(This week, dear Melangettes, we are featuring this fun piece written by Rebecca Adams.We have often wondered if all that effort applying the right foundation, concealer, blush, etc do enought to merit all that daily effort! We love the thought that less can be more, and although like Rebecca, we're not QUITE ready to give it ALL up, the thought of going minimal is very appealing!)
Here's what Rebecca writes:
"I've always thought of myself as a pretty low-maintenance chick. I can generally get out the door in 20 minutes flat, I gladly forego hair salon blowouts
and I'm a downright conscientious objector to high heels. So when my
colleagues suggested that we go a few days without makeup, I sneered as
if it was no big deal. (this photo is with make up)
Before this, I wasn't very attached to wearing makeup anyway. I'm
basically a tinted moisturizer, mascara and lip balm kind of girl, so I
wasn't too scared to go cosmetic free. I mean, I'm a writer, not a
model, right? Who really cares if I go to work with uneven skin
and naked eyelashes? It turns out, pretty much just me -- but my
opinion holds a lot of weight in my world.
That first day of going barefaced, upon entering my office building, I
felt oddly vulnerable. It was as if I was allowing my coworkers to get
an all-too-personal glimpse of my exposed face, like I was flashing my
pores to the world. It was truly a fair-skinned person's nightmare. How Sally Singer, Tonne Goodman and Kelly Cutrone
work in the fashion industry without a single swipe of mascara every
day is beyond me. These women are fabulous and confident. These women
are clearly not me.
(this photo without make up)
It wasn't until Anya asked me if I was planning on joining in on the challenge while I was
sans-makeup and already participating that I actually started to
realize that my paranoia may have been a bit of an overreaction. Then,
when I met friends for dinner that week and they didn't notice either, I
really started re-thinking my whole beauty regimen in totality. Could I
forego my overpriced tinted moisturizer and mascara routine altogether?
I didn't end up being quite that brave. Now that the challenge is
over, I've gone back to wearing minimal makeup to work. However, this
interesting exercise in restraint has made me set a new goal. I really
do hope to one day be as confident as Sally, Tonne and Kelly,
but I
think that level of self-assurance will come to me with the passage of
time. Just as Woody Allen saw himself aging as "the balding virile type"
in "Annie Hall," I intend to be one of those women who really owns
their natural allure as they get older and survives off of a meager
beauty diet of Cetaphil and sunblock. We'll see how that plan pans out.
For now, I'll just give a major hat tip to all of the ladies out there
who are secure enough to go without makeup. You're all fabulous and
confident, but you're not me ... yet."
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