Why I stopped wearing makeup everyday

I think back to the year 2012 often. Mitt Romney was running for President,  everyone was wearing statement necklaces the size of bibs, everyone was joining Twitter, the housing market still sucked, the Kardashians were on a medioric rise but still somewhat relatable, and makeup tutorials on YouTube were all the rage.

I remember the first time I put makeup on: I was seven years old, playing with the numerous drawers of cosmetics that my step mom had in her bathroom with my then-step sister. My own mom wasn’t one to wear makeup very often and I consequently hadn’t encountered it outside of Lip Smaker’s sets I got for Christmas.

Since then, I’d dabbled in my fair share of both drug store makeup and hand-me-downs from my aunt, that I started to apply increasingly often throughout middle and high school. I always gravitated to bold colors and bright hues that proved problematic in the conservative, religious environments I was most often in. 

However, when I started going to public high school, that all changed. Now, I could start wearing blue eyeliner or red lipstick on a daily basis and not have to worry about being dress coded. Thus, I started to wear makeup more liberally and spent a lot of time learning new techniques and seeking inspiration for application.

Enter the YouTube beauty guru era. 

I, like many others, would watch videos from creators like Ingrid Nilsen, Jaclyn Hill Michelle Phan, and Blair and Elle Fowler, who would sometimes spend hours applying their faces. The makeup of this time period was also definitely on the heavier side, as it was normalized to apply heavy foundations and layers of eye shadow, for a normal Tuesday spent at work or school. This was also the time period when bolder makeup started to become normalized and it wasn’t uncommon to see dark oxblood lipstick, long, false eyelashes, or heavy cat-like eyeliner being worn by laypeople. 

Even though makeup trends still skewed towards heavy and bold, I stopped wearing very much makeup in college. Partly because of the casual environment (most people wore sweats or jeans to class) and partly because of my own increasing comfortability with my body (I also had an eating disorder throughout high school that I didn’t start recovery from until I was living on campus), I stopped wearing very many cosmetics. It was freeing to not feel obligated to wear makeup and to not want to in order to feel pretty and I embraced this change.

When I graduated and entered into the ‘real world,’ I started to wear makeup again more often, as I missed the ritual of putting it on every day. I started to feel naked without any makeup on and became very rigid about my routine application. I felt as though I embodied my true self more when I was wearing some, which was hard to explain, but intuitively felt right.

I think the more accurate description of this is that this ritual helped to ease my anxiety and enhanced my confidence along the way. This led to me becoming too ritualistic, to to my own determinant, and feeling less comfortable not wearing makeup simply because I spent more time wearing it now than not.

This stayed true until about a year and a half ago. After I met my husband, I started spending a lot more time at home. At first, that didn’t change my routine nor need to feel ‘put together’ by having makeup on, unless I was sick. However, I slowly stopped applying it as often and found myself spending more time without makeup on.

I started to only apply makeup regularly if I was leaving the house. Through this, I started taking more photos and looking at myself without makeup on the majority of the time. I normalized my appearance as it was. At first, I felt uncomfortable and avoided looking or photographing when I was sans cosmetics. But slowly, there was a shift. 

I started to take pictures of myself without a drop of makeup and like how I looked. I started to appreciate discoloration, not feel a need to cover up every zit that popped onto my skin. I started to also favor makeup looks that were lighter and showed more of my natural beauty through them, that didn’t include heavy eyeshadow or foundation.

Now, I actually feel less beautiful when I have too much makeup on. I feel as though I am hiding something away, like I have a secret. 

You’re only as sick as your secrets.

And I was tired of making my own skin a secret. 

Now, in 2025, the makeup trends have changed drastically. Lighter makeup, more a traditional French application, is what’s in style. People are favoring tinted moisturizer to foundation and buildable coverage to full. Loud colors and glitter are considered to be too much and quiet, demure beauty is what’s aspired to.

I couldn’t be more glad to live in this time in beauty, because I remember what it was like to be in the 2012 culture of makeup. While the state of the world is not better and probably worse, at least the pressure to master the perfect smoky eye is far behind us.