These days, it’s so rare for women to go outside without so much as a lick of make-up.Yet, I advocate it! Don’t get me wrong, I can beat my face up good, and I have spent a good amount of coin on my make-up products; but sometimes, some moisturizer and some Vaseline is all I want and prefer. No powder; no anything. Blank canvas. I know and have read numerous articles about make-up and what it means to women when they wear make-up and I completely agree with all the opinions that were shared such as: it makes them feel empowered; it makes them feel beautiful; and lastly, it makes them feel confident in who they are. Beauty standards and the pressures of society. Instead of loving and embracing out natural born beauty, J.Cole had it right on his track Crooked Smile about just how far we women go for validation:
Love yourself, girl, or nobody will
Oh, you a woman? I don’t know how you deal
With all the pressure to look impressive and go out in heels
I feel for you
Killing yourself to find a man that’ll kill for you
You wake up, put makeup on
Stare in the mirror but its clear that you can’t face what’s wrong
No need to fix what God already put his paint brush on
Your roommate yelling, “Why you gotta take so long?”
What it’s like to have a crooked smile
This crooked smile
The reasons behind why women wear make-up were debunked in a recent study; but it all boiled down to the fact that, the majority of women put on cosmetics to gain self-esteem and boost their confidence. I agree with the researchers, and I can attest to being one of the women described by this statement. People are judgemental but we shouldn’t let them get the best of us. We shouldn’t let their opinions get the better of us. Therefore, while I do like to put make-up on, I also feel very comfortable in my own skin. Bare. I find that there is a real + raw beauty in just going bare. Why? It is refreshing and of course, it gives the skin time to breathe and dance in the open air, which I believe is a necessity to maintain great healthy-looking skin. I personally love that feeling when I am outside and I don’t have a lick of make-up on and it’s just me and nature. I find a woman’s real + raw beauty – as she is – undeniably beautiful. Sexy. Crazy. Cool. I am.
And to further establish a more relevant argument, I did ask men if they found women wearing no make-up attractive and the answers were unanimously in favour of women going Bare. Men find us [women] attractive in our own skin! Being able to be authentic in one’s skin should breathe life into a person’s spirit and boost one’s self-esteem and inner beauty. It should further add a major dose of reality, a sense of freedom and an unwavering release of one’s inhibitions. So much so that, when a woman puts make-up on her face she is not only FIERCE, but she SLAYS!! *snap snap* Many might, and will say that “getting their face beat allows them to be carefree”, but then it begs me to question, if you can’t be free in your own skin, then how can you be free in a skin that you have to shed every night before you hit your face on your pillow?
I recently asked my friend – Sagasse Photography – to take some shots for me. My vision was black and white pictures, but I love the Technicolor versions so much as they captured the moments perfectly! Standing around in nothing but a black slip from Debenhams that I shopped out of my Momma’s closet, with the Pacific Ocean as the backdrop, we got busy. It was just us, a camera and the ocean. No lick of make-up. Just some moisturizer and Vaseline. With summer being over, it was quite daring for me to just be in a black slip because it was COLD. But I had a vision. Raw. Real. Bare.
I believe that women are sexy and beautiful without make-up. Blemishes and all. Make-up just enhances the Mona Lisa standing before the mirror. One just has to have that self-belief that they are beautiful in their birthday suit! But, this is never the case. With society and the media constantly perpetuating what it means to be “beautiful”, women convince themselves that they [we] aren’t as sexy or beautiful without make-up. That they [we] need to be “done-up” in order to be considered beautiful. J.Cole said it so well:
We don’t look nothing like the people on the screen
You know them movie stars, picture perfect beauty queens
But we got dreams and we got the right to chase ‘em
The misconception that we aren’t beautiful without make-up is so foreign to me and it makes me not understand people! When I watched Em Ford‘s video campaign titled, You Look Disgusting, I was so angry at how cruel and judgemental people were. I was so happy that she shared it, but it also made me wonder, why do people got to be so hateful? So caught up in the unrealistic world of beauty, media, celebrities etc., they criticize and shame a person’s true beauty and that is disgusting. #EffYourBeautyStandards is another campaign that I love. It was started by Tess Holliday – a fierce plus-size model who’s showing society that there is more to beauty than one’s size and looks. With beauty being re-defined, how can going bare be wrong?
Now, while I do advocate for going sans make-up, I do wear make-up daily to work. But as soon as I am off the clock and at home, I take it off and let my skin dance. Breathe. On weekends, I like to pamper myself with a face mask, do my nails, and just treat myself to a relaxing weekend. The whole nine. So, unless I’m working on a project, my face is bare and that’s the way I prefer it. No shame.
Some of my favourite daily products are from The Body Shop. But that being said, I do switch out my products depending on my skin needs. These are just some of the facial products that I have used and continue to use:
- Tea Tree Squeaky Clean Scrub
- Jumbo Tea Tree Skin Clearing Toner
- Tea Tree Skin Clearing Lotion
- Tea Tree Face Mask
- Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask
- Vitamin E Moisture Cream
- Vitamin E Hydrating Toner
Women should embrace their bare beauty more often because it deserves to be celebrated. The social expectations that are placed on women are constantly evolving but the value of self-acceptance and natural beauty is one that should never be thrust on the rails of society. Women are beautiful. We are beautiful. Being raw + real is something that no man or woman can take away. It takes time to accept but so many ideals are changing. This one will too. Walk in your raw + real beauty. Dare to be Bare.
