Daring to be bare... faced...

Hello! I hope you're all well. The weather this week has truly thrust us right in the midst of a good ol' fashioned British Autumn, or Winter, or Spring... I mean it's rainy and cold pretty much all the time here. We've had such lovely weather in England over the past couple of months that I've sort of forgotten what it feels like to be cold. And let me tell you, England has been quick and cruel to remind us all, aha. I'm pretty sure that I'm not alone with this when I say that I refuse and will refuse to put on my heating until I see icicles forming on my furniture. I guess I should just prepare to be called 'Rudolph' for the foreseeable, eh? Also, as tempting as central heating sounds right now (as I struggle to type with frozen fingers), its not the best thing for the skin and dries it out really badly. 

...Anyway, this weeks quote is 'to not have some battle scars is to never have lived'. To me, personally, this quote symbolizes that in life we make mistakes, we make wrong turns and regret certain things that we've done, or decisions we've made. But those bad decisions, those wrong turns; they've led us to where we are now. They've shaped today as we know it and molded who we are. We owe every moment of happiness we have today to all the choices that we made yesterday and we shouldn't regret them - we should accept them and realise that they are part of our journey. So even though you may have ugly scars physically or mentally, they are part of you and you shouldn't hide them away or conceal them.

What does this have to do with makeup up, you ask? Well, steering back to the actual point here, I wanted to talk about confidence without makeup. 

I used to be the kind of person that couldn't leave the house without wearing a bit of shadow to fill in my eyebrows (due to the horrible eyebrow incident of 2009. This story may crop up in the future). But that eyebrow shadow would turn into concealer, blush, highlighter, bronzer, eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, powder, lipstick... before I knew it I'd have a full face of makeup on because I didn't feel like I could leave the house without it. Maybe it was because I thought that I'd sort of fooled people into thinking that I didn't have spots, or bags under my eyes and that I had naturally glowing cheeks with long fluttery lashes. Maybe it was because I didn't feel as pretty as my friends. All I know is that sitting in front of the mirror for ridiculously long periods of time, scrutinizing my appearance became ritual.

Then one day it hit me like an empty tube of mascara. I wasn't born with all this cosmetic crap on my face. Sure, I might look half dead when I don't have concealer under my eyes... but that's what I look like. That's me. That's when I started to go out with absolutely no makeup on. And, as cheesy as this sounds, I felt free. I actually felt the breeze on my bare face and got a natural rosiness on my cheeks.

There is absolutely no shame in going out in public with not a smidgen of makeup on, in fact, don't you think it's more normal to go out with your bare face rather than swiping and brushing and rubbing all sorts of lotions and potions all over your face to be deemed ok to be seen by others? It's crazy how much people rely on the 'magic' of makeup to blur away all their imperfections. But it's our imperfections that define us. Now having said that, I'm definitely not adverse to the idea of makeup to enhance features that we like and I love playing with makeup and trying out new things - but makeup should not be used to cover up every little tiny thing that we don't like about our faces. After all, everyone gets spots and has dull skin days, that's completely normal.

My tip for today is this: Let your skin breathe sometimes. Be confident about the face you've got because I reckon its beautiful! Of course, It wouldn't be a proper post about confidence without makeup if I didn't show you my bare faced mug, would it?

Me (Lily)

Ryon - Writer of Music Monday

Carly - Writer of Wind Down Wednesday

Hazel - writer of Food Friday

Ryon, Hazel and Carly also kindly volunteered to put their bare faces on this post :)

#barefacedbeauty

And there you have it. My collosol ramble about having the confidence to bare it all. Well... not quite 'all'... remember, public nudity is illegal :D.

Until next time;
Over and out,

Lily
www.lilynotlilly.com