The beauty standards for women have been nothing short of impossible for my entire life. Everywhere you look in this world you have someone telling you to be skinnier, someone telling you to change your hair. There’s always a new trend, new clothes and new makeup. Social media also plays a large role in the development of beauty standards, especially on apps like TikTok and Instagram. With everyone raving about a new trend or new makeup look, it is hard to feel beautiful in a world filled with unachievable standards. Although it is nearly impossible to rid beauty standards from someone’s life, there is a simple hurdle to take to begin to love yourself for your natural beauty. For the last month I have tried to become less dependent on the usage of mascara, and makeup in general, in my everyday life.

I have been wearing mascara since I was around 12 years old. Although it doesn’t seem like a long time, wearing mascara almost every single day for 5 years can have an impact on the way you view yourself. When I first thought about limiting my usage of mascara, I can fully admit that I was scared to drop such an important habit of my life. I thought that it would make me appear less beautiful, or feel close to naked without such an important part of myself. Upon talking to some of my close friends they all admitted to me that they also feel a sense of nakedness when it comes to leaving the house without mascara. Deciding to make this jump was scary, but I thought that my experience could help other girls attempt to break free of beauty standards.

When I first began this experiment, the scariest part was becoming familiar with my face without mascara or any form of makeup. Looking in the mirror broke my self-confidence because I felt “less” without makeup. Partly to social media’s heavy influence on the media, women seen without mascara or makeup are rare. Everyone appears to be perfect and well put together but not everyone always feels that way. For the first week of my experiment, I felt uncomfortable and saw myself in a weird way whenever I looked in the mirror. However, given some time, I started to feel more confident without mascara. I will admit, I didn’t cut out mascara completely. I still allowed myself to wear mascara once a week, or anytime I felt a strong urge to wear something. Around the second week of my experiment, I started to feel more like myself without mascara. Another bonus of this was my skincare routine became much shorter and I felt more inclined to do my skincare at the end of the day. At the end of my experiment, I decided that I will continue to do this. I feel like the overall pros of this outweigh my fears. Comparing my self-image from the beginning of this experiment to the middle and end has shown a huge difference. First of all, my self-confidence has improved greatly. I no longer feel like mascara and makeup need to be a large part of my life. I still enjoy wearing makeup, but through this, I feel like I do not need it to love myself.

Beauty is something that everyone possesses, no matter if you see it in yourself or not. No matter what society says, you are beautiful in more ways than just one. Learning to love yourself can be one of the hardest things you may do in your life, however; it will be the most important lesson you learn. Beauty standards are not going away. Everywhere you look there will be a new trend, or someone telling you that you do not fit in. I think it is more important to learn to love your natural beauty than to listen to people who tell you otherwise. Take from someone who has been wearing mascara for five whole years, it is possible to live without it.