Barefaced Confidence

Good morning, my beautiful darlings 💕

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? And boy, has the world changed since the last time I wrote!

You know me. I haven’t been posting because I am busy. Shocker! But really, it’s not just that I’ve been busy. I’ve been tired. Working 10-13 hours a day, 5 days a week, for over a year and a half is exhausting. After work, I have no energy. On the weekends, I don’t want to think. So I haven’t been thinking.

But my city is entering its fourth week of lockdown, and after about a month of not having to go to the office, I must say that I am getting some of my energy back. I am happier and less stressed, too. Funny how being around toxic people less often replenishes your soul!

It’s also helping that winter is over and spring is here! I always struggle to get motivated in the winter, cause the sun never shines where I live. But as soon as it’s spring, the sun is out pretty frequently, and I get all my energy back. Vitamin D is very important!

Or maybe I am just part plant 😁 I mean, look at how obsessed I always am with plants:

Real plants, printed plants, potted plants, me and plants. And that’s just from the past day lol 🙈

Anyway! I hope you all are staying safe, staying healthy, and STAYING HOME. I cannot express how important it is to stay home. I know you’re hearing it from a billion different people right now, but everyone is at risk of getting COVID-19. More people under 60 are infected in America than people over, and the young ones are dying, too. Protect yourself and protect the ones you love. Don’t go out! Stay home! Only go in public when absolutely necessary!!

As our governor said (at least I think it was our governor, idk for sure), we may think it’s impossible to not do things and to not see the people we love for a month or two, but it’s a lot better than not doing them or not seeing them for the rest of forever because we’re dead

So take it seriously and stay home!!

Also BIG shoutout to all the essential workers who have to go out each day and risk their health and lives so that privileged jerks like me can sustain ourselves. My man is one of those workers, and him going out every day while I sit and work from the safety of our apartment just breaks my heart. The essential workers out there need to be shown much more appreciation. And we all need to remember that they are just people, too, and are just as at risk of catching this virus as everyone else — if not even more!! Since they’re the ones facing strangers who could be infected each and every day.

So help them out by going into public much less.

And finally, PAY ESSENTIAL WORKERS MORE, DARN IT!!!

We can’t live without them. They should make more than us. Nothing is “easy” about their job, especially at a time like now. (Ps, nothing is “easy” about ANY job! All work is hard work!)

Okay, off my soap box. Time to get into the REAL content of this post.

If any of you are like me, which I know you are (or else you wouldn’t follow me haha), then you are in no way wearing makeup right now.

Not going out? Just staying home? No one except the people you live with gonna see you?

No makeup!!!!!

I haven’t worn makeup in weeks. I think I wore makeup once a few weeks ago to make a post about my fave foundation (coming soon 😉), and that was it. And I literally just put on foundation and some blush/lipgloss.

Times of crisis do not call for makeup whatsoever in my book.

Actually, cause no one is wearing makeup right now, I feel better about the fact that I don’t wear a ton of makeup to begin with. Before, I used to feel sloppy with a bare face in public, even though I didn’t lack confidence. If that makes sense. I still felt pretty and good about myself, but I always felt a little less put together than everyone else around me.

Now, I don’t feel any less put together than anyone else haha.

The question you probably have, though, is how am I able to walk around in a bare face confidently? And that is what I am here today to address.

Honestly, it just takes time. I started simply by wearing less and less makeup, until I eventually dwindled down to none at all. As you take products away, you get more and more used to the way you look naturally. And then, before you know it, you’re going out with nothing on at all, and you feel your best!

You’re also probably wondering why I stopped wearing makeup in the first place. Well, there’s a few reasons: lack of time, the man liked it, and better skincare.

Let’s start with lack of time. You know me, and you know I don’t have much time for a personal life. Since about halfway through college, I’ve been struggling to find a balance between work, life, and play. I am honestly the type of person who is naturally too ambitious and thus takes on way too much all the time, thinking the she can do it all but really doesn’t have enough time in her whole entire life to finishing everything.

