On January 19 of this year, I stopped wearing foundation. I was scared of how people would react - I work in a very image-conscious industry, and as someone who would prefer to be in a sweater and leggings all day every day, I worried that not wearing a full face of makeup would make me look less polished, less put-together, and less professional.
Everything came to a head in early January. When I'm just going into the office and not seeing clients, my typical look is dress pants, a nice shirt, and a cardigan or blazer. When I'm going to court, a deposition, or a mediation, I dress up more. At that time, I was going to two depositions a day. My limited number of matching suits were working overtime and I was struggling with the time it took to put on makeup every morning. I kept thinking of my male co-workers and felt this rage bubbling up inside me. While I was taking an hour or so to get ready every morning, all my male colleagues had to do was brush their hair and put on a suit. It felt extremely unfair, particularly as someone who wouldn't put nearly this much time into her appearance on a "normal" day.
I complained on Facebook and got many suggestions that I stop wearing makeup alltogether. I didn't feel like that was an option. Again, the legal community takes image very seriously, and I was spending 8+ hours a day sitting across from opposing counsel from huge law firms - women who were in freshly-pressed, impecible suits, perfect makeup, and coifed hair. At least in my mind, showing up without makeup would make me look unprepared, sloppy, and like I wasn't serious about my job.
Even if I couldn't stop wearing makeup altogether, surely there was something I could do to speed up my morning routine?
I decided to try skipping foundation for a day.
... Literally zero people noticed.
The next day, I didn't wear foundation again and asked a couple friends if they could tell the difference. They couldn't. I thought that my foundation - even though it was light - was helping me cover up all these imperfections and blemishes, but in reality, no one noticed when I was wearing it or when I wasn't. I was the only person, it seemed, who thought that I was hiding anything.
I had also been complaining to J for months about my breakouts and how frustrated I was with the fact that my makeup and breakouts seemed to be a toxic cycle: I broke out, so I put on more makeup, which made me break out more, so I put on more makeup, etc. One of the reasons I wanted to try going without foundation wasn't just to save time in the morning, but to really give my skin some breathing room (literally) and let it heal.
Have I still broken out since? Absolutely. I'm a human being with a stressful job and fluxuating hormones; of course I still break out. I've been working on washing my face more consistently and taking better care of it in general, but between the two, I've certainly noticed an improvement on the severity of my breakouts and how quickly they heal.
Has this actually saved me time in the morning? Objectively. I actually stopped wearing concealor about a month ago too, so my morning makeup routine typically consists of a super-light face powder, blush, eyeshadow, filling in my eyebrows, and putting on mascara. It takes me about 5-8 minutes every morning and I honestly feel just as pretty, if not more so, than how I felt when my makeup took me 20 minutes every morning.
I fully recognize that the issues I was covering up with foundation were pretty small in the scheme of things and mainly related to covering up my occasional acne. Foundation may be incredibly empowering for other people for a variety of reasons, and I'm not advocating that foundation shouldn't be used. For me, wearing this makeup was taking up too much of my time and causing me actual anger and frustration, so making the choice to no longer wear it was super empowering for me. I was also struck by how no one else noticed, even when I pointed it out. I think we all assume that everyone else can see our "imperfections" so clearly, the way we can, and that's often just not true.
For me, this has been a very freeing experience and I'm so happy that I found a solution to simplfying my morning routine in a way that still makes me feel put-together. The social norms around how men and women are expected to look (particularly in the workplace) are still patriarchal and stupid, but I feel like I found my own small way of fighting back and taking agency of my body, my life, and my time.
Is there anything in your life that's holding you back or frustrating you? How can you cut that out of your life? Is there something small you can do to start that process?
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