This is a mini gallery of some of my favorite bloggers who submitted photos, and each of their blogs are worth checking out. View the entire gallery here.

1. Madam 0wl: http://madam0wl.blogspot.com/
2. Tavi: stylerookie.com
3. Mara:http://www.medicinalmarzipan.com/
4. Desboobs: http://theboobs.blogspot.com
5. Alle: http://allemalice.wordpress.com/
6. Diana: http://fatchic.net/
7. Leyla: http://twitter.com/#!/leyla_a
8. Sally: http://www.alreadypretty.com/
9. Marie: http://www.agentlover.com/blog/
10. Afrobella: http://www.afrobella.com/
11. Lindsay: http://thedemoiselles.com/
12. Freya: http://fishnorfowl.net/
13. Aubrey: http://www.vaginadrum.com/
14. Alexis: http://alexisbelon.com/

Over a hundred women submitted photos of their brave naked faces to the no make-up gallery. And scrolling through the dozens of faces is intense. Without our usual masks, there just seems to be a level of honesty, more vulnerability. The first thing that I was struck by though, is  how different we all look. How unique each of our faces really are.

When we wear make-up, we all kind of do the same thing. We all paint our eyes big and lashes long, we make our skin even, we create arched dark brows and glossy, bigger lips. We all wring around the same trends. And we all end up kind of looking the same. The unique elements: fine brows, blonde lashes, round eyes all get covered and contoured into the same “magazine” face.

It was that uniqueness that made me shudder growing up. I always thought that my face was just weird–especially without make-up. It’s like hearing your voice recorded for the first time, and the automatic recoil that surfaces. I brought this up on twitter and my friends agreed. They had weird-face too. And since we are all unique, and magazine faces aren’t, it makes sense that all of us human beings think we are weird for looking like human beings.

I noticed that I kept wanting to tell everyone that submitted a photo that they looked hot or beautiful or cute. I really felt like they did. But I had to remind myself that beauty–natural or not–isn’t what this is about. It’s about exploring, and gaining acceptance of your face–your self–and it’s weird-ness. It’s the weirdness and this tone that makes the gallery all the more powerful.