Hello everyone! Today I’m going to talk to you all about being sunburned. Everyone’s favorite thing ever, right? Long story short: I was out in the sun for about three hours on Friday, got a little bit sunburned, and then I was out for another three hours on Saturday and I sort of really started to resemble a lobster. I did wear sunscreen both days, but not very much and I wasn’t very good at reapplying regularly, so I accept my fate.
What I Learned From Being Sunburned
Most of the spots where I got sunburned have faded so now I just look tan, but my face is one of the areas that’s still pretty red with dry patches. Because of this, my morning routine has shortened a bit since products just seemed to exacerbate the problem. I wasn’t too happy when I discovered this Monday morning after trying to cover my dark under-eye circles and blemishes (thanks, Mother Nature) with foundation and concealer. So then I just picked a neutral eye look, applied some chapstick and finished getting ready. Once I got to work, I just kind of forgot about it and moved on with my day.
I thought I would be really self-conscious because I always wear face makeup at work, and I didn’t want people to see/focus on the bags under my eyes or my red, shiny forehead (Spoiler alert: No one noticed or cared but me). By Monday afternoon, I discovered something surprising: I was worrying less about my face than I did when I wore foundation, concealer, powder, blush, etc. I thought wearing all those products gave me more security in my looks, and therefore boosted my confidence. But then I realized that I would worry a lot about how all of those products were wearing (or fading) on my face throughout the day. I would constantly grab my blotting powder from my purse to touch up any shininess, and I would get really disappointed if (when) my bronzer and blush started fading away, making me look pretty pale and kind of blah again (at least in my eyes). I guess I never thought about how much maintenance can be involved with makeup all day, even though I used it every day. After not using any face makeup for two days, I’m surprised by how I feel.
I know how my face looks at the beginning of the day: a little bit red, a little bit blotchy, a little bit shiny and a lotta bit (is that a thing?) pale. And since I don’t have to worry about makeup fading away, that’s pretty much how my face looks at the end of the day as well. Yay for consistency! While it would be nice if I didn’t have dry spots all over my face or if my forehead didn’t look like Rudolph’s nose, I still appreciate my skin and feel thankful that I’m not covered in acne like I was for all of my adolescent years.
No one noticed the less than perfect skin on my face so far this week at work, and the world didn’t end. Sometimes I swear the drama from my teenage years just follows me. I just need to remember that pretty much everybody else is too busy worrying about themselves and their day that they don’t even have the time to look at me and judge. So it turns out going barefaced at work isn’t the worst thing in the world. Who knew, right?
This got me thinking about that Don’t Try So Hard linkup that was circulating around the blogosphere last week. Two of my favorite bloggers, Amanda and Katie, completed the challenge and added their posts to the original link up, but I was late to the party for some reason, so I’m posting mine now. The concept behind this trending topic is to take a photo of yourself without your makeup on or hair done so you can see your inner beauty and realize you don’t have to try so hard to feel or be beautiful. I think it’s a great idea, and I’ve seen so many posts about how this is great for self-confidence and trying to overcome all the negative and unrealistic stigma associated with the word “beauty” in the media today. Since this blog focuses on beauty, I decided I couldn’t not (good grammar skills, eh?) participate in this challenge, so here we go!
Mine is a bit different, as I have my hair up and I do have eye makeup on since I worked today, but you can barely tell in the pictures anyway. So here I am, in all of my sunburned glory.
I have redness, dry patches, blemishes, and an oily T-zone. Regardless of all that, here are some things I like about myself, per the challenge:
- My eyes. They’re a bit green and a bit blue with flecks of gold in the center, and I think they’re very unique. I just love how piercing and noticeable they are, so I really like to play up my eye looks a lot to complement the color of my eyes.
- My blonde hair. My natural color is like a dark dirty blonde, and I like how the sun has lightened up my hair a bit. I feel like my hair just glows sometimes, and I do think blondes have a lot of fun 😉
- My smile. When I smile, my eyes get smaller and my whole face lights up, and I just really love that. Does that count? I’m gonna say it does.
