PREFACE (and spoiler): I very nearly didn’t publish this blog post, because of the reaction I got from people. That is, no-one noticed I wasn’t wearing make-up, and I felt embarrassed at having to write a blog post confessing this. I had been expecting people to tell me I looked sick but they didn’t, and on looking back at the photos I realise it’s because there’s really not much difference between my very natural look and me wearing nothing at all on my face. The reason I decided to publish this is because I think there are lessons here. Something that was re-iterated to me doing this is that photos are useful. Sometimes they can be misleading, but for the most part they are useful in helping us to see ourselves as objectively as we humans can. I use them sometimes when buying clothes. If you look at the photos below you’ll see that on both counts, the colour overpowers me. This wasn’t obvious to me in real life, but the photos helped me to see things more clearly (both dresses were returned!).

As a result of this experiment I won’t, in future, worry about going to the supermarket without make-up on. I’ll probably still wear make-up to work, because there is some improvement when I wear it of course, but I will no longer bother putting make-up on to go to the gym or the supermarket (that might sound ridiculous to some of you, but I really was that self-conscious about my skin). Most importantly, I learned that how we feel about ourselves is what really matters. Someone might look at someone else and think they look silly / spotty / awful but ultimately if people feel comfortable and themselves in what they are wearing, that’s all that matters.

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I’ve suffered with acne since I was a teenager and I’ve only managed to get on top of it fairly recently. I still have scars, primarily on my chin, but they are fading. I can’t remember the last time I had a spot but I still wear foundation every day and feel utterly naked leaving the house without it. If I do leave the house without it I literally wear a scarf and hide my chin behind it, even if I’m just going to the supermarket. My husband thinks I’m completely ridiculous.

I thought, then, that a no make-up day would be another uncomfortable but (hopefully) interesting experiment to do. It requires considerably less preparation than the style experiment did although I suspected it’d be equally nerve-racking. I didn’t share a photo of myself on Facebook sans make-up when the whole #nomakeup thing was going round, despite being nominated three times. I couldn’t bring myself to. There seemed to be a whole plethora of #nomakeup selfies from people who, quite evidently, didn’t need to wear it anyway thanks to having already flawless skin. I had a little look on Twitter actually before writing this post to see if the #nomakeup hashtag was still being used and, of course, it very much is. It’s certainly interesting. There’s a lot of pressure for women to look good without make-up. Cosmetic companies rely on it to create insecurity in order to sell us things. The fact that I wear make-up and feel self-conscious about not doing so is a rub for me. Of course I want to feel comfortable in my own skin. Of course I don’t want to fall into the insecurity trap and regularly spend a (not insignificant) amount of money on make-up. I don’t spend a lot on make-up as it happens, but I do spend some, and regularly.

This experiment was inspired by my clients who literally always seem to look better without foundation and positively glow with the lightest brush of blusher. I’m going to go one step further in my experiment by wearing absolutely nothing at all, but if I’m honest blusher is the least of my worries given the fact that my chin is still scarred from acne. My skin also goes very blotchy in the cold. It’s not exactly warm out at the moment where I live.

How will I feel? Will anyone notice? I had no idea. I was nervous because I assumed no-one would notice when I did my style experiment but they really did. I was fully expecting people to ask me if felt unwell, repeatedly. I definitely wasn’t expecting compliments. My husband says make-up makes me look different, not better. I wasn’t so sure.

Currently I am using two skincare products I couldn’t live without: the bareMinerals Active Cell Renewal Serum and La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo[+] moisturiser. If I’m completely honest I doubt I’d have even contemplated this experiment without them! Whilst my skin is pretty clear at the moment I still have scars from the acne and, to my delight, sometimes I get bitten in the night by spiders or mosquitoes which result in some pretty unattractive, red marks on my face.

Here is me wearing make-up. I actually wear very little (thanks to the aforementioned products). I’m definitely a fan of the natural look. Who wouldn’t like to feel as though they don’t need to wear any make-up? I’m very fussy about my foundation – colour match is vital and something I struggle with because I’m so pale and have very cool undertones. It took me a long time to settle on bareMinerals original foundation but I truly love it now when used with their BB primer. I like a matte look, I think it works for a Summer. I want to add here: I’m not being paid by anyone for mentioning products in this post! I’d hate for anyone to think that. They’re just products that, after a lot of trial-and-error, I happen to have settled on and love.

This is me without make-up. It’s definitely not awful, I’m aware of how much worse I’d have looked even a few months ago when I just couldn’t get rid of my spots. My eyelashes haven’t been tinted in yonks so this really is me completely bare-faced. I don’t think I look bad, but I think I look a bit blotchy / bare-faced. I decided to wear red on the day of the experiment because it’s one of my very, very best colours (even better than navy on me). I figured I needed all the help I could get.

When I told my husband I was doing a no make-up experiment he said “Good! I’ve always told you that you don’t need makeup! You’re gorgeous without it.” I truly underestimated how uncomfortable I’d feel on the day. On my way into work, I ended up hiding my skin behind my scarf as I walked in. I was genuinely scared to look in the mirror too – I very nearly chickened out after seeing how I looked in the mirror before walking out the front door. I didn’t though. It’s only one day after all, right? I kept having to tell myself that. I reminded myself that even if people noticed and thought I looked ill, they wouldn’t remember the one day in their lives when Janine didn’t wear make-up for a day.

None of my colleagues commented, unlike last time. When prompted after lunch, the most astute of them did say “I thought your face looked different but I couldn’t tell what. Mouth? Lipstick? Or is it eyes?” I replied, “All of it – am not wearing a scrap of make-up today.” I was relieved when he said “Doesn’t actually show”, after which he promptly insulted my make-up application skills (it’s that kind of working relationship).

Not one other person commented on my (lack of) make-up and actually I thought twice about publishing this post because it seemed like such an anti-climax. As it happens, people really don’t study faces as closely as we think they do. Admittedly I didn’t see as many people as I could have done in my job today, so perhaps I should have done it on a day when I had more going on (although I suspect that if my astute colleague didn’t notice or comment, others wouldn’t have either).

I learnt several useful lessons doing this experiment (mentioned in the preface) and the one that stands out for me is this: what matters most is how you feel in your own skin.

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On an unrelated note, I’d love your opinion on something! A brilliant blogger I know and follow, Kristen Kalp of Brand Camp, offers her blog posts as podcasts too (they are brilliant I might add). She reads out her posts and I’m curious to know if you’d like something similar. What are your thoughts on this? I’d love to know! Just post a comment below. I’m toying with the idea of doing something similar for up-and-coming stuff.