This is what happens when you stop wearing makeup
BY ADRIA
VALDES GREENHAUFF
There are plenty of reasons to
love make up. It can help bring out our favorite features, hide flaws, and make
us feel more confident. And if we're being honest, makeup is a blast to play
around with (hello, smokey eye YouTube tutorials). But as much as makeup can be
a girl's best friend, it may not be the healthiest thing to slather all over
our faces on a daily basis.
In fact, dermatologist Dr. Idi
Martins told Vanguard that wearing too much makeup can actually expose the skin
to a considerable amount of chemicals and toxins. "The chemicals found in
lipsticks, eye pencils, and mascara, could cause serious health problems,"
he said. Yikes!
Luckily, going sans makeup
(even just once every few months) can do wonders for our skin. Hmm, guess
Alicia Keys' recent makeup-free look is benefitting her in more ways than one.
Your
pores will look smaller
Foundation, blush and bronzer
might look nice, but underneath the surface, these tiny makeup particles
accumulate in our pores with each wear. Along with all the air pollutants our
skin is exposed to each day, dirt builds up, causing pores to become clogged
and appear enlarged over time. Although there's nothing you can do to actually
change the size of your pores, going makeup free (and regular facial cleansing)
minimizes buildup inside the pores, making them appear smaller and giving your
complexion a smoother finish.
You'll
experience fewer breakouts
The more makeup we use, the
more toxins we're putting on our faces – not to mention all the gross stuff
that builds up on our makeup brushes that we know we're not cleaning on a
regular basis like we're supposed to. All these germs not only clog pores, but
they cause inflammation, which leads to more breakouts that we end up
desperately trying to cover up with more makeup. "Makeup is the root cause
of acne or skin problems for over 30 percent of my female patients,"
dermatologist Dr. Ijaz Ahmed said in an interview with Tribune.
In short, less makeup means
fewer pimples, which helps to stop this vicious cycle.
Fewer eye infections
Mascara will do way more than
just make your lashes look longer. Unfortunately, most eye makeup contains
preservatives that can cause conjunctivitis (a.k.a. pink eye), as well as other
eye allergies that come with a slew of uncomfortable symptoms like redness,
swelling, dryness and itching. Germs can also spread by sharing makeup.
Our eyeliner pencils and
mascara wands can do some pretty serious damage, too. According to Vision
Source Eye Care, "one of the most serious injuries that can be caused by
eye makeup is damage to your cornea. It is possible to scratch your cornea
while applying makeup with your mascara applicator or eyeliner." Serious
enough injuries can even lead to corneal abrasions. Ouch!
Goodbye
to dry skin
Makeup messes with our skin's
natural cell renewal process, which can wreak havoc on the skin, especially on
those nights when we're too tired to wash the makeup up off our faces.
"One of the most basic problems that occurs when you don't clean your face
before bedtime is that natural skin sloughing, where dead skin is replaced with
new cells, is impeded," dermatologist Dr. Rachel Nazarian told Marie
Claire. "Dead skin cells accumulate, leading to dull, dry skin."
No makeup means no nasty,
germy residue left behind to interrupt the formation of new cells. This leaves
us with a face that's naturally more vibrant and hydrated.
Fewer
allergic reactions
Parabens, sulfates, and metals
are all things that can be found in everyday makeup and skin care products.
Unfortunately, they're also part of the 3,700 substances known to cause skin
allergies.
Lead esthetician of Shen
Beauty, Carrie Lindsey, told Bustle that makeup allergies most often show up as
a skin irritation called contact dermatitis. "[Contact dermatitis] can
appear in the form of red, dry patches on the skin, or with more severity there
will be inflammation in the form of hives or raised, dry patches." She
urges you to discontinue using any product that causes your skin to react in
this way. Not sure what's making your skin act funky? Going makeup free might
just be the answer to your dilemma.
Reduce wrinkles
Although it may sound
counterintuitive, the same makeup that you're using to cover up wrinkles and
blemishes may be making them worse, says dermatologist Dr. Robin Evans.
Over time, makeup tends to settle into fine lines and wrinkles, which
essentially just shines a spotlight on the very signs of aging you're trying to
hide. It's like a telltale heart that gets louder the longer you try to cover
it up. Everyone ages, so rather than trying to bury your age under layers of
foundation, embrace your true face — you might be surprised at how much younger
you actually look.
More
sun damage
While rocking a naked face has
some advantages, makeup isn't always a sinister villain. For some women, the
SPF in their foundation is the only source of sun protection they use on their
face. In that case, Dr. Fayne Frey told me that going without makeup may increase
their risk of sun damage. However, she adds that most women don't apply their
makeup thick enough or frequently enough to get the full SPF coverage
advertised on their foundation. So makeup or no makeup, everyone should be
using an additional sun-blocking moisturizer daily in order to actually ward
off the harsh effects of the sun.
