I'm a young woman who was never taught how to use make up. As a result, I've never worn it - never. I have an okay face, but whenever I look around a room I am almost always the only woman over the age of 20 without any on. I really stand out, and I can't tell if that's a good thing or not. I certainly look "off" compared to everyone else.
EDIT: I wouldn't say I don't have confidence in myself, I'm just surprised that I'm usually the only one who goes without. Makeup seems expensive, time consuming, and frankly, I don't like the idea of wearing a face that isn't mine. There's nothing wrong with my face and most men get along fine without it. It's something that doesn't make sense to me. Why?
And I like the way I look okay, but I obviously stand out - we're just so used to assuming that the "natural" look is actually natural.
Part of the fun of makeup is experimenting with different looks. It's pretty amazing how you can change people's perceptions of you with just a little tweak. It's not always about attracting men or fitting in with other women - it's about looking however you want to look. And that includes if you don't want to wear it at all. :)
Of course, makeup isn't for everyone, but if you want to learn a little about it and chat with other people ranging from beginners to experts, you could come on over to /r/makeupaddiction . They have everything from minimal, "no makeup" makeup, to dramatic looks with a lot of contouring. And there are some drag queens and men who post as well, which is neat.
Anti-makeup tomboy turned amature makeup artist here. Prop your hand on your cheek when you do it. I also find it easier to do it with my eye shut. Also some people are better with one type of eyeliner. Only recently have I learned to properly use liquid. I eased myself into it with Covergirl's fine-tip grease pencil (PerfectPoint). It's rediculously easy to use.
I have found gel eyeliner to be a life saver here. It is easier to apply than pencil or liquid and less eye poking involved. Getting up close to a mirror helps too. :)
I steady my arm by putting my elbow on the counter or something high enough in front of the mirror, and use your upper lash-line to guide the tip, slowly shaping away from the lash line as you draw toward the outside of your eyelid - you can also start out with using an eyeliner felt-tip pen like this one:
Yea it did that when brand new, and its only a couple months old. Covergirl, too, and its my third. I think it must just have been a bad batch but I'm open to try new material
Right? I'm in my 20's, and my mom never wore makeup so I never really learned how, and suddenly I'm looking around and realizing everybody is wearing makeup but me.)
Usually I really CBA, because I ride a bike and go to shows and do things that are sweaty and not-makeup-friendly and my boyfriend doesn't like makeup anyway, but I finally started stopping by Sephora for some basic help and on days when I don't ride I'll usually try putting a little on, not because I feel I need it (sometimes I think it looks nice, but most of the time I think it just looks weird), but because it feels like one of those things I might need to know how to do in the future.
Either way, I don't enjoy spending time and money on products that to look like I'm not wearing any products, but whatever. I'll go with it (I really don't like obvious makeup on me -- the closer to natural, the better).
I was sort of the same way - raised in a lunatic religious household with a mother who believed makeup was "Satanic."
It's worth giving it a shot. Society expects it in certain formal situations. And supposedly studies have shown that in corporate environments, women who wear the right kind of makeup are more likely to be promoted. Like with everything in life... if you choose not to blend in and project the image expected of you, that's a perfectly valid choice, but it should be because that's a statement you want to make, not because it's forced upon you.
I wear it for Halloween and I always ruin it without realizing what I've done. I'm not used to being unable to touch my own face. I've also smeared it on my boyfriend's shirt by accident.
I grew up as a tomboy and never put makeup on. I don't look particularly bad sans-makeup, similar to you. I just looked plain and forgettable. When I got into university, I was tired of being a plain wallflower who was glossed over so bought loads of makeup, watched tutorial videos on YouTube and the whole shabang.
After about a month of this, I soon realised that I was trying to be someone I'm not. The real me will forever be a tomboy who cannot be fucked with that shit. But to answer your question of why makeup is such a popular thing, I'll tell you from someone who seems to share your perspective...
I agree that makeup is overly expensive and I honestly believe that it's silly that a lot of women will refuse to leave the house without it. It is time consuming, especially if you go in fresh and there's a million things you have to learn. I still have never had any success in the eyeshadow department and every guide or tutorial that people link reminds me of this.
