Well,

I kinda suck when it comes to posting every day for a week… so, sorry.

Let me update you on how my “face fast” went.

Day 3: My face started rebelling.

My blemishes (the ones that caused me to start the face fast in the first place) got redder, and more angry with me on day 3.  I was however still hiding behind my glasses, which, to be honest… pissed me off. I tried to convince myself that I should wear my bare face proud, and not hide behind my lenses, but alas…

Day 4, 5: My face gave in to the fast.

I awoke on Thursday, and low and behold… my blemishes were not red, angry, and irritated. They were all but gone. Also, by afternoon on Thursday, I had shed my glasses, and seemed to be far more comfortable showing my face. Which, by this point, I can tell that the reason I was willing to lose the glasses was directly related to the lack of redness.  My peers and students were used to my makeup-less face, and virtually no comments were made about it.

Day 6, 7: The afterglow.

The 6th and 7th day were Saturday and Sunday, which meant that the only person that I care about who had the opportunity to see me at all was Daron. Upon asking him if he noticed a difference in how my face looked, he said, he thought it looked the same. Which is, of course, expected. However, I did notice a difference, my face looked brighter to me, and I had finally stopped my CRAVINGS to put make up on in the mornings.

What I learned:

I have to say, it took a few days for me to accept the fact that this little experiment was closely tied to my self esteem.  Wearing not a drop of concealer was quite a challenge. Another side note, is that I happen to wear a highly popular “mineral” make up… it is… essential… to me… have the… bare… type of make up. Even so, I was surprised that most people, when told what I was doing, said, “they have really cool mineral make up thats good for your skin, and they have really light moisturizers too.” When I told them that I knew that, and used them, the majority of people just couldn’t FATHOM why I might not want to wear make up for a few days… it was strange.

My word of advice… don’t use make up as a crutch… if at some point you feel like you really couldn’t leave the house without it, then I highly recommend you DO leave the house without it. You are not your made up face. Remember that.

My wonderful friend Lola sent me a video message today… and it couldn’t have been at a more opportune time. Today was just a bad day. Not only did I feel ugly… all day, but work was just a beast for several reasons.

When I got home tonight, she had sent me a message, and what can I say? She always knows just what to say and when, without me ever having to mention it.

Well… today was even harder… I had a meeting after school, and I had a “get together” with about 40 of my “closest friends” ( ) after work.

I thought it was hard to go in front of my students without a face on, but going in front of my peers and friends looking like a slightly broken out teenager was quite something else.

I am not excited about day 3. Thats all I’ve got to say about that.

Okay, so today was the first day of what I am calling my “Face Fast”. I have decided to go for 7 days without putting any product on my face. This means no makeup, no base, no concealer, no moisturizer, no toner, no NOTHING…

I am allowing myself to wear lipbalm, because if I don’t my lips get all chappy and gross, so thats okay. But I justify it because lips aren’t the same type of skin as the rest of my face so thats what I’m doing.

Anyway, today was the first day. It is almost embarrassing how difficult it was to get out the door without doing it. As I looked at my naked face, I seriously felt almost ashamed that this was the face I am presenting to the world today. It was bad. Why should I feel obligated to wear makeup? And the truth is, people often think I DON’T wear make up. That is to say, that even though I wear make up to work everyday, it is seriously light and natural, meant only to cover blemishes and open my eyes. On the weekends, I am pefectly comfortable sweeping some lose powder on my face, and a few swipes of mascara only. But today, nada.

I don’t know if it makes me angry, or if it makes me laugh that all day, 4/5 people I ran into at work (which is a high school, by the way) asked if I was either a) sick? b)tired? or c)angry?

Why must I be in some state of disarray just because I don’t have artificial colorization on my face? To be honest, I am pretty surprised how much it irritated me. I guess our society has just really decided that makeup makes a “put together woman”… I don’t know.

Someone today at work actually made the comment that I looked less “professional” today… isn’t that interesting? That from the outside, I look less prepared/capable of doing my job because I don’t have any makeup on. I found that intriguing.

It was pretty funny though when I told my students, because I said, “Hey guys, I’m really sorry to have to do this to you, but I’m not wearing makeup all week… so, sorry about that.” They laughed, and said they couldn’t tell the difference… little punks.

Well… I’m not poor… but I’ll be dipped if for the first time… EVER, completely randomly, I managed to go over our cell phone plans’ minutes not by 20 or 30, but 234 minutes.

And I wonder why my gut always prevents me from buying CD’s I want.

At this rate, I wonder if I’ll ever hear the new Tegan + Sara OR Rilo Kiley… Oh well, there’s always next month.