Day 5: 30 days without make up

Looking back at three days of pictures, I figured you didn't really want to see my face every day. :p

My face doesn't feel raw in the mornings anymore, but it is starting to feel...oil? Mostly around the bridge of my nose. It might be from my glasses. Am I supposed to wash my glasses on some sort or regular basis? I've never worn my glasses for this many days in a row.

Perhaps my face just feels weird because its been soooooo cold! I know, I know: this is nothing compared to the north west or the east coast, but I'm a SoCal native and my body thinks this cold is unbearable. It sucks the most because this means I would probably freeze to death in London in the Winter. I was cold there in July! So sad, so sad.

However...

I had a great first week back at work. I was so happy that my students were willing and ready to jump back in the saddle! I dare say they were more prepared to get back to work than I was!

Day 4: 30 days without make up

I forgot to take a picture earlier, so you get bathroom lighting today. I realize that to get the best photos to use for comparison I should really be taking these pics in daylight at the same time each day. Yeah; I'll get right on that.

You can't see it, but I really loved my outfit today. It was comfy, but not too casual. It was colorful, but not obnoxious (translates to: I thought I was toning it down). I wore a charcoal gray button up blouse with some dark blue cotton twill pants and a lime green watch. Black shoes to go with my black glasses. I'm still attached to them.

Back to the face: I have no idea what my skin type is. It's not flaky and dry. It's not greasy. I always thought it was normal or combination, but now that I'm paying more attention to it, I don't really know. See the shine under my eyes and along my nose? That drives me nuts. It drives me to skimp on the moisturizer and overdose on the powder. So what do I do about it? Am I using too much moisturizer? Not enough toner? How do I ditch this shine (or at least transfer it to my hair)?

I also hate those circles/bags under my eyes, but I know what needs to be done to get rid of them: sleep!

Day 3: 30 days without make up

Self portrait in the car. I know: bad light. I actually liked the way my hair looked this morning.

I still haven't worked up the courage/energy to wear my contacts. I think I actually might be hiding behind them! It's a good thing they're cute.

I think I might need to change my schedule. I've been washing my face in the morning when I wake up and at night before bed. This morning when I washed my face it actually hurt a little. Maybe I'm not allowing for enough hours between washings? I'm thinking I'll switch to washing my face when I get home from work if my skin continues to feel raw.

Wore my glasses again today.

Up close of my face. No change yet.

In other news, I'm at the vet with Scar (our cat). I brought him in last week because he had been drooling and had bad breath. Worried that he might have an abcessed tooth, I brought him in. This cat NEVER goes to the vet. Call us had parents, but Scar has always been a healthy and happy cat. It turned out that Scar had injured his tongue and that the injury was healing. The vet did recommend that Scar get his teeth cleaned. We want to keep Scar healthy so here I am at the vet getting a blood panel for him so be can get his teeth cleaned on Friday. I was all good until the technician came to take Scar and said I could wait outside. I was all of a sudden so worried about him being scared and alone without Mommy with him. Foreshadowing of actual Mommyhood? I hope I mellow out before that!

Day 2: 30 days of no make up

Day 2

Here's a close up...of mah glasses...and mah freckles.

At work, at my desk, with my freshly washed face.

So on day 2, I went to work with no make up. In the past, this means that my students say I look different or tired or sick. Since today was the first day back from winter break, though, I think they must have forgotten what I looked like! I also wore my glasses which probably helped to cover up the fact that I wasn't wearing any make-up.

My skin feels great! It's not too oily or dry, and I loved that I could rub my eyes without worry! It was very relaxing knowing that there was nothing only face to smudge.
I did run across one problem that I forgot to address in my rules: Chapstick and lip balm. Now, most Chapstick and lip balms are invisible and would not classify themselves as make up. I often get dry lips at work and so I keep some lip stuff in one or more of my drawers all the time. I was actually shocked and a little stumped when I opened up my drawer and found this:

See it there in the back? Those two purple tubes of temptation!...and yes, that is a robotic bug next to them. Don't judge.

In my book, the maybe line minty shine purple gloss counts as make-up. I didn't even need to think about it. And there was that mascara just taunting me. It was not an especially great second day without make up. I did manage to stay strong, though, and did not put on the gloss or the mascara. I did manage to find a stray tube of cherry Chapstick to meet my needs.

It doesn't even have a label!!

I just had to not think about the fact that I have no idea how long ago I bought it or how long it had been stored in that drawer. O.o

On the bright side: I'm excited about the idea of getting more time to play with my hair since I no longer have to worry about doing my make up. Should I experiment with up-dos or styling products? Maybe not the products...since that's kind of like make-up for your hair. :/

Also, my friend Adrienne mentioned to me that I should definitely use honey on my face. Maybe I should ditch my apricot scrub from Target and mix up a jar of sugar, honey, and lemon instead? The lazy side of me doesn't feel like mixing. What do you think?

30 Days of No Make Up: Day 1

This picture was taken in the bathroom, in the light that I normally see myself in since my school has NO mirrors!

This picture is in the office with the desk lamp on. I imagine this is closer to what other people see when I'm inside.

