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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think putting on your make-up in public isn't rude or anti-social?

200 replies

MomentLostToTheSky · 09/03/2013 16:32

A thread I just read reminded me of an incident a couple of weeks ago.

I was on a really long flight and was waiting for my connection flight. The first flight had been overnight and I hadn't slept.

Was sat in departures, extremely bored and looking like a hot mess and decided to retouch my make-up. It wasn't busy and still a few people were staring at me.

A few people on the thread said that doing your make-up in public is rude and anti-social. I really just don't get how it's rude, it's just make-up which doesn't have a smell to it and as for anti-social - I wasn't planning on making conversation with the strangers sat opposite me.

I agree that in a certain situation such as in the middle of a job interview then yes it's rude.

But overall I really don't see the problem.

OP posts:
Foggles · 09/03/2013 16:34

I've never done it - because I don't have a steady hand - but I don't have a problem with it.

A woman who gets on my bus each morning does full make-up on her journey. I am rather impressed.

LadySybilPussPolham · 09/03/2013 16:38

There are many things that I would consider rude and anti-social but putting your make up on in public isn't one of them.
Bit Confused at those who do - it's hardly offensive is it?

HollyBerryBush · 09/03/2013 16:39

Bathrooms are for that sort of thing

elfycat · 09/03/2013 16:39

I did make up on the train when I was younger. I'd finished a nurse shift and I wasn't prone to wearing a face of make-up suitable for an evening out. There was a middle aged man say opposite and at the end he said 'That was a very good class in how to put make up on'. I must have looked a bit shocked at the attention and he commented on how I'd hardly put any on, but each stage enhanced my features very subtly.

If it was a woman with a man who said this my guess is she didn't want him to know how the magic of make-up worked. Otherwise she was giving you a masterclass in ironic anti-social skills.

livinginwonderland · 09/03/2013 16:39

i don't think it's rude if you're on your own, but in the company of someone else (or in the middle of a restaurant) it is a bit rude and anti-social.

fuzzpig · 09/03/2013 16:39

I don't wear make up, but I don't think it's particularly bad to put it on in public.

I admit I did and Hmm at a woman filing her nails in the full doctors waiting room though. Nail-dust everywhere. I may not have been so bothered if I wasn't really ill at the time though, who knows (and the smell of the nail varnish she then used didn't help the headache either!)

MissyMooandherBeaverofSteel · 09/03/2013 16:41

Why would that be rude? Confused I wouldn't think anything of it if I saw someone doing their make up in public.

Iamsparklyknickers · 09/03/2013 16:41

I think it's considered rude on public transport rather than in an open departure lounge - it's all the flicking of powder, elbows and invariable giant bag of slap sitting on an empty seat, I get a bit twitchy about eyes so eyelash curlers turn my stomach a bit. Also you're packed in like sardines - just sitting down is invading the ambigious official 2 foot radius of personal space. Anyone not just sitting there is being annoying Grin

If people were staring I would have thought it was through boredom or a couple of bitchier people deciding you were vain in a 'what is she wearing' kind of way.

anonymosity · 09/03/2013 16:41

I think it gets lumped into the same category as clipping your nails / picking your nose. I would use a bathroom mirror if I needed to do a touch-up but I have seen plenty of women doing the make up thing as flights descend.

IslaValargeone · 09/03/2013 16:42

In the departure lounge of an airport, No it's not rude.
Don't think I'd do it in the middle of a restaurant, but I wouldn't do it in public anywhere to be honest. It's quite an intimate thing for me, something I do alone.

Original poster
MomentLostToTheSky · 09/03/2013 16:42

If people were staring I would have thought it was through boredom or a couple of bitchier people deciding you were vain in a 'what is she wearing' kind of way.

No they were probably just staring as they'd never seen a real-life zombie before Grin

OP posts:
Original poster
MomentLostToTheSky · 09/03/2013 16:44

I think it gets lumped into the same category as clipping your nails / picking your nose

Really?

I'd way rather someone sat opposite me was touching up her lipstick then sat there picking her nose.

OP posts:
ModernToss · 09/03/2013 16:44

I don't think it's rude at all. I would feel self-conscious if there were other people in seats next to me, but if I'm sitting on my own on the train or wherever I don't care.

JamieandtheMagicTorch · 09/03/2013 16:44

I don't think it is as bad as nose picking, nail cutting or eyebrow tweezing, all of which are antisocial.

But I see it as a fairly private, intimate thing to do.

Am often intrigued watching it though, women do it so differently.

anonymosity · 09/03/2013 16:44

Yes, me too Moment -- I do think people have put it in the same category though, the people who bother to take offense.

Sirzy · 09/03/2013 16:45

Putting nail varnish on or taking it off in public I could see how was rude simply because of the smell but can't see the issue with make up

Astelia · 09/03/2013 16:47

To me it seems very vain to put make up on in public. I don't wear any make up but friends of mine do. I have never seen any of them put their make up on in public.

Pagwatch · 09/03/2013 16:48

I would have to care enough to try and figure out why I dislike it but I do.
It seems uncouth to me. Treating a public space like your home.
It's in the same way I feel about people putting their feet on seat or picking their nails or shouting down a phone.
I am not sure why but I dislike it. I would never chose to to sit next to someone doing it.

Foggles · 09/03/2013 16:48

Shaving your pits on the bus would definitely be rude.

Original poster
MomentLostToTheSky · 09/03/2013 16:48

I don't think it is as bad as nose picking, nail cutting or eyebrow tweezing

I've done the eyebrow tweezing before Blush - but only once.

Years ago I was working abroad in a small store, was on my break and sat on the bench outside. Looked in my compact mirror and could not believe the sight of my brows.

The lighting was perfect and I had 15 minutes to spare Grin

I highly doubt I'd do it in public again.

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JamieandtheMagicTorch · 09/03/2013 16:50

Pag

Yes, that thing about treting public spaces like your home is an issue for me too.

That makes me think - i also hate public snogging, although onjectively it isn't doing any harm

JamieandtheMagicTorch · 09/03/2013 16:51

Objectively

Original poster
MomentLostToTheSky · 09/03/2013 16:52

To me it seems very vain to put make up on in public. I don't wear any make up but friends of mine do. I have never seen any of them put their make up on in public.

Perhaps you have that view because you don't personally wear make-up? Which I admire you for by the way.

For me to wear make-up it isn't about being vain, I'm just a very self-conscious person and think I have massive flaws and want to cover them up and so it's not about being vain, it's about giving myself confidence.

Wish I didn't wear make-up. But if I didn't I'd probably be asked -

Are you ill? Did you not sleep last night? etc.

OP posts:
Original poster
MomentLostToTheSky · 09/03/2013 16:53

To me it seems very vain to put make up on in public. I don't wear any make up but friends of mine do. I have never seen any of them put their make up on in public.

You would so hate me and you would never sit next to me.

I always put my feet up on empty seats, especially in the cinema. I do know it's rude but damn I just like to be comfy.

OP posts:
HollyBerryBush · 09/03/2013 16:53

Putting make up on in public, its equivalent to youths shoving their hands down their trakkies and scratching their bolloxs. A general lowering of standards.