I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on the Beauty Challenge about how nice my skin is and I have to attribute half of that to great foundation/tinted moisturizers and the other half to good genes. What has surprised me about this series is when people ask me what I look like without makeup on. So I thought I’d share.
Perhaps my blogging friend Jennine from The Coveted inspired me with her post called I am real., but I’m totally as comfortable with my face sans makeup as I am with it fully made up.

Here’s the thing you have to realize, makeup is an accessory! If you don’t already see the beauty in yourself, shellacking on layers of makeup won’t make you beautiful.  It will probably make you more self conscious than you already were. Do I think that I am perfect? Hardly. I hate that my gap has spread over the years (and I refuse to get braces), I’m covered in lots of moles even on my face (thanks, Mom), and I think my cheeks can be a bit splotchy at times. BUT, I love the shape and color of my eyes, that I have long lashes and fairly full lips. I love that I am brown and that color can be fun for me since I’m so brown. I love being me and if I didn’t think I was beautiful, how would I ever hope that someone else would?

I fell in love with makeup when I read Kevyn Aucoin’s Making Faces. I loved how he transformed women into someone else with the stroke of his brush – it’s a form of art to me so I love to play and experiment. But at the end of the day if I didn’t have a single stitch of makeup I’d be okay. I’d still be beautiful because no matter how much makeup I put on, I’m still me. Maybe my naked face will help just one person learn to love themselves for the beautiful person they are. Maybe.