Unlike several women of my age that I’ve met, gone to school with or worked with, I choose to wear only one make-up product on a daily basis. I use mascara for my eyelashes and that’s it.

I don’t believe in caking on the makeup to cover up flaws or make myself look like the women in magazines. I like the way I look and god forbid I show that I have blemishes like a normal human being every once in a while.

I use mascara on a daily basis because as a natural blonde, my eyelashes are extremely light and practically unnoticeable. So I add some mascara to show I actually have eyelashes.

My mascara of choice has been Cover Girl’s Lash Blast Volume Mascara in Waterproof ‘Very Black’ for many years now. I wear contacts and I’ve found that waterproof mascara is the best because it won’t run into your eyes and it won’t flake off and stick to contacts.

I found that just adding mascara is all that I need to feel comfortable and even then, if I’m staying at home or running minimal errands I won’t put any on. Generally on the weekends if I don’t have plans I’ll leave the mascara off to give my lashes a break and let the last of the waterproof mascara come off.

Of course I don’t stick to just mascara 100% of the time. In college I experimented a couple times with a full face of makeup (courtesy of my makeup goddess of a roommate). I don’t know anything about applying makeup so I let her take the reins and paint my face. Once she had applied eyebrow filler, done wings and eyeshadow, added some highlighter and who knows what else when I looked in the mirror I didn’t recognize myself.

I liked it for that night out, but I would never be able to transform my face like that every single day. I wouldn’t know how to apply it in the first place and frankly spending hundreds of dollars on makeup seems a bit ridiculous to me. I never really hit the makeup phase when I was younger and I think that’s why now as an adult I don’t care for it.

I’d say that I was lucky to have never fallen into the makeup scene in high school because I was blessed with clear skin and never felt the need to cover up my teenage acne. I knew many girls in school that chose to apply makeup to cover their acne and I don’t blame them at all. I think there is something to say about putting chemicals on your skin and how it reacts with your skin’s natural oils though. Is it really helping your agitated skin to put something on top of it? I do have to say that a lot has been done to make makeup more safe and less harsh for the environment and I think it’s a lot safer and cleaner than it once was.

And I’m definitely not a makeup hater I occasionally do add more to my makeup routine but usually only for special occasions. I do have concealer in my very small makeup bag and usually use it for the large dark circles that are always popping up under my eyes. I also have eyebrow filler because like my eyelashes I have very light eyebrows that in the summer practically disappear all together. Other than that I have a small palette or two of eye-shadow and some black eyeliner.

I know my opinion about makeup may change depending on where I go in my life: career or location. I think many people that apply makeup daily do it because they like the way they look with makeup and it makes them feel happy. I’m just not that type of person right now. And I certainly don’t judge people on their makeup habits, that’d just be rude. I actually follow a couple makeup connoisseurs on social media because I find it fascinating what you can create. It’s definitely an art form and people that are able to do it everyday should consider themselves artists.

Even though I’m personally not a makeup wearer, I think everyone that wants to express themselves with makeup absolutely should.