As we near the end of March, I’m slowly but steadily making my way down my list of proposed challenges, beginning with #8 – two makeup-free days.

I thought this challenge would be difficult, if not downright impossible.

Since starting college, I have never been seen without a full face of makeup. To me, a “full’ face generally consists of just foundation and eyeliner. Occasionally, I’ll also wear mascara, lipstick or lip paint, bronzer, highlighter and/ or eyeshadow. Usually, I am ready within 10 to 15 minutes, depending on how anal I feel about the straightness of my eyeliner. I don’t know when I started to feel as though I couldn’t face the world without an oil and emollient layer between us, but it’s become as necessary to my life as Chacos and oversized T-shirts are to a srat girl’s.

So, yes, I thought this challenge would be difficult, but it wasn’t anywhere near as difficult as I expected it to be. Even though that the first morning of my challenge was agonizingly awkward, I learned a lot of things about myself and even uncovered some benefits along the way. Here are just a few of the things that happened:

1. My skin was briefly in love with me

I am fortunate enough to be blessed with good skin. I’ve never had acne, and on the rare occasion that I get a pimple, it’s usually just a stress zit. How I’ve managed this, I have no idea. I attempt to be the sort of organized person who remembers to use a facial scrub at least once a week, but thanks to my schedule, that ends up being more like a once-a-month thing. Also, in all my 21 years of living, I think I’ve only removed my makeup twice before going to bed (and one of those times was the night before this challenge started). Long story short, I have good skin, but I definitely shouldn’t.

However, I don’t think my skin has ever been better than it was during this challenge.

As a result, I’m going to attempt to take my makeup off before bed more often, and maybe forgo it entirely some days.

2. I saved ridiculous amounts of time and money.

One thing I actually really loved about this challenge is that I was able to brush my teeth in the morning, change clothes and leave. What normally takes me an hour and 30 minutes took me roughly 40 minutes.

Also, the first thing I thought as I rummaged through my makeup bag the morning after the challenge is that I was, yet again, running out of eyeliner and foundation and would have to replace both soon. If I’m shopping on the lower end of the scale, this puts me back roughly $30, which is a bit disheartening when you think of all the mozzarella sticks $30 could buy.

3. I was relatively stress-free.

Along with the time I saved, I also saved myself a lot of grief. I didn’t have to check my lipstick every couple of hours. I didn’t have to worry about leaving stains on my cups and straws. I didn’t have to worry that as I wiped the crumbs off my face after eating I’d also accidentally wipe off the foundation around my mouth. I could rub my eyes without worrying about leaving raccoon eyes behind. (I did get a little carried away with this one and nearly knocked a contact out, but that’s neither here nor there.)