For the better part of the week, Facebook and Twitter have exploded with the #nomakeupselfie tag to raise awareness for Cancer Research UK. It’s pretty simple, you take a selfie when you’re not wearing any make up, post it to a social networking site with the hashtag, and raise awareness/ask people to donate via text to Cancer Research.

On my newsfeed, there was a lot of mixed response. Some were thrilled to take part, and posted their selfie along with a screen shot of their donation. Other’s misunderstood the cause completely, and publicly questioned how posting a selfie is going to raise any money, and if someone cared so much about the cause, to just donate in silence.

I like the campaign! I think it’s really effective because of the current “selfie trend” and the fact that using the hashtag helps it go viral, quickly, across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and basically all social networking sites. The only part of it that makes me feel a bit weirded out is the whole “no make up” side of it, and that’s just because I don’t understand why the fact that “it’s for charity” should be an incentive for some women to post a selfie of them when they’re not wearing make up. Unless you look drastically different without make up, then what’s the point of drawing attention to the fact that you’re bare faced? But, I probably only think that because I’m just so lazy with makeup that the majority of my own selfies are make up-less anyway, and to be honest, if money was raised, then that’s all that really matters.

Cancer Research UK has raised over £1million since the hashtag went viral yesterday, which just proves how successful a decent hashtag can be. The best part is that the hashtag isn’t even an official Cancer Research campaign. It was born when “no make up selfies” were simply tagged with #breastcancerawareness. Cancer Research sent out a tweet mentioning the #nomakeupselfie tag once they noticed the trend.

The easiest way to help the cause is to simply text BEAT to 70099 to donate £3 to Cancer Research. And don’t forget to upload your selfies to raise even more awareness!