A Day Without Makeup (Like Every Other Day)

By now I'm sure all of you have heard Colbie Caillat's song or seen the video for the song Try. If by chance you haven't, I've done you a favor and posted it here:

I was really surprised and pleased when I watched that video for the first time (never having heard the song before). 

I was raised to think that make-up is completely 100% unnecessary. While I know my mom used make up when she was in her 20's I don't remember her ever wearing make up with me around (I was born when she was 40). This meant that she never taught me how to apply make up. So I never wore it and I still don't.

No make-up and no hair done. I was walking down the staircase to go on a walk with my mom and brother early Sunday morning. 

I went through periods of times where I would wear mascara or sometimes lipstick, but thinking back the reason I did wear those things wasn't because I thought it made me look prettier but because that's what other people did, not because it actually made me prettier. 

The only time I have actually worn a full face of make up was when I got married. I won't deny that I felt beautiful that day. But I also have to say that the reason for that may have been the dress and hair and that it was my wedding day, not just because I wore make up. 

This is one of my favorite pictures from the wedding:

My mom didn't like my make-up. She thought I would've been more beautiful without any make-up. 

When I was getting my make up done in the morning, my niece took a picture of me and posted it to Instagram...

Notice what she wrote underneath? I think she's being raised correctly!

With this thought in mind I gave her a call last week and asked her to watch the video and that I would call her back later and ask her what she thought about it. The video isn't aimed at just teenagers since women of all ages need that reminder, but I thought that it would be very meaningful to a 12 year old girl who is in middle school and will be (if she isn't yet) feeling the pressures of fitting in an being considered beautiful. 

I'll mention that my sister (her mom) only wears make-up on special occasions so it is not something that my niece sees on a regular basis.  

At first it was difficult to get something out of Mika, but once she found out that I was asking for the blog she said:

I'm proud of my niece!! 

I'm joining up with Nicole from Treasure Tromp for today's post. One of the requests for linking up was to mention at least one thing that I find beautiful about myself. 

I really like my eyes and my smile I suppose that it helps that these are things that I've been complimented on. I've also been told that I have good skin, but since I doubt I'd be able to recognize whether I have good skin or not, I don't find it particularly out of this world. However I can't say that there really is much I don't like about myself (other than my eternal struggle with weight).