A
renewed sense of power
Frye told me she tells her
patients that makeup is actually fairly neutral. It's something that's fun to
play around with to add color to your style palette, but the biggest benefit of
not wearing makeup is more psychological than physiological. As a society,
women are told that we need makeup, fillers or Botox, and that signs of aging
are a bad thing. So instead of looking in the mirror and seeing ourselves, most
of us look in the mirror and see our flaws. But the empowerment that comes from
being able to look in the mirror and see the beauty in a naked face that is
void of the paint that society tells us we need is the greatest benefit of all.
More
sleep equals tons of benefits
According to the TODAY/AOL
Ideal to Real Body Image Survey, the average woman spends 55 minutes each day
on her appearance. It might not seem like much, but cutting back on makeup
means you could sleep in an extra half hour each day — even more if you pick
out your outfit the night before. The U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services recommends that adults over the age of 18 get seven to eight hours of
sleep per night. Any less, and it could negatively impact your health and your
appearance.
People suffering from sleep
deficiency often have trouble with problem solving, making decisions, and
coping with change, and are also at an increased risk for depression and other
health risks. Additionally, lack of sleep can affect your skin and even your
facial expressions. If you often find yourself thinking that you need more
sleep (and who doesn't?), you now have some specific motivation!
Your
skin will stay younger
A lot of people think they
need makeup to look younger, but you might actually be prematurely aging your
skin by trying to cover up those wrinkles. The skin around your eyes is very
sensitive, so you have to be careful when applying makeup or any other face
products. "Rubbing and pulling on the delicate skin around your eyes
causes eyelids to lose elasticity and become more wrinkled," dermatologist
Jessica Weiser told Glamour. Epidermologist Isabelle Bellis added, "The
skin there is much finer than the rest of the face, so tugging can really
damage collagen and break capillaries."
Things like pulling on the
corner of your eye when trying to get that perfect wing, tugging at your
eyelids when removing makeup, and even rubbing in your eye cream too hard can
all contribute to the development of fine lines and wrinkles. Being gentle with
your skin can help cut back on the risk of prematurely aging your skin, but
eliminating eye makeup entirely will keep your skin looking even younger.
You'll
have less bacteria on your face
If you've got a squeamish
stomach, you might want to cut back on the makeup when you hear just how much
bacteria is crawling around on it. Bacteria is, of course, all around us, but
there's a big difference between knowing it's lurking under your toilet seat and
deliberately smearing it all over your face. That's pretty much what you're
doing every single time that makeup brush hits your skin.
The risk of your makeup
carrying these pathogens increases the older your makeup is, or if you share it
with friends. Viruses like herpes simplex or the flu can survive on lipstick
for weeks, because the waxes and proteins keep them preserved. As if that
weren't nasty enough, your makeup could also be carrying poop particles
"since it's usually stored and used in the bathroom next to the
toilet," Susan Whittier, an associate professor at New
York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center told BuzzFeed. Gross.
You
might lower your risk of cancer
Not to alarm you, but there's
a chance that makeup could actually cause cancer. "There are concerns with
beauty products that contain endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs),"
Lorenzo Cohen, a professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
said in a post on the center's website. "These chemicals may interfere
with your hormonal system. While a direct link between EDCs and cancer is not
yet definitive, certain cancers are hormonally-driven. Even a low dose should
cause concern, especially if you use the product every day."
The Environmental Working
Group (EWG) found that 28 percent of personal products contain 1,4 dioxane, a
carcinogen that isn't listed on labels. Research is still being conducted to
see just how much of a threat beauty products pose, but it's better to be safe
than sorry. EWG's Skin Deep Cosmetics Database lets you search tens of
thousands of beauty products to assess their safety. "A good rule of
thumb: If you can't pronounce the ingredient and you don't know what it is, you
should proceed with caution and seek more information," said Cohen.
Bye
bye headaches
We tend to think of allergic
reactions caused by makeup as being limited to skin breakouts and rashes, but
adverse reactions can actually be a lot more varied. Since many beauty products
are scented, the fragrances in them can trigger all sorts of unpleasant
symptoms that you might not link back to your makeup.
If you have frequent
migraines, the source of your pain could be your makeup. Makeup has even been
known to bring on asthma attacks. "Fragrance can often be behind many
adverse reactions to traditional beauty products [and is] considered to be
among the top five known allergens," Dr. Frank Lipman told Byrdie.
If you suffer from these
allergic reactions and still want to wear makeup, you don't necessarily have to
look for products that are fragrance free. Dr. Lipman said that it's not about
what the product smells like, but about the chemicals added to the makeup to
create the smell. "On the label, "fragrance" should be followed
by a list of ingredients in parentheses," he said. "Look for a
product that uses essential oils instead of 'fragrance (parfum)'."
A
healthier you
Besides reducing breakouts,
evening your skin tone, and helping keep your face looking and feeling
healthier, ditching your makeup addiction can have positive effects on the rest
of your body, as well. In fact, Dr. Ahmed explains that carcinogens founds in
lipsticks and eye shadows can actually increase risks for health conditions
like high blood pressure, behavioral abnormalities, and even rates of
fertility.
So while you don't have to
swear off makeup forever, giving your body a break from this stuff every now
and then can beneficial in the long term.
SOURCE:
THELIST
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