I don’t know if it’s a ginger thing, but I started wearing make-up when I was about 16. Nothing drastic, of course – in my day, you got sent to wash your face if you did anything like the eyeliner brigades do today.
Just a dab of concealer for the odd blemish.
Some brown mascara to fight the Boris Becker look.
Oh, and brown eye pencil for the light brows of course.
And maybe lip gloss instead of normal Lip Ice.
You see where this is going? By 18 I was wearing sheer foundation, eyeliner, blusher, mascara and eye shadow sommer to go to an anatomy class. With a bunch of GIRLS no less.
About 3 years ago, I realised that it has actually become hard for me to go out in public without doing some sort of modification to my face first. Usually I’d be fine if I was armed with my mascara wand, but totally barefaced? Never. I felt weird. Ugly.
I’m not sure if it had to do with bravery, getting older, a push from my sister, a combination of all three, or if I just had a really bad hangover, but one day I came to work completely naked. At least that’s what it felt like without my “mask”.
It was difficult, liberating and very funny because everyone who saw me literally recoiled in horror, composed themselves and asked me if I was sick. But I kept it up anyway.
These days I come to work without make-up on so often that when I DO wear it, people think I’m going for a job interview or a secret tryst and they tell me how great I look. Which is much healthier don’t you think? Instead of thinking I look normal with make-up and sick without, people now think I look normal without make-up and great with it.
We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded with products and procedures to make us look “pretty”. And the scary thing is that the idea of pretty is getting narrower and narrower. Last week a reader sent us this video by Katie Makkai. It’s awesome (Especially if you don’t let the performance aspect bother you).
This week, we don’t want feedback (ag okay we do, we always love hearing from you, even you Lindsay) but we want you to take part in our Bare Face Challenge. Send us a pic of your face as it is. No make-up. No blurriness. No Instagramming! Change your Facebook profile pic and your Twitter avatar to that pic.
Free your face and show the world what you really look like. Scary or fun? You decide.
Love and freckles
P.S You've got two more days to bag the free tickets to Miss Representation. Go on, enter now!