Before I jump into how to be confident without makeup, I just want to put it out there – however you choose to present your body to the world is completely your choice and you shouldn’t let people tell you which way is correct.
There have been lots of pushes for women to go “barefaced,” in recent years, and the sentiment is excellent.
Far too often, society puts an expectation on women to wear makeup or present themselves in a certain way to feel worthy, and that is absolutely not how you or anyone else should judge you.
However, there are a lot of people who love makeup and feel most confident wearing it, not because they feel unloved or unworthy without it, but just because they love it!
And that’s cool too!
This guide is for those people who want to feel confident without makeup because they want to stop wearing it, not to put a judgement on who does or doesn’t wear makeup!
Must-Read Book for Finding Your Confidence
After scouring the world of self-help books, I’ve found the best one for embracing who you are, not apologizing for what you do or what you believe, and achieving more.
It’s called “You Are a Bada**: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life.”
This is seriously going to change your life, and you can find it here.
This self-love workbook is a fantastic way of realigning your own thoughts and outlook on yourself, which is important to do before you can really deal with anyone else’s feelings or thoughts about you.
1. Ask Yourself Why You Use Makeup
If you really want to dig deep into your attitude about makeup, before you get onto the practical steps, figure out why you wear it.
Do you wear it just because you think you should?
Does it hide something on your face that you don’t like, like acne?
Understanding what you’re using it for will help figure out how to replace that feeling when you go sans makeup.
2. Learn How to Groom Your Face and Body without Makeup
If you start going without makeup and it’s new for you, fill that need to “do up your face” by grooming in other ways like learning how to perfect the eyebrow pluck or embracing a new skincare routine.
You could treat yourself by getting a facial from a professional who can tell you what products you should be using based on your skintype, or even get a new haircut that you feel confident about which has nothing to do with your face itself but can frame it in a whole new way.
If you feel addicted to makeup and like it’s really hard to stop wearing it, even though you want to, this is a great option for focusing your attention and confidence elsewhere.
3. Open Your Eyes to Plenty of Makeup Marketer’s Bad Intentions
The job of a makeup marketer is to make you feel like you need it to be pretty.
Again, there is absolutely no shame in someone who loves makeup and wears it because it makes them happy, but if you’re wearing it because you’ve bought into the idea that you have to in order to show your face in the world, examine where you got this message.
You want to live your life for you and make decisions based on your own happiness, not because you fell into the hands of an expert marketer, right?
4. Start by Going Barefaced Amongst Family or Friends
You don’t have to go barefaced in the world right away.
If you’re used to wearing makeup all of the time, you might want to wean yourself down from it to be able to feel that confidence in your face without makeup grow over time.
Start by just going barefaced when you’re alone and repeating positive affirmations to yourself.
Feel how good your skin feels now that it can breath.
Then, go barefaced around your family and friends and people that you trust not to judge you and to love you no matter what.
You’ll eventually find that self-esteem and build up to going without makeup in public.
5. Fake it until you Make it
At the end of the day, if you want to learn to be confident without makeup, part of it involves faking that confidence until you make it.
People react to the confidence that you exude, not just how you look.
If you hold your head high and don’t make apologies or even bring notice to going without makeup, people will just accept it and view you as a confident person.
6. Find a New Job if There are Makeup Standards
There are some businesses where not wearing makeup does come with penalities, and this can be a huge problem.
For instance, on many airlines the requirements often involve women wearing some type of makeup.
Thankfully, this is disappearing slowly now, but it is still common.
If you’re trying to learn how to go makeup free, it can be incredibly difficult to have to conform every day for your job for fear of getting fired.
Try and find a new career or a new avenue that will allow you to be your authentic self and wear makeup or not.
The idea is that it should be your choice.