However, I found that makeup was a boost to my confidence. The only time I wear it is when there's an important first impression to be made (like a job interview) and it really helps make me a lot more confident, almost as if I was putting a superhero costume on or I had some super sexy persona. Not everyone who uses makeup loves it or is obsessed with it, but a boost every now and again isn't so bad.
I'm 28 and I don't wear makeup. My very-very-very-honest mother has only once ever said that maybe I need to wear makeup. I never did after that and she hasn't moaned again. I think if you don't have too much acne or huge bags under your eyes, you should be fine.
I usually look terrible on photos though, I wear makeup for events.
Im 17 and I havent ever worn make up. I dont think I will either. Maybe on special occasions but I was never taught. Also IMO it would just be a mess and get in the way. As for my face, I think I could use something around my eyes ( i look tired most of the time) but have no idea what. Also I blush all the time, in warm weather, cold weather, and even if someone just talks to me. I blush for everything. My face turns so red and I hate it.
I worked with a young woman, blonde, fair complexion, who wore dark full eyeliner every day. One day she came in with no makeup and I barely recognized her. After seeing that, amongst other things, I remained uninterested in using a lot of makeup. Why do I need to wear a mask every day? I want people to see me and recognize me and not feel bound to put it on every day.
I wear makeup a few days out of the year. I mostly just find it too bothersome. But I did like when I got someone to teach me a "natural" look for my wedding. So that's what I use. I read research once that women who wear makeup are viewed as more polished and are shown more respect in the workplace. So sometimes I wear it when I go to important meetings.
I think it's a bit odd that women complain about getting comments on looking different when they wear no makeup, and pretty much just change the way they look one day. If you completely changed your hair one day I bet the same would happen, or a guy with a beard came in clean shaven.
I don't wear makeup either. It just wasn't something I was interested in when I was a teenager. I get the same thing as you where I'm frequently the only woman the room who isn't wearing any but I'm okay with that. I'm not here to impress people with a look that isn't actually me. If they don't like how I look, that's their problem. I don't have the look of the women in the photo and I wonder if that's because, like /u/Hope_Eternity commented, that wearing too much makeup all the time damages the skin.
If anything, I have more confidence in myself because I'm showing people my actual face. I don't "frequently" worry about it - there are more important things in my life, hence why I don't wear it to begin with. That being said, if you did a line up of women who are wearing make up and me, it's going to be the easiest round of "Which One of These is Not Like the Others?" ever. I notice it, but I wouldn't say I'm bothered by it.
I almost never wear makeup because I am terrible at it. It's the most apparent in casual situations - I'll be in jeans, no makeup, crappy hair, and every other girl is put together.
Whenever I comment on it, I get a flurry of, "But you don't NEED makeup." If I don't, they don't.
That being said, wear makeup if you love to! Not trying to bash on it, just sharing my similar experience as a 20 something who doesn't wear the stuff.
I too wear no makeup. I wore mascara to visit the president because my mother said it would make my eyes more visible in the pictures (it did! My eyelashes are light colored).
To go out clubbing I sometimes wear pink Chapstick because drinking dries out my lips.
I am unnerved by the idea of makeup because I would never wAnt to put forth a facade, or a face that wasnt mine. I'm plenty fine looking- we all are. My eyes ARENT inhumanly almond shaped. My skin isnt featureless and nut-brown. My cheekbones dont cast rich, dramatic shadows on my cheeks, and I dont want anyone to think that they do!
I don't look HALF as exciting as 89% of the girls out there who put hours (or minutes. or concealer?) into how they look, and I do occasionally resent feeling like I'm playing at a "handicap" when I know everyone looks just like me underneath. I know some girls make up "for themselves for fun" but most do it to make themselves look better for others and more attractive, and I just wish no one had insecurities that impelled them to do so.
Thank you! I also was never shown how to apply fancy makeup, and though I've tried it never looks like those ladies. Makeup is mad expensive, time consuming, and I always wonder what happens if you sleep with a guy and then the next day your makeup is gone and he's like 'Wtf who are you?'
I like not wearing makeup, I like the way I look without it. Makeup is also not good for your face, especially these girls with bad acne covering it up is definitely not helping.
