Embracing The Bare Face Look

The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at TAMU chapter.

2023 seemed to be the year of the “no makeup, makeup” trend and I was living for it. I absolutely love makeup. It is a true art and one that I am not the most skilled in. I can do the basic stuff, but I would not book me to do anyone’s prom glam. Makeup trends are ones I have always tried to follow, but never quite got the look down. I could own the same products and do the same techniques, but it would look so different on my end. So the “no makeup, makeup” trend was really one of my favorites. 

Makeup trends in general have to be one of the hardest trends to keep up with. They are constantly changing. You can purchase a high end product, and ELF will have a dupe on the shelves by the next week. This year alone I have witnessed us move from clean girl, to mob wife, to now the sunkissed freckle look. It is a very fast paced community. 

Being redheaded, I feel makeup has always been a part of my identity. My features are naturally blonde, so for a while makeup felt like a necessity. Without it, my eyelashes and eyebrows were basically non-existent. 

I remember in the seventh grade I filled my eyebrows in for the first time. Now, within those six years I have gone through some horrendous eyebrow phases. I’m sure even in a few years from now I will look back and laugh at eyebrow lamination looks too. This is just due to how fast we deem that a makeup trend is “In or Out”. 

Just a few years ago I was getting eyelash extensions so that in the summer time I did not rely on waterproof mascara. At this point in time, lashes were deemed unnatural and too flashy. Now everywhere you look people are selling new lash glues, booking appointments, and even buying at home kits to do them themselves. Makeup trends are never ending and often recycled. I mean, do we need to even speak on the revival of blue eyeliner? 

Recently I became a tad fed up with the makeup community. I was browsing through my TikTok and every other video was an influencer promoting this product that gave the look of freckles, but was waterproof. Again I am a natural redhead, so faking freckles has never been my problem. I watched as these videos flooded my for you page and honestly, by the end of my scrolling I was upset. The freckles they were achieving looked so much better than my natural ones. They were perfectly contouring their face and achieving the best sun-kissed look. 

A simple makeup trend that should not even really apply to me had me questioning if I should be enhancing something as small as a dot on my face. When I simplified it down into those terms in my head, I decided to challenge myself. I was going to go two weeks with no makeup. Now this might not sound like a hard challenge, but again, since seventh grade makeup has felt a part of my identity. 

I started this challenge and lasted two weeks ago, ending on April 24th. 

The first few days I was honestly just sad with my appearance. I over-analyzed everything and would be very anxious going out in public. I honestly just felt gross. I think it took around three days fully to come to terms with myself. That time was well needed, though. I found myself towards the end of that third day really just accepting and realizing that I cannot expect to feel better by picking myself apart. I took this time to analyze what features I did enjoy about myself and how I could enhance them without using any of my standard makeup products. 

Toward the end of that week I had picked out about three parts of my face that I liked without any retouching. I kept these three characteristics in mind and then proceeded to pick out three features that I would want to work on to give me my desired goal. 

So by the end of the first week, I started dying my eyebrows slightly darker to reduce the use of filling them in. This worked magic for me. The most tedious process of my makeup routine has always been filling in my eyebrows and making them look as natural as possible, when using men’s beard dye is an even easier solution and even more natural. Just this little change alone made me feel a lot better while still feeling makeup-free and natural. 

I have never been one with a huge acne problem, but I do have one or two breakouts a week. This was just common for me. While only in the first week of my challenge, I noticed zero breakouts on my skin, and any scarring from the week before’s breakout was gone within days, instead of taking weeks to heal. 

By the time I started my second week of no makeup I had picked up on a few more tricks. I learned how to contour my face using a self tanner. I experimented on dying my eyelashes just as I did my eyebrows the week before. I also learned that Aquaphor can be used for nearly everything. Just applying a small amount, I could comb out my eyebrows properly, and after dying my eyelashes it gave almost a mascara-like look when applied to my lashes. 

I fully suggest to everyone to take the makeup cleanse as well. It really gives you the time to sit back and reflect on your natural beauty and come to terms with it. Even within my challenge, I found substitutes to help me and I don’t think my skin has ever been happier. I haven’t had a breakout in two weeks now. Eliminating makeup from my everyday life also saved me roughly thirty minutes every morning. I took that time to sleep in later, which I hope will eventually cure my eye-bags. Also with this time, I was able to have enough time to get out the door without feeling rushed or unprepared. 

Overall, by the end of the challenge I gave myself, I ended up feeling so much better about myself naturally and the features I have. One of my largest insecurities growing up was how I never felt confident without spending hours in front of a mirror trying to mask and paint over my skin. In reality, there are tons of great tools to help boost your appearance that do not require hiding behind layers. I feel like the bare face trend is one that cannot be deemed as a trend. It is just becoming content with the person behind the brush.