What I don't like:
       I'm starting at the bottom, so don't judge me if I pick out every little thing that I don't like about my current complexion.
       First off, I hate those bags under my eyes. They look...bubbly?? I don't know. I just know that I don't like the area under my eyes.
       Secondly, I'm pale...I might even say sallow. My color isn't exactly that healthy glow we all want.
      Third, even though you can't see them in the above pictures, I want to minimize the appearance of my freckles. Clinique tells me that my freckles are forever, but that sun spots can be erased. I don't know which spots on my face are freckles and which are sun spots.

See the freckles? I have no idea what the difference between a freckle and a sunspot is....

What I'm doing about it:

Here's the face wash I'm using. I don't have blemishes or black heads, but I like how clean my face feels using this. I think it's because it's a scrub. The best my face ever felt was when I washed it using a sugar, honey, and lemon scrub from the kitchen. This is the next best thing at the store.

I got this toner at TJ Maxx (duh!). I had previously been using toner from Target (Up and Up brand) but I didn't like how it made my skin feel dry but not clean. After the first use, it feels pretty good.

This is my splurge item. I've been seeing the commercials for this product for a while (you know the one with the spotty egg?), and I finally decided that I would give it a try. For what is cost, this stuff better work!

This is part two of the splurge. Since the dark spot corrector must be used with a daily sunscreen, I bought the skin tone correcting moisturizer with an SPF 20 to see if I could boost the magical effects and feel like I made a good investment.

 

To combat whatever is going on under my eyes, I'm also using this stuff. It says it's for firming the skin under your eyes. It came as a freebie in the mail from someone's failed attempt to steal our credit card. I hope it doesn't end up being a miracle cream and then costing a fortune!

So that's the regiment I will be using in the morning and evening. If you have any tips, suggestions, or testimonials regarding these products, please let me know! I'm open to changing this regiment and trying new things for the benefit of my skin.

30 Day Challenge: No Make Up

       It's been a ridiculously long time since I posted anything to this blog; I miss it. Last year was crazy, intense, wonderful, and stressful all at once.
       I began teaching in a rather unusual position (well, unusual for the schools and district I have been working in for the past five years). I teach computer technology for three periods, robotics for one period, and introduction to engineering for one period. I love it because I love the subject matter: it's fun, challenging, and very relevant. Not all of my colleagues or friends agree with the last sentiment, though. As a result, there are a handful of people in my life that turn up their noses at what I do and call it "easy" or "fun" (implying that I am not really teaching). The attitudes of these people have brought me down considerably and my initial response was to do bigger and better things with my classes.
       This ended up backfiring on me in several ways:

1. I am exhausted!
2. That handful of people don't really care what I'm doing and have obviously not changed their minds or attitudes to me (I now realize that they never will).
3. I uncovered another group of people who now resent me and all the ridiculous hard work I'm doing.
4. I am EXHAUSTED! (Yes, this counts as a separate issue. See the caps?)

So now the question is: What do I do about this? How do I gain my sanity back? Why do I beat myself up like this? Who do I trust and lean on for support?

That last question was recently answered for my during the most miserable break I have ever had. Who do I trust and lean on for support? My family. My immediate family: My Husband (with a capital H).

I tried really hard to forget all of my problems over the winter break. What I ended up doing was ignoring them. This would result in all of my tension boiling over (usually at extremely awkward moments) and me curling up in a quivering ball of tears and snot. Husband was there for all of this (he is my hero for putting up with it) and what he told me has really helped to put things in perspective. He asked me what was most important in my life: Family. And that was it. Everything else can wait until another day. Our family is the most important thing and right now it's broken because I'm broken.

So I'm taking some time for myself and reorganizing the view I have of my world. I'm still going to work, because it is necessary. I can't abandon my students and coworkers and I can't throw away fifty percent of our income. To help me with this new view I present to you:

The 30 Day No Make-Up Challenge

       As much as it sounds like it, this is not a cop-out for me to be lazy and continue my moping. I spend a gross amount of my morning applying make-up. Since I'm already not a morning person, it is likely that cutting out make-up application will improve my morning prep time by at least 30%. Secondly, my skin is in terrible shape from this stress and from all that make-up caking up on my face and settling in to my pores. I was often so exhausted from work that I wouldn't bother to wash it off and then I would spend the next morning trying to salvage and repair what was left to avoid washing my face. Additionally, this will give me some time to reflect on myself as me and not just the teacher me.

The Rules:

• No make up! No foundation, powder, eye-liner, mascara...nothing.
• Wash your face twice a day: once in the morning and once before bed.
• Moisturize and use sunscreen, NO tinted moisturizers!
• Exceptions:
• There is a fancy event or date that must be attended.
• I don't foresee any of these coming up for myself, but should you care to join me these are what I consider fancy events or dates:
• Wedding (you are at the bride's whim for this!)
• Black tie formal event
• Surprise dinner reservations from Husband for the fanciest restaurant in town.

I don't expect anyone to go along with me on this, but if you want to I would love to hear about your experience! Feel free to comment and post a link to your own blog!

Remember, this is about reflecting on self and not work (ok, that's more of a reminder for myself). I'm hoping that this experience will not only put me back  in a happier place but also give me a healthier complexion. I'm also hoping that this experience will give a chance to get to know my skin again. We haven't really been in regular contact since high school so I don't really know what my skin type is anymore.

So, here it goes! 30 days of no make up...