I thought it was particularly ironic considering I had a full face of makeup that was supposed to hide my “imperfections.”
Day Two:
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I felt a lot more confident on day two. I woke up with plenty of time to do everything and ended up with a purple glittery look. I got quite a few comments on it like “Do you have a presentation or something?” Or “You look so sparkly!” I felt a little better about the makeup because of the comments but it made me wonder if I enjoyed wearing it on this day because of the attention. This was something that got me to thinking about why no one comments on my look or people’s looks in general when they’re bare faced.
Day Three:
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Day three went by a lot smoother since I started getting the hang of doing my makeup in 10 minutes. I was at the university until 10pm which meant by the time I left, my makeup was half gone and my face felt absolutely disgusting. I had a few of my friends ask me how my week of makeup was going only to get the answer from my tired, acne filled face.
Day Four:
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Almost on the last day and I can’t wait for this to be over. My face, which was pretty clear before, has started to produce acne everywhere and the red spots on my cheeks have gotten ten times more noticeable.
Day Five:
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The last day of this challenge finally arrived and I have never been more excited to finally stop wearing makeup. I actually had a reason to wear makeup on day five but after wearing it everyday for four days it just didn’t feel like a special occasion anymore, it was just normal.
If I learned anything from this experiment it would be that:
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Wearing makeup may sort of hide your acne, freckles, scars, etc. but it isn’t necessarily going to make you feel more confident, it might actually just do the opposite.
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The people who wear makeup everyday are champions. I, honestly, dont know how y’all do it.
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I found that this challenge lowered my self-confidence a little bit. I’m so used to not wearing any makeup that when I started wearing it so much, I kind of felt like I needed to wear it; it made the challenge stop being fun and more about looking a certain way.
I strongly encourage anyone who is trying to step out their comfort zone to try something like this. If you don’t normally wear makeup, give something like this a shot and if you wear makeup everyday, try not wearing any at all. I think it is an effective way to not only challenge yourself but to get to know yourself a little better.