I don't have the time or money to purchase a look.

Plus, spending a half hour painting chemicals onto my face doesn't fit with my idea of a simple life. If using lots of makeup sticks and brushes and wedges and bottles is important to you, I'm not here to tell you to stop. Value is always a subjective thing, and if it's important to you, it's important. But I am saying that spending more than five or 10 minutes getting ready to face the world is probably not conducive to an overall habit of living simply. And living simply has its rewards.

Today, let's look at makeup.

I don't wear much makeup. Just eyeliner, and that's not even every day. When I'm "made up," I think I look a little bit like a cartoon character. Maybe even a clown. I had some fun with this makeup app on my phone last year. (I'm only wearing eyeliner in these photos -- everything else has been "applied" by the makeup app.) Something went horribly wrong with the result on the right, but that's exactly what I feel like when I'm wearing makeup. It's so unnatural, I feel like a little kid, trying to "pretend."

For me, I spend maybe a minute and a half getting ready to walk out the door. At my most made up, I'm wearing eye liner, and my hair has been shaken and spritzed into place. That's it, and it's so much simpler than it was when I was 16, spending close to an hour in front of some mirror with my curling iron, my lip gloss, my eyelash curler, my foundation, my eye shadow, my blush, my... well, you get the picture. I was heavily invested financially, not only in makeup, but in skincare regimes. It makes me sad to think of all that money I wasted, and all the time I spent burning my hair and applying a bunch of chemicals to my skin, many of which were absorbed right into my body.

Next month, I'll turn 50, and people tell me I look pretty young for my age, especially my skin. That's probably because I chose to give up that insane makeup and skincare regimen years ago and find simpler ways. (The picture at left was taken near my 49th birthday last year. Sorry about the sunglasses; I live in Florida and don't have many pix of myself without them.)

These days, I wash my face with grapeseed oil. If you've never heard of the oil-cleansing method, that probably sounds strange to you, but I love it. In true homeopathic fashion, oil cleansing follows the adage that like treats like. In this case, like dissolves like, so a clean, fresh oil will dissolve and displace the dirty, spent oils already present on your face.

I just rub a small amount of grapeseed oil into my skin, and rinse with warm water. Simple, huh?

If my skin breaks out, gets rough, or some other out-of-the-ordinary thing, I'll wet my finger, dip it into some bentonite clay powder, and wet it ever so slightly again. Then I'll wipe the wetted clay onto the area of my skin I'm treating, leave it on all night, and rinse it off in the morning when I do my oil cleansing.

If my face gets a shine, I dip a dry finger into my tub of bentonite clay powder and dab the area. Done.

My beauty regimen for simple living: grapeseed oil, bentonite clay, and eyeliner.

I don't want to pass judgment on others. I just want to share my own experience, and ways I've found to simplify my life. Spending much less time and money on my appearance, and promoting improved health in the process, is a great example of living simply.

Oh, and P.S. I have a full head of gray hair, and I don't color it. I can't imagine having to deal with that whole concept of "roots"! Nope. Just keeping it natural and simple.