I’m a hot mess haha

So, to get some more time back in my day (especially once my post-college job got busy and I found myself getting to the office before 7 am each day, which meant waking up before 6 am), I started wearing less makeup.

It started with me just going more natural. Instead of a full face, I would only do foundation, concealer, blush, brows, and lips. Not even mascara most of the time. I found that I actually like a natural look better on me, so once I started this, I couldn’t stop.

Then, as the months of being in an office all day, every day wore on, I got more and more tired each morning. And I slowly put less and less makeup on until I just couldn’t bother to put makeup on at all. I am still in that not bothering phase, lol. Unless someone important is gonna be there, or I have to present in a meeting or something, I don’t wear any makeup.

Aside from the exhaustion, I just realized eventually that no one sees me at work all day anyway. I am literally glued to my desk except for meetings and the occasional lunch break walk. (Normally, I can’t even take a lunch though 🥺) If no one’s gonna see me, why waste my makeup??

Now, I save my makeup for special outings and posts only. Sounds strange, but I honestly feel like makeup has no other use in my life. It’s an enhancer of my natural beauty, as it is yours. We should be using it to make us feel extra special, not as a mask to hide our insecurities.

Also, I must add that the less makeup I wore, the better looking my bare skin got. It’s definitely cause it was able to breathe and simply be a free organ like it was made to be. I think there’s a reason why there are so many chemicals in our beauty products — to damage us enough to make us need to buy more. It’s all a scam, I swear.

I’m on to you, capitalism 🧐

Okay, now for the second reason I started going barefaced. The man likes it 😘

I used to read all the time (as a girl) that men don’t like a lot of makeup. I never believed it because I always liked a lot of makeup. When you think you look better with a bunch of products slathered on your face, of course you won’t believe anyone who says differently.

But it’s true, girlies. (And ladies.) Men don’t like a lot of makeup! One, I think they hate getting oily and slimy when they kiss you or touch your face in any sort of way. And two, they like you for you. They don’t want to see an entirely different person each day when you wake up vs. when you go out. (Or maybe they do, who knows! Some people are probably into that.)

My point is, men just tend to prefer a more natural look. You know, like the stereotypical, naturally beautiful girl next door. And the most natural look of all is no makeup. So, if your man is asking you to go barefaced and you don’t want to, maybe just be a little less stubborn and give it a try. I think you’ll be surprised to see how he reacts, and I think his reaction will boost your barefaced confidence waaaayyy up.

But never, ever stop wearing makeup just because a man tells you to. You know? You are your own person, and you can wear makeup any time you want!! You can listen to someone asking you to not wear makeup, but you also don’t have to. By any means. You make your own decisions in the end. So if someone is trying to force you to not wear makeup when you really want to wear makeup, don’t take it. Wear makeup 😘

Okay, last up: better skincare. I used to wear makeup cause my skin looked better with it. Now, my skin honestly looks better without it.

A lot of that has to do with there being a ton of crappy foundations out there. So many I’ve tried recently just suck in general. Also, a lot of popular foundations that are known to be good just don’t work for me. Idk how you all wear those thick, heavy, full coverage formulas. I can’t. They look SO terrible on me. Even if I have the best, most nourished skin and apply the foundation in all the right ways with all the right tools, it just doesn’t look right. I have to go for BB creams or else I look like a melting freak.

Regardless, my skin used to look better with makeup on because I wasn’t caring for it properly. I was using the wrong cleansers, wasn’t moisturizing enough, was scrubbing way too hard, etc. I simply didn’t care. I treated my face like I treat my hands, and that is SO wrong. SOOO wrong.

Facial skin is the most delicate, sensitive skin on your body. It’s just as delicate now as it was when you were a baby. Treat it that way!!!!