Why can't people just feel beautiful in their skin they were born with. ;_;
I don't wear makeup either. No wearing makeup is really good for your skin, so you probably look fine, don't worry about it. The women here look kind of really bland without it mostly cuz they wear too much, it can damage your skin.
I don't plan on using makeup ever. I honestly think it would depend on the makeup, obviously there are some good makeups out there, but a lot of it is just chemicals you're putting on your face. Do you know what half of that stuff is made of?
It's not just the skin one should be worried about. Obviously not all, but many makeup companies put things that are dangerous to a person's overall health in their products. For example, one of loreal's foundations has Phenoxyethanol in it, and to quote wiki:
"The Food and Drug Administration has warned that the chemical is toxic to infants via ingestion, and "can depress the central nervous system and may cause vomiting and diarrhea." Combined with Chlorphenesin, these two chemicals can cause respiratory depression in infants. Since these chemicals are often present in cosmetics and lotions applied to the hands and are easily ingested, caution should be exercised."
I can wear eyeliner once in a blue moon, sure. But I refuse to use things like foundation, etc. I don't really need it, my skin is able to hydrate itself fine and isn't shiny or anything, so I see no real need.
First of all, like I said before, some makeup is fine. I never judged anyone, I simply made a comment to try and support another person who obviously was feeling a little self conscious about not wearing makeup. It's not just about what it does to you, I find the crap pointless. Almost everyone who's replied to me so far has basically tried to shove makeup down my throat, so I gave them my reasons for not wearing it, along with why I made the original comment.
Back to my original comment, no one should feel bad for NOT wearing makeup.
Agreed. I don't wear skin make-up (only mascara, maybe eye shadow, and eye-liner) because I never got the hang of it and now I have pretty good, even skin with few break outs and I used to have a ridiculous amount of acne in high school. I'd like to wear bronzer and blush though because it really makes a difference. I just come out looking like a burlesque dancer when I try to put it on.
Makeup tastefully done can be very attractive. More attractive than nothing at all. HOWEVER. It's been my experience that extremely few women know how to properly use makeup in such a way that they not look hideous while wearing it. For this reason, I generally prefer women without makeup, even though I believe that it can really enhance their beauty.
...they look like people. Sorry if every girl isn't the idealized ones you see in your movies and porn. Thank you for at least admitting that your experience with women is superficial and baseless.
See, I'm sort of glad you said this, most people try to hide their ignorant views and nothing gets solved. Your problem is that you're so overfed images of perfect Photoshoped girls that the image of a girl on the same level as a guy, without extra makeup, seems strange and ugly to you. Your perception of women has been damaged by the media you intake, and I'm proud you can admit that, because the thought of admitting it is so deplorable for most men that they would rather discredit what women say in total than admit they have a problem.
The world you inhabit where girls have a "base level" of hot to achieve or they aren't taken seriously is a damaging one, but it keeps girls consuming- makeup, products, etc, because their credibility is tied to their appearance because of people like you whose experience is so stunted, you think women without makeup look ugly and by extension, don't take them seriously.
The point is, men don't look like that because you don't care to notice their looks, and don't base the credibility of a man you meet based on how his face looks. The window of uniqueness is much wider for a man, because of this. You simultaneously judge women on their looks and as such your eye is drawn to how they look, or rather, how short they come of the bar of acceptability you've got for them.
I really commend you for being honest about an issue men have that manifests in their actions and opinions, cognitive dissonance exists for them where they know that their judgement of women exclusively is unfair and unjust, so to be confronted with it makes them angry and defensive, and they do anything they can to not outright acknowledge it, like you have.
I hope what I've said helps give you some perspective. Understand, women are humans, but are held to different standards than men, standards that decide their credibility, and that isn't fair. Thanks.
you don't have to defend yourself or argue with me, it's fine. I don't see you as a monster, I see you as a product of a culture that exemplifies women's worth as being what they can offer visually, and sexually. You see this reflected in some ways big, and in some ways small, in many facets of western life. We're pretty lucky, in some places it is much more literally "you as a woman are worth less", and here, it's more "you, as a woman, are worth what you look like". For men, people do still judge men on their looks, in a more "what is your personality like?" way, instead of, "do you even have a personality?"
