Everyday makeup look: "These days I apply a moisturizer, then a tinted primer, then mascara and I'm pretty much out the door. If I'm feeling really fancy or have somewhere to go I'll fill in my eyebrows a little and maybe add some eyeshadow. Oh, and I'm a huge lip gloss addict."
What she feels "naked" without: "Hmm. Clothes on?"
How she felt taking it all off: "I had no qualms about being naked faced in the office. For whatever reason, I've never had a problem being "makeup free" - I've always just thought, 'hey, this is my face, this is how I look. I can look better if I try, but pretty much this is me. Take it or leave it."
Photo 5/11
Stephanie Shum, Editorial Intern
Everyday makeup look: "Concealer for the under eye circles, around my nose and at the tip of my nose, loose powder to get rid of shine and set the concealer, eyeliner to define my eyes and brown eyeshadow."
What she feels "naked" without: "Eyeliner -- it's like my eyes have disappeared from my face."
How she felt taking it all off: "I usually go to class without makeup and feel fine about it, but when it comes to being in an office full of beauty editors it was completely different, since everyone has great skin and defined features! I felt rather frumpy afterwards, but I did like that I could rub my eyes whenever I wanted to (a bad habit, I know)."
Photo 6/11
Anna Jimenez, Associate Editor
Everyday makeup look: "Start with a face primer then a medium coverage foundation, then it's blush on the cheeks with bronzer on top and a bit on the bridge of my nose. For the eyes I like to mix it up shadow wise, deepening on what I am wearing, but I don't shy away from bold colors. Lots of mascara on top and bottom lashes and usually a high shine lip gloss in a neutral shade will finish me off."
What she feels "naked" without: "Mascara is super important for me to feel like I look 'acceptable'."
How she felt taking it all off: "I won't lie, I am a woman that wears makeup everyday. Without it, I felt a right mess. I think I looked super tired and I actually felt more tired than usual. I was super aware I was makeup-less in all my interactions and felt less confident because of it (no fun). Seriously though, at the end of the day, it made me kind of sad to realize I was so dependent on makeup to feel confident about myself in the workplace. Something to think about."
Photo 7/11
Devran Mustafoglu, Email Marketing Specialist
Everyday makeup look: "Concealer, light foundation, black eyeliner, and bronzer on the apples of my cheeks. The concealer and foundation serve mostly to cover blemishes and dark circles."
What she feels "naked" without: "Concealer and eyeliner! Is it OK to have two crutches?"
How she felt taking it all off: "Honestly, being in the office sans makeup was scary at first. I was extremely self-conscious after I initially took off my makeup, to the point where I was asking everyone if I looked OK. I was worried about my blemishes, under-eye circles, and uneven skin tone. My panic session eventually subsided after about an hour and I completely forgot about not wearing any makeup. This experience showed me how reliant I am on having a certain 'look' (so to speak) every day when I go to work. When this look was changed, I felt extremely uncomfortable. I then came to realize that everyone else was more or less feeling stripped of something and had their own insecurities once they took off their makeup; however, it really wasn�t a big deal."
Everyday makeup look: "I have acne, redness, and dark spots so I rely on concealer and a topnotch foundation to even out my skin tone. I top it off with a peachy blush, a subtle shimmery brown eyeshadow, and either pink lipstick or lipgloss depending on my mood."
What she feels "naked" without: "Concealer! I've had acne for the majority of my life; some days it's barely there and some days it just explodes across my face. This challenge happened to fall during one of my bad acne periods, so there was a lot of concealer that came off."
How she felt taking it all off: "It definitely helped that the entire editorial team took part in the challenge. Misery loves company, right? I�m pretty self-conscious about my skin so having it fully exposed with no foundation was a little unnerving. However, it was nice to be able to touch my face and rub my eyes without worrying about smudging. I survived the workday, but I couldn�t last and reapplied before grabbing dinner and drinks with my friends. What can I say? I'm weak."
We live and breathe makeup. No really, the staff at Total Beauty loves makeup. We talk about it in the break room, the bathroom, in meetings, over instant messenger, on each other's Facebook pages, even over margaritas at happy hour. We are an office obsessed.
This would surely be considered weird if we didn�t work at Total Beauty. Luckily, our freakdom is appreciated here. After all, if we didn't have a passion for makeup, we would be employed elsewhere, right? Right. And, if we didn't adore everything cosmetic and look the part every single day our boss would get ticked off, right? Eh, not so much. In fact, in a cruel twist of fate, we were challenged by our (usually reasonable) commander in chief to go without a stitch of makeup for an entire day. And, when we learned that it wasn't (as we'd hoped) just a cruel, cruel joke, there was audible upheaval, maybe even some soft sobbing in the corner.
To make things worse, we were asked to come into the office as we usually do (foundation-clad, blushed up, sporting our new favorite eyeshade, etc), and then to take it all off with makeup-removing towelettes so that this glorious day could be, you guessed it -- documented, for you (and everyone else in the world with Internet access) to see.
So what happened? Well, click through the pictures of the Total Beauty staff makeup-less to find out how each girl felt after the mask came off and see what we feel the most "naked" without. And please share what you feel "naked" without in the comments section below.
