“Don’t change me, don’t hide me, don’t mask me, fit me“

Maybelline’s advert just like all other make up adverts use provocative language to exactly contradict what their products do. The way make-up is sold to us is something that has always bothered me, so has the animal testing cruelty involved, and just the fact that I have no idea what most of the junk inside it even is.

Should they call there next product Porcelian So True It’s Almost Still You Foundation or should we  just stick with the even more clear and transparent Ingredient list; Octinoxate, Cyclopentasiloxane , Dimethicone, Glycerin, Isotridecyl Isononanoate, PEG 9 Polydimethylsiloxyethyl Dimethicone, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Dimethicone/Polyglycerin 3 Crosspolymer, Sodium Chloride, PEG 10 Dimethicone, Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Disodium Stearoyl Glutamat , Chlorophenesin, Disodium EDTA, Acrylates Crosspolymer, Propylparaben, Fragrance, TocopherolVitamin E, Ascorbyl PalmitateVitamin C, Aluminum Hydroxide, PEG 9, Ethylparaben, Dipropylene Glycol, Isobutylparaben, Butylparaben, Alpha Isomethyl Ionone, Iron Oxides. I don’t think it really has the same market appeal.

I made the radical decision to stop putting chemicals on my skin to cover up what my skin naturally looks like. Crazy decision, right? When you just say I decided to stop wearing make-up, it sounds even more crazy apparently. Surely I could never be enough without make up, so why even try it? As someone who battled with her perceived imperfections; spots, freckles and differing skin tones (gasp) throughout their years as a growing woman, I learnt how to deal with those things that made me, me really healthily… by covering them up.

I first started wearing make-up when I was in that insecure, so it appears I am actually a girl, my period has arrived and so with it these what do you call them, ah hormones, phase. I had low self-esteem an all too common trouble for the little people, especially to those little people of the female variety. I went from not caring about anything, running around the playground, to being concerned about whether or not my face looked No.7 expect perfect, how tragic. From about 12 onwards I used make-up as my mask to blend in my ‘flaws’, and hide my insecurities. Nobody was going to see my emotions because my skin was hidden under a layer of sheer and perfect no flaws cream.

When you watch the adverts it sounds like they’re talking about some kind of dessert, when in fact it’s a mix of different chemicals designed to make you feel like you’re not enough without it (“it’s you, perfected“). I carried on wearing make up except on holidays, (when I would be so covered in sun-cream, it wasn’t necessary), all the way up to the age of 23. Over ten years of putting on my face before I could leave the house. In what world is my face not my face until I’ve covered it up with crap?

I stopped putting on make up, I also stopped having to take off my make up (yay). Instead I wake up I splash my face with water and then tone it with an all natural toner and I’m good to go (you can make your own toner with 1/8 apple cider vinegar diluted with 8/7 water, the same thing as you can use to condition your hair as ACV has the closest ph to our own skin its wonderful for it). If I’m feeling really fancy I might put some coconut oil on my lips and curl my eyelashes, and that’s it. Once I stopped putting make up on I noticed that the world didn’t end, people weren’t horrified when I walked in the room (for some strange reason). I even started getting complimented on how great I looked, and in particular how good my skin looked. The very same skin I’d been hiding from the world seemed to be pretty happy with me for not covering it up.

When I tell people I don’t wear make up, like a few things I no longer do, I normally get a hesitant reaction, they either don’t believe me, or ask why I don’t do that. I’m not bagging on people who wear make up at all, as long as you are not wearing make up because you don’t feel good about what’s underneath, and you’re also aware of how the product has been made. I have unbelievably sensitive skin, which I was clearly aggravating by wearing make up. Now I’m good to go at the drop of the hat, and I can say I really accept myself. Don’t believe the people who tell you, you need to wear this/ do that/ say whatever, to be a good person, they’re pretty stupid.

Get informed about what’s actually in the stuff your putting on your face, your skin is the biggest organism of your body, it absorbs 60% of what you put onto it, which I wrote about in my no-poo hair care article. Are you not bothered about what’s going in to your body for the sake of having one tone of skin? Why do we drain the colour so that we can add it in with blusher? Why can men get by their whole lives without it, if it’s a necessity to us? Do you think the make up companies care about you or your skin?

There are some great products out there which are made from natural ingredients and haven’t been tested on animals, these are the things you can use as soap, toner and moisturiser, outside of that you really don’t need anything, you’re already enough. Though you can buy make up which doesn’t have all the chemical crap in it and is just made out of natural ingredients if you want, here.

Luckily for me doing Yoga all the time acted as a great slide into it as I couldn’t (didn’t want to) put make up on my face because I don’t want to cover up who I am, give off a self-obsessed vibe or clog my pores while I was teaching. Whatever your motivation try it out for an hour, a day, a week, a month and see how you feel, I can guarantee you’ll feel exactly the same because you aren’t your make up and you look great without it!

I’ll be doing another post in the future about great face masks you can make out of just the contents of your kitchen! Let’s go no chemicals, you can do it for your hair, your face and your whole body!

Do you feel you use make up as a security blanket? Could you be you without it?

 

Namaste,

 

Helen – WAP