“Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes. It is not something physical.”

I've been thinking a lot about our perceptions of beauty as of late--more specifically, I have been thinking about my personal perceptions of beauty when it comes to myself.

I used to get up really early and after a hot shower I would do battle with my hair to get it just so...

I would apply gobs of foundation to make my skin tone as even as possible...

I would then powder it for a smooth finish...

And then on top of all that, I would add a touch of blush to bring some color to my cheeks...

You'd think I'd be done... but don't forget I then had to add pounds of different shadows to my eyes and eye liner and lip liner and gloss....

Then, I would be done. But I didn't feel beautiful a lot of those days... it's one thing to look beautiful and another to feel beautiful.

So, this past week I got fed up with it all. I hate the feeling of foundation and power and blush and all the eye shadow and bla, bla, bla. Absolutely hate it, and I asked myself, "If you hate it so much, why do you smear it all over your face everyday?" So...

I STOPPED. I stopped wearing it. And my skin looks FINE.

Actually it's ten times healthier than it has been in the past. It's no longer suffocating under all that grease. By trying to maintain a fake pretty I was destroying my natural beauty. Girls, I'm here to tell you to stop covering up all that beauty God gave you.

These days I just do a touch of my favorite blush, a cream powdered eye shadow, little liner, and a dark brown in the crease. It's really natural. Just plays up the natural colors of my eyelid.

I walk out the door every morning feeling beautiful not all "done up." Just simply me.

Oh and that hair, it goes in a messy bun these days. Can't stand to have it down and in my way while I study at school ... and I'm OK with that. Messy buns are the BEST.

Maybe I'm not PERFECT, but let me tell you something the beauty industry really doesn't want us to figure out... that's okay. We're beautiful in our imperfections. No need to be something we're not. It's a waste of energy. It's not healthy. It's not me. And it's not you.

Be beautiful being you. cheers!