Why We Wear Make-up and the Benefits of Going Without 

Why Do We Wear Make-up?

For many of us fabulous beings, make-up is our best friend when it comes to covering up flaws, expressing our own unique style, or feeling more confident in ourselves. Make-up can also be used as a way of transitioning from one state to another, like after a breakup; we spend weeks or months wearing trackies in bed, spooning sugary treats into our mouths, watching everything ever put up on Netflix and not bothering to put an ounce of product on our faces. Then we finally reach the day when the hurt has faded and we’ve managed to smile for the first time in ages, we pull out our beauty blenders, eye shadow palettes and liquid lipsticks, and paint our faces the way we used to. 

Sometimes make-up can even be a learned behaviour. If, like me, you’ve ever had a controlling parent you may have experienced the nagging of “can’t you put in some effort and put some make-up on.” (I always hated that.) It was easier to just slap on a full face and avoid the argument altogether. It became second nature to me and later became a crutch that stopped me from ever wanting to be without it. Even at school. 

I regret giving in to the siren call of make-up as my skin has protested ever since. 

What Always Wearing Make-up Does to the Skin

Constantly applying make-up products to your face every day will eventually clog up your pores. Even if you wash your face regularly, its hard to get the deep-set grime out of your skin without high quality skin care products. This will cause your skin to have more or prolonged breakouts, so it’ll feel like the spots and redness never goes away. Dry or oily skin is also caused by the chemicals that are used in some make-up products or due to a poor skin care routine when removing make-up. 

Constant make–up use can also cause irritant or allergic reactions, such as contact dermatitis. Products containing salicylic acid can irritate the skin and damage the top layer, turning it into a red and itchy rash, or an ingredient in your make up could cause allergic contact dermatitis which means that your immune system over-reacts to a usually harmless component. Neither one is a pleasant experience.  

Premature aging is another side effect of wearing make-up every day, especially oil-based products as it can aggravate fine lines below and around the eyes. So, your everyday foundation routine could be the cause for any early appearance of crow’s feet. Leaving your foundation on overnight (we’ve all done it once) can also accentuate wrinkles, and dark spots can appear due to the lack of sun protection used before applying cosmetics. 

Benefits of Going Without Make-up

• Clearer skin and less breakouts: you could splurge on skin care instead of make-up and develop a dedication to maintaining healthy skin instead 
• More time in the morning to sleep or be productive – we could all use an extra hour to get stuff done! 
• No need to constantly check your face in any available mirror or car window to make sure nothing has smudged or sweated away. 
• You’ll learn to love your freckles, that scar on your cheek, or that birthmark along your neck and be confident in yourself (you’re already gorgeous, darlings) 
• By not buying make up it’s easier to steer clear of products that are tested on animals. 

How to work towards going Make-up free

1. Try going a day without make up every month 
2. Walk through the high street in a different city of town. Look around and notice that no one is staring at the ‘flaws’ you think you have, be confident in your skin for the day. 
3. Then try the same thing in your local high street another day 
4.  Work up to not wearing makeup one every week, a whole week, a month, and soon you’ll be owning the ‘au natural’ look and gain more love for yourself the way you are. 

Whether you stop wearing make-up altogether or give your skin a break for a day or two, your pores will thank you and you will learn to love your natural self.