Let's Get Naked

First, I pluck my eyebrows until the color of the skin around them resembles a cherry tomato. Next, I use a thin brush to carefully apply a small line of green eyeshadow as an eyeliner above my eyelashes (because I'm too lazy to go out and buy actual eyeliner). I gently brush a layer of brown and then gold to my lid, and finish with mascara on my upper and lower eyelashes. It takes about 8 minutes and 52 seconds (my roommate timed me once...). What I have just described is the routine that I must follow before I allow myself to leave the house.

The application of makeup. Some days, I sincerely believe I can't live without it. If I leave the house without it firmly plastered onto my face, I feel gross. Bare. I say all the time that it's stupid when girls feel that they can't be pretty without it. But I'm just as guilty as anyone else. Honestly, I don't use a ton of makeup. I use some on my eyes. But even the little that I do use seems necessary and imperative to my appearance. I look at myself in the mirror sometimes when I'm not wearing it, and think, I'm so glad man created artificial enhancements. 


Okay. If you're a girl, and your internal operating system agreed with the above statement, then there is something intrinsically wrong here. If women are at the point where they rely on artificial means in order to feel good about themselves, then we're just that much closer to a futuristic Skynet paradigm. And trust me, after years of smearing powder, creams, and paints onto our faces, our natural beauty will most certainly not "be back". (If you haven't caught the reference yet, please excuse your uneducated existence and go watch more movies). But in all seriousness, how can we look at ourselves and NOT see anything but pure loveliness? How can we glance at ourselves in a reflective surface and say, "I need to cover that up." In the words of Magneto from X-men: First Class, "Have you ever look at a tiger and it's stripes and thought you ought to cover it up?" Yeah. I just went full on nerd.

Putting on makeup isn't an inherently evil thing. That's not at all what I'm trying to get at. There's nothing wrong with adding some minor adjustments to yourself to enhance the natural beauty that's already present. The problem occurs when we women genuinely believe that we don't have beauty without it. We define ourselves through appearance on a daily basis. The clothes we wear are usually an outward manifestation of our inward personalities. The shoes and bags we buy are to enhance those fashion choices. The way we do our hair, the jewelry we choose, and lastly, the makeup we apply, are all ways we present ourselves to the world. And there's nothing wrong with presenting ourselves in this way. There's nothing wrong with loving clothes and shoes and makeup. But there is something wrong with becoming our clothes and shoes and makeup.

I'm not even going to try to touch on the subject of the social media. We all know how it affects our self- esteem. But let's take our self-esteem back. Let's show ourselves that we can be beautiful without relying on artificial means. That we can be lovely and feminine without being fake. Even if we only prove this to ourselves. Don't worry about the impositions of humans on this planet. As long as you can look at your reflection and be more than satisfied with what you see without being covered up. Which is why I'm issuing a challenge.

THE CHALLENGE
Pick a day. Any day. As long as it's within this star date. Look at your makeup bag. Now back at this blog. Now back at your makeup bag. Look! The bag is now non-existent. Look back at this blog. It is filled with unending encouragement. Now look in the mirror. What do you see? Keep looking. Your reflection is the most beautiful thing in the room. And I sound like the Old Spice guy.

Okay, here are the parameters of the challenge. You must pick one day and go an entire 24 hours without applying even the slightest bit of makeup. Not even that teeny bit of mascara that makes your eyelashes just that much longer. Or that little bit of concealer to cover up that pimple. Nothing. Accept yourself as utterly gorgeous and fantastically beautiful. Allow your face to be naked. Because you are fearfully and wonderfully made. Maybe a lot of you will find this challenge easy. Some of you definitely won't, and some of you won't even consider it. It just breaks my heart to see so many lovely women cover up their beauty in the hopes that they will become "beautiful". For me, after going a couple days without reaching for my safety blanket of eyeliner, I find it much easier to stay away from it altogether. To use it sparingly. To not completely rely on it.

Girls, ladies, women. Let's remove the facade of artificial beauty and push away our insecurities. Let's stop worrying that our eyebrows aren't shaped a certain way. That we have too many freckles. That our eyes aren't the right color. That our lashes aren't long enough. Let's metaphorically cast off the shackles that we use as "safety blankets" against the media's chilling expectations. Let's remove any doubt that we aren't society's glimmering gems. Let's bare it all.

Let's get naked.