A Year Without Makeup- Day 1

Why no makeup?

 Nearly every woman in our society above the age of pre-teen wears makeup. Everyday. I have to include myself in that category because if I walk out of the house I usually have on some type of face cover. I've never worn much makeup, but foundation is a must for me. I have red cheeks and splotches, etc.
 The idea to forgo makeup for a year came to me today when I was getting ready and thinking about a story I heard. A woman covered up all of her mirrors and didn't concern herself with what she looked like for an entire year. I don't know the exact specifics, but I think she just rid herself of all beauty products. Of course, she wrote a book about this experience, which I have yet to read. But the story inspired me. Am I confident enough in my own skin without any "extras?" Do I believe that God is my only audience? Am I truly only concerned with what He sees in me?
 When I decided to attempt the year without makeup, the verse that came to mind was Proverbs 31:30. "Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised." I notice the verse does not say 'don't take care of your appearance.' But I, personally, for me and only me, feel like my outward appearance is far more important to me that it really should be. I still want to be attractive to my husband and I know God wants that for me as well. Thankfully, I'm blessed with an amazing man that loves me AND my appearance without any cosmetics.

I'm not there yet

 So, I promised honesty on this blog. I hope some of you women (maybe even men) can relate to my thoughts and feelings about this journey. The reason I chose to do this is because, like I mentioned, looks are important to me. Very important. What other people see when they look at me and their opinion of what I look like matters to me. I started this blog to share what God is doing in me and believe me, I could not do this without God. I have to constantly remind myself that what strangers or friends or family think about me (especially my appearance) doesn't matter. The following are some of the thoughts I had when debating this decision-

• I look okay without makeup anyway
• I'm hispanic, so I have pretty good skin
• I can still fix my hair and wear really cute clothes. ooh, I need new clothes now
• I have a clarisonic. I definitely need that. I'll have to be strict with how I use it
• what about pictures? ooooh, those will be bad
• parties? yikes

I have to keep reminding myself that all these things are dumb and don't truly matter anyway. "It's not about appearance, it's not about me." Repeat.

How I'm breaking the rules

 I'm not at all ready to give up all my hair products. I very rarely fix my hair anyway, but it's something I do for a date or a party. And hello, tweezers! Someone would have to pry them out of my dead hands. I'm just gonna say it- I have one eyebrow. One. You can't tell that I was born with one giant eyebrow across my forehead because I tweeze the middle of it to make it look like two. I won't even talk about my mustache (I'm hispanic, see above). Also, I've given myself permission to wear lipgloss or chapstick. I love lipgloss and how my lips appear isn't really a big distraction for me.

So, as you can tell, I have a long way to go to get to that point of  'God is my only audience.' I admit that I'm only calling this a "goal," not a commitment. I'm nervous about parties, date night, church, etc. When most women will be "done up." But I know true beauty is within and I'm confident that God will use this to transform me. If only He'd transform that one eyebrow into two. Until then, I'll hold on tight to my tweezers.

I took at least 10 photos until I got an "acceptable"