Guest Post #2: Beyond the Vanity – A Personal Revelation

 Fairly recently I have worked with the lovely Charlotte on a guest post about how to pack makeup and fashion essentials, and much to our satisfaction we both loved how it turned out. Right after I went on a month long trip which was supposed to end in Thailand, but actually took me much further. My friends and I got the opportunity to go further, and actually got all the way to Bhutan (and don’t ask me why there, we just felt like an adventure should happen).

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As I went deeper into the countryside and away from the bigger cities, I met locals and got to see how they work, what they do, how kind they are, and how indifferent they felt about me with or without the makeup I wore, with my hair in a messy bun or perfectly straightened, etc. This stunned me beyond belief and I started thinking about why we have become so vain and what we actually value- the person or the perception of a person.

For anyone who has travelled a fair bit as I have, the fact that you don’t really wear any makeup during this kind of trip is not foreign to you. For me it was pretty strange at first, because I just wasn’t used to it, living in the city, going to work or uni every day, and just having normal everyday obligations like the rest of humanity. It hit me then that I actually never went for such a long trip, where I was so out of my daily routine, and to be quite honest, it felt really good to escape the “standard” we live in daily, both obligation and makeup wise. Trust me, the refreshing feeling of not giving a damn about what anyone thinks about your skin, you hairdo, your messy eyebrows or chipped nails was completely liberating.

There are things you should take care of health wise of course, but makeup was not one of them. When I was preparing for the trip I wanted to take all the precautionary measures so I visited a few doctors and skin clinics in Penrith, because I did have some acne and skin problems before and wanted to know what I should avoid to have those problems flare up again like they did in the past. This ended up being one of the best thing I did because I got a tonne of advice on how to take care of my skin “on the go” and not have to over pack my backpack with unnecessary products, and trust me girls, the lighter the backpack, the further you will want to go. 

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Back to my point – I now find it incredibly hard to go back to the way I once did my daily routine. Frankly, when I came back, I spent a few days just putting on makeup and doing my hair and nails relentlessly just to get back to the feeling of my old self, and yes, it did look pretty and polished, but I guess when you go au natural and accept yourself for everything that you are it’s just really hard to go back from that.

What I’d like to say with this whole post is that it wasn’t my intention to bash anyone who wears makeup. Don’t get me wrong, I love it. But what I’ve realised is that no makeup will help you feel pretty if you don’t feel it for yourself, and have no fear over what others will think of you if they see you without makeup. Makeup should be there just to hide our little flaws and not to make us look or feel like an entirely different person. Each and every one of us is beautiful, we all carry our own beauty, so feel the freedom and let it shine.

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A big thanks to Remi Mayer for writing another brilliant post! You can check out another post she has done for me here 
She kindly contacted me asking if she could write a guest post for my blog so she could gain some experience in writing. You can check out her Twitter here, and please make sure that you give her some well deserved feedback.

If anybody else is interested in writing for my blog, you can contact me by email.
Thank you!

Love Charlotte x