THERE WAS a time, many years ago, when I would leave the house without a stitch of makeup on my face. Any arbitrary pictures I ended up in would later result in cringing self-loathing at my wan, un-impressive appearance. I was not one to do makeup-free well. Any who refuted this statement clearly hadn’t seen me makeup free, they only thought they had thanks to successfully applied no-makeup makeup.

But there are times, now more than ever, during which I don’t feel like putting on my face. Plus, there are times when it’s also necessary to eschew the paint, like on a plane, to save my complexion future woes.

Recently, I figured out why all those years ago — even in the full bloom of youth — I couldn’t make myself look anything less than ‘meh’ when makeup free and have done pretty well to remedy the situation. Now, I can rock makeup free with the best of them.

Mainly, it was thanks to my upbringing in America, where we are taught to live life in a binary fashion. Dutifully, we absorb this lesson. We live by an either-or maxim. Either I put on a full face of garish slap or didn’t so much as glance in the mirror to wipe the toothpaste dribble from my chin before leaving home. This is why university campuses — even the elite ones — in the US are littered with strangely juxtaposed women. Half are clad in sweatpants and polar fleeces, looking like they’ve given up on life. The other half look like wanton hookers — all too-short, too-tight skirts sans stockings, limbs and flesh on display without a modicum of decency, modesty or style in sight. You either do it whole-hog, as we say, or you don’t do it at all. It took decades to un-learn this way of putting on my face.

You don’t do things just a little in the US, which, to my mind, is the root of many American aesthetic and sartorial evils. There are many.

So it has been as an adult living on soil foreign on my own that I’ve learned to address things like going makeup free by degrees, existing in shades of gray instead of large, abstract strokes of black and white. Thank. God.

How to do it?

First, take care of your skin. Americans and Brits, not known for their affinity to preventative skincare (or skincare generally), are bad at this. We prefer to layer makeup atop our complexion sins or lazily ruin our faces over a lifetime of neglect, fall into despair about it after the damage is done and try to smooth away the years with the likes of cosmetic injections.

It’s not pretty.

Good skincare, good habits, regular facials, etc. will all make it easier to leave the cap on your bottle of foundation in the morning.

Next, get dressed. Just because you’re not wearing makeup doesn’t mean you have carte blanche to let it all go to hell. Shame on you. Have some self-respect. Pair that makeup-free face with old yoga pants, messy hair and a tatty jumper and you’re makeup free, as in just-rolled-out-bed makeup free. Instead, put on nice clothes (pressed and stylish). Do your hair. Go through your skincare routine. Wear some perfume. Makeup-free is not a euphemism for not making an effort.

Speaking of skincare, you can certainly use skincare products that offer added benefits. Creams with primers, pore minimizers and mattifiers will do loads to even out skin tone, minimize the appearance of pores and generally giving your bare face a nice glow. Creams with physical sunblocks (zinc oxide and titanium dioxide) can prevent sun damage in lieu of foundation and concealer (which, silly, by their very nature as pigments, are sunscreens).

Also, wear colours that flatter you in your makeup-free state. If mustard yellow looks stunning on you once bronzed, blushed and eye-shadowed but makes you look ill without the stuff, leave that dress hanging in the closet. Pick something that makes your complexion look glowier and your eyes brighter. There is a color out there that does it. Find it and wear it.

And try your hardest not to be self-conscious about your naked face. You know why? No one cares about it being makeup free as much as you do. In fact, most people won’t even notice. If you wear a load of makeup on a regular basis, some people (true story) might comment on how young you look. Makeup can be terribly ageing when worn wrong.

To those who tell you that you don’t look well (it’s amazing how few people know what women are meant to look like naturally), lean in, give ‘em a fake sneeze and tell them it’s contagious. Then go change that un-flattering shirt you’re wearing and take care of your hair.

Because if there’s one thing you can’t be when you’re makeup free, it’s lazy.

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