Why I Don't Wear Makeup

“I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.”
― Audrey Hepburn

I believe in love.  I believe in laughter, in color, in wonder, and in waterfalls.  I believe in the power of words and pictures and music.  I believe in listening to other people.  I believe in listening to myself.  I believe that being outside with horses can heal people.  I believe that everyone can be truly awe-inspiringly awesome.

 - Me

Here's the thing.  I like makeup.  I enjoy wearing it.  I applaud those who wear makeup- even more so if they wear it well and dutifully take it off every night. 

This post is in no way a crusade against makeup.  It happens to be my personal reasons for not usually wearing makeup.

I also think it's one of the more interesting things about me.

Ready?

Here we go.

I look in the mirror many times a day.  Mostly, that's because I have the world's smallest bladder, and there's a mirror in almost every bathroom in the world.  (I've been to China.  It's true there, and it's true here.  That's got to be a majority of the world, right?)  When I wear makeup, I see a very pretty face in the mirror.  It's been artfully crafted to have just the right amount of color in all the right places.  My eyelashes are dark and long and make my eyes pop.  My lips are shimmery.  My skin is uniform, except where I have carefully placed blush.  I'm not perfect at doing makeup by any means, but there is no argument that makeup makes a big difference on my face.  I like it.

When I don't wear makeup, I also like my face.  Nothing is very uniform, but it's clean.  It's fresh.  I happen to think it's a pretty face.  I like thinking I have a pretty face. 

When I wear makeup every day, I have to take it off every day.  That means that twice a day, once before I put it on and once after I take it off, I get to see my real face.  Then, I get an almost immediate comparison of makeup-face vs. non-makeup-face.  Both are pretty.  Non-makeup-face is, by design, less "perfect" and uniform and eye-poppy than makeup-face.  On occasion, this is okay.  However, if I do it every day, non-makeup-face starts to feel inferior to makeup-face.  This, of course, leads to all sorts of self-concept-bashing that I just don't need to deal with in the morning.  Or ever.

 "In an ideal world no one would talk before 10am. People would just hug because waking up is hard"
  -Zooey Deschanel.

Apparently I'm feeling quotey today.  :)

So, there you have it.  I don't wear makeup because I want to like looking at my real face in the mirror every day.  And, you know what?  I do.