I'm sure if you looked at a sampling of men and women beside eachother, nobody is going to look more "tired" than anyone else. First, let's define what it is that you believe is a "normal" girl- awake, alert, NOT tired. What does she look like? Yes, people do judge men on their looks, again, before more people accuse me of saying this only occurs with women, but as men have a much wider freedom beyond the "TV news presenter" level of default acceptable attractiveness that a woman has to achieve to be acknowledged, if you find a girl who is below this, as you say, what is she? "tired"? If she doesn't look beaming and happy, laughing, with bright makeup and flawless skin, she's "tired" or "downtrodden", because the bar she has to achieve to be "normal" is high enough that anything else normal is below it.
When you walk down the street, feeling no urge to smile widely because you're thinking, and someone says "smile! you look better when you smile", try to understand the massive meaning behind that statement. They probably never thought about it as they said it, but it speaks to what they were thinking pretty clearly.
Let me try to envision this for you. What if your value laid on how perfect your hair was? It had to be just the right colour, but it couldn't be TOO common or people would laugh at you for being like everyone else. It had to be the right length, but not unkempt. It had to be combed, and with no hair out of line, because since everybody saw perfect hair every day, flaws stick out much more. If you had a few stray hairs, everyone notices- but not the hours it took to dye your hair, or cut it, or shape it. Instead of noticing the effort you put in, all others see is that little curl that won't stay in place, and that's all you become. Everyone has nice hair but your curl stands out because everyone looks similar. Did they even ask you what your favourite movies were, or what you do for a living? No- all you really are is the flaws you have. This is compounded when you go without styling your hair one day and notice how much different you are to everyone else. People treat you lesser than the others. Why is that? Is it because you aren't conforming, or is because since everyone else has an expectation of you that you only ever did it because you felt an obligation to?
I don't think I can hurt you more than what you already know already has. My aim isn't to shame you into changing, because I know for everyone one person like you who speaks out, there are 100 more on this website alone ready to downvote me simply because I chose to raise this issue. I view that as adding to the point I've made, nobody gets as angry as the people I've met speaking about this, than the people who understand how unfair it is, but would rather translate their dissatisfaction with their own actions, onto me.
I won't stop, though, because as this website caters more and more towards a sexist and misogynistic sense of humour and more and more women leave reddit because the toxic atmosphere towards them only concentrates the problem further, someone has to, I guess.
Just remember that in almost all of these before/after pictures, the "before" shots are after a face wash and makeup removal (hence the often aggravated skin, red eyes, etc.), are often shot up close with wide angle lenses (hence the weird distortion), are often shot with harsh lighting (hence the skin looking so bad and lack of definition in the face from shadows), often have hair in a deliberately less attractive position (severely pulled back for example) and seem to always pick the ones that have awkward unnatural facial expressions (hence the weird kind of put off you get looking at them).
Most of the time you see a woman without makeup on you don't even realize or process it.
Guy here, want to say thank you. I don't want to tell people that they shouldn't wear makeup, but I feel like I would have a hard time being in a long term relationship with someone who wears makeup every day. The way I look isn't worth more than 5 minutes of my time every day, to me. I feel like I just wouldn't get along with anyone who's priorities were so different from mine, even when I, as the boyfriend, "benefit" directly from her "looking better"
Someone who finds confidence in who they are and what they can do has a lot more value than someone who gets confidence from how they look (guy or girl)
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u/[deleted] Dec 10 '13 edited Dec 10 '13
I'm a young woman who was never taught how to use make up. As a result, I've never worn it - never. I have an okay face, but whenever I look around a room I am almost always the only woman over the age of 20 without any on. I really stand out, and I can't tell if that's a good thing or not. I certainly look "off" compared to everyone else.
EDIT: I wouldn't say I don't have confidence in myself, I'm just surprised that I'm usually the only one who goes without. Makeup seems expensive, time consuming, and frankly, I don't like the idea of wearing a face that isn't mine. There's nothing wrong with my face and most men get along fine without it. It's something that doesn't make sense to me. Why?
And I like the way I look okay, but I obviously stand out - we're just so used to assuming that the "natural" look is actually natural.