The No Makeup Project Update

In the above photo, taken this morning, I'm wearing moisturizer, then 50 spf sunscreen mixed with a dollop of bb cream.  Over that I have on powder, blush and bronzer.  I'm also wearing eye shadow and mascara.  I only wear eye shadow on the weekends when I want to be a little more made up.

When I posted about not wearing makeup any longer I had the best of intentions.  I really want to ween myself off of makeup all together and I've been trying to wear less and less to work.

However, I've been struggling with wearing sunscreen only.  High spf sunscreen is heavy and sticky and shiny.  I can feel it on my skin, especially my neck.  One day last week, my sunscreen didn't agree with the moisturizer I had used under it and it began pilling and beading on my neck.  That is not attractive at work!

I've been working on my no makeup strategy for most of the year.  I've tried lots of combinations of products and so far this is my best technique: 

I apply a moisturizer with low spf in it first and let it dry.  Then I apply my heavy duty sunscreen that's 50 spf.  No matter what brand I try, it's always heavy.  I still have some tinted sunscreen 50 spf, but I'm saving that for the weekends when I want to dress up a bit.  For work, after my sunscreen dries I apply powder so that I'm not so shiny and sticky.  The powder really helps.  I don't think I could go without it because it makes all that sunscreen wearable for me.

I put the layer of moisturizer on my skin first because heavy spf sunscreen can be irritating to my skin when I wear it all day long.  The down side of this is that I have two layers of cream on my skin.  It moves around on my skin, it comes off onto the inside of my clothing and if I sweat it turns white and become visible.  The powder helps with these issues.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that I'm finding that I actually still need some makeup components.  My goal is still to reduce my makeup supply and consumption as much as possible.  But at this point, while I'm still in the workforce, I don't think I can completely go without some bits and pieces.

Some might wonder why I don't just go without anything, as that's what the vast majority of women I know and see do.  For me that's not an option because I've been battling recurring skin cancer for more than 10 years now.  High spf sunscreen is essential for me.  I believe that everyone should be wearing sunscreen all the time.  It would drastically reduce the incidence of skin cancer for older people like myself.