I was asked to also read this article. Again, I wrote a reply.

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6 Bold Reasons To Stop Wearing Makeup

Two years ago I’ve stopped wearing makeup. I didn’t do it to make a statement or with some other particular reason in mind. I just felt that I don’t need it anymore. I did not want to seem prettier than I am with glossy eye-shadows or hide my imperfections under a thick layer of creams and foundation.

On the contrary, going all natural made me feel sexier and more self-confident.

To all you girls that do love wearing makeup, I mean no disrespect. However, here are six reasons why you may want to go make-up free for at least a week.

1. Your skin will thank you

Even if you don’t realize it, most of the makeup you wear is toxic. Cosmetic products are not subjected to the same checks as food or medicine before being released to the mass market. It is the sole responsibility of the manufacturer to decided whether a product is safe to use or not.

Unfortunately, a lot of them do contain harmful substances that get instantly absorbed by your skin. For instance, popular cosmetics ingredients such as sodium benzoate, propylene glycol and a number of other acids (not to mention parabens and carcinogens) cause allergic reactions on most skin types.

Secondly, if you’d like to have the perfect blemish-free and glowing skin, covering it up with tons of foundation won’t help you with that. If you wear makeup all day, some of it will inevitably seep into your skin pores, causing them to enlarge and result in acne and blemishes.

2. You will have more free time

On average women in the US apply 17 beauty products before leaving the house and spend around an hour to get their looks together. Another studyshowed that women around the world waste 474 days of their lives applying makeup.

Just think for a second how many amazing things you could do instead –learn a new language, have more incredible travel experiences or master photography.

Once I stopped wearing makeup, I had one spare hour in the morning that I could either use to get extra sleep (which is delightful indeed) or turn into a productive activity like working on my blog or learning French.

Is there’s something you always wanted to start doing but never had time for? Well, why don’t you do it in the morning instead of applying your makeup?

3. You will learn to love your flaws

Learning to love yourself and embrace your flaws is one of the biggest challenges everyone faces. At first, when you go makeup free, you’ll feel exposed. You are no longer hidden behind a fancy facade with all the pimples, freckles and other tiny defects you can’t tolerate disguised under a deep layer of powder.

Do you want to know a secret? No one actually pays attention to your tiny imperfections except you! You should stop treating them like “flaws” and think of them as your “specialty.”

4. You will be more at peace with yourself

One of the most common things I hear from my girlfriends is that “Makeup makes me feel more beautiful.” The truth is – it shouldn’t!

Last year Marc Jacobson models walked down the runway with no makeup; Cate Blanchett, Monica Bellucci, Eva Herzigova, Jessica Simpson and even Brad Pitt have been featured on top magazine covers with no makeup or Photoshop re-touсhing.

You should not allow anyone to judge you solely by how you look (and ditch those people who do!) or allow someone to get you down just because they have a different idea about how people should be presented.

Giving up makeup is just another small step towards making peace with your body image and your soul.

5. You will start feeling more confident

Unfortunately, applying mascara and eye shadows will not help you boost your self-esteem and confidence. Instead of covering up yourself, you should focus on loving your natural look and embracing yourself. Your confidence will skyrocket once you learn to accept yourself the way you are.

I used to think that if I were to stop wearing makeup, I would be considered less attractive and date-able by the opposite sex. In reality, I met my significant other while tripping through the moist Indonesian jungles.

He thought I was beautiful from the first moment he saw me hiking up the volcano – all sweaty and red-cheeked. He has kept telling me that I’m beautiful every day since then.

Ditching the mindset that your self-confidence depends on your makeup, you will start building it up on the right principles: self-respect, positive attitude and competence

6.  You will start appreciating life on a deeper level

 

Embracing your natural look is the foundation of a life rooted in simplicity and in harmony with yourself.

Chasing trends and fighting to comply with social norms and beauty standards is exhausting. So is spending a huge chunk of money on beauty products in hopes they would make you feel “prettier” and thus “better,” yet leaving you feeling devastated instead.

Remember, your looks do not define who you are. You are better than this and you are beautiful the way you are!

Going makeup free takes courage, but it’s a rewarding experience indeed.

Source:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/6-bold-reasons-stop-wearing-makeup.html

 

Reply

To the writer of this article,

First of all, I appreciate the effort you have took to write the article. There is nothing wrong with being makeup free, but I do think there is a balance point between spending one hour each day on makeup and being an “anti-makeup warrior”.

I agree makeups may not be the best thing for your body, but so does many other things. Bacon can cause cancer, should we stop eating bacon from now on? Sunscreen can cause cancer, are we going to get burned instead? Getting out under the sun can cause cancer, are we going to stay indoor all our life? Food preserves are bad for us, are we going to stop eating packaged food? Pesticide are bad for us too, are we going to stop eating vegetables from supermarkets? Cell phone, computer, car exhaust, candy, cow meat… those are all the things I can name in 30 seconds that start with a “C” and can be bad for us one way or the other. Are we going to banned all that? It’s all about the quantity. Put on full foundation on your face every day could be deadly to your skin, but some mineral powder won’t hurt anyone.

Sure it takes time to do makeup, but your daily makeup should only take you about 10-15 minutes. If you are using one hour a day on makeup, you are probably putting up too much. People should learn to find a balance point, instead going one way or the other.  

If you have something you really want to do, and you haven’t start yet, stop wearing makeup probably won’t help you. Maybe consider about spend less time on the internet and plan your schedule better. For people who are not good at time management, the time saved by not wearing makeup probably would easily be wasted on Instagram or Tumblr.

Yes, there are social norms. But what’s wrong following them when we are comfortable with them? No matter how unique each of us is, we are quite similar compare to other things on this earth. We are social animals and most of us enjoy being similar to others.

I agree that it would be beautiful to see someone hike up the volcano, but the reality is that no one is going hike up the volcano on a normal movie date. Our daily life is not that excited, that’s why some little touch would make our ordinary life lively.   

Wearing makeup doesn’t mean we are less confidant, hate our flaws, or have no inside. It just mean we take the effort to enhance our look. It’s nothing more special then choosing a fancy outfit or having a nice haircut. We need to accept ourselves, but we also need to keep improving ourselves. We go exercise in the gym, we learn a new language, and we wear makeup. We do those things out of one same reason, which is to challenge ourselves to be the best we can be.