If you don’t know anything about skincare, you need to stop right now and look up Korean skincare on YouTube. That’s where I learned most of my tricks. You will be skeptical at first, but turn on the subtitles, watch, listen, and learn. Let me tell you, from experience, they know what they’re doing. All of them. Listen to what they say. They are the gods and goddesses of skincare. You will not regret it.

Other experts than just Korean beauty experts have been helpful in my journey to naturally good skin, too, of course. In general, the things I learned that made the most difference on my skin were: Do not rub or pull or scrub, always touch every part of your face so gently that the skin doesn’t even move, always tap your products in, double or triple cleanse when you wear makeup and remove makeup before you cleanse, tone after cleansing, use nourishing cleansers, don’t exfoliate all the time, peel (but not too frequently), make masks your bff, and use moisturizer and serum and eye cream all together every day. Also, never skip lip balm, and never, EVER skip washing your face. EVER. (Which I never did to begin with, but I know that some people do. So I wanted to extra stress that. WASH YOUR FACE!)

To be totally honest, it’s not so much about the products you use but rather about how kind and gentle you are to your skin. And how clean you keep your skin. (Hence why less makeup has equaled better skin for me.) Products just accentuate the gentility you show your face. Technique is more key than anything.

But since products are still generally important, I wanted to mention sheet masks. Because THOSE save my life. Cleanse, tone, sheet mask. Do that, and you will literally have the best skin ever.

My favorite masks are ones from a brand called My Real Skin. The man brought them home from Korea for me, and I can’t live without them. Idk what I will do when I finally run out. (Ps, masks in Korea are literally $1 or less, maybe $2 at the most. So I never buy masks in America. They’re a rip off here.)

I’ve been using these masks, plus a ton of other ones he brought home, for a year and a half almost. And they are just the best. There are many different types for all different skin concerns, and they all work wonderfully. My favorites are the aloe (shown below), the honey, and the coconut.

Here is my skin after the mask (Ps all the pics in this post are my skin after the aloe mask hahaha)

My skin is always so incredibly calm and dewy and nourished after i use these masks. To be honest, my skin is so moisturized that it’s a little bit sticky. But it isn’t sticky from the product. It’s a good kind of sticky — like, it’s so soft and nourished that it literally feels moist to the touch. It’s amazing.

I just realized I got a little off topic… Back to the point! Because my skin is now soooo much better than it used to be, I have full confidence baring my naked face in public. I want people to see my natural, dewy, bright complexion and awe over the fact that I look this way with no makeup on. Is it vain? Yes. But I don’t care. Vanity is sort of the definition of confidence anyway 😉

Now if only I could cure my dark circles! Darn you, thin under eye skin 🥺

Anyway, it took about two years to get to the point where I was comfortable wearing no makeup. And it took a lot of self love and looking in the mirror and saying, who cares? Just do you, and if others don’t like it, so be it!

If you remember that you are living this life for you, then you will find yourself more able to go out barefaced in public without wanting to run and hide. It will be hard at first, especially if you do a full face of makeup every day to begin with. But practice makes perfect! And if being confident in your true skin is something you really want, then just start practicing! Now is the perfect time!

Again, it won’t be easy, and you will want to hide at first. But the more you do it, the more you’ll realize that no one is really looking at you to begin with. And even if they are, they’re totally not judging you for not wearing makeup. And even if they are judging you, who cares??? When will you ever see them again?? Most likely never! And if you will see them again, people who can’t accept you for you shouldn’t be in your life. So they can deal with it or get out.

Idk if this was really about how to be confident in your bare face lol. I might have to change the title. But I hope it helped you nonetheless!

Thanks for reading, and tell me about your experience with no makeup in the comments below! Do you typically wear none, or are you scared to go out with nothing on? And how have you been managing during the pandemic? I’m curious to hear what you all have been doing!

Until next time! (Which will hopefully be soon!!) Stay healthy, and stay safe!