When I worked at a shipping company last year, I had the unforgettable experience of working around a lot of men.  A lot.  There were awkward moments, but I learned a lot about the types of men that exist in this world, and the type of man I want for myself, but that is a topic for another day.

One morning when I was getting there, one of the more handsome European 'studs' was droning on and on about how woman get uglier somehow during the night.  I could not have been more upset at the time, but boys will be boys.  The only thing you can do is avoid the ones who think they are prettier than most women, like they're the plague.

Then I started to see a lot of these pictures on the internet....

Source

....and women commenting about how they made them "feel better", as if someone else's perceived imperfections could somehow make ours less apparent.

The answer is no.  Who is really uglier, the woman with "too much makeup" or the mean girl peeing on the other girl's rainbow?  If we are okay with tearing each other down and calling each other ugly, how can we argue for men not to treat us the same way?  Honestly, everyone looks different with makeup on.  We brush paint onto our faces.  A blank canvas will always look different before you draw a beautiful landscape on it.  In her prime, Pamela Anderson said that natural beauty actually took two hours in front of a mirror, and damn it if Pamela Anderson believes it, it must be true!

I have battled acne for the past year and have finally found a regime that works for me, but have to cover a lot of postinflammatory hyperpigmentation and scars that I hope and pray will eventually go away.  This does not mean that I wear "pounds" of makeup, but it does mean that I use very specific types of makeup that make my skin look normal and on some days, dare I say, pretty.

In the new year, I am going to make it my personal goal to say one beautiful thing to a stranger every day.  Makeup or not the women in the above pictures have features that their makeup is highlighting and airbrushing so the beautiful after shots are still them in a more polished shell.  To each his own.