To find make-up weird

I find makeup fascinating. How different products can be used to completely change how someone looks is very clever. I was a goth many years ago and used to spend hours on my makeup, painting the most elaborate eyes and lips. I had so much stuff I needed a toolbox to store it in. Nowadays I used very little but still enjoy the process of putting it on.

Each to their own.

Of course. My point is exactly that – that despite what people have said on this thread, wearing make-up doesn't make a person look objectively better. It's just a subjective (frequently socialised) preference.

i’ve never come across a man who i don’t think is infinitely more attractive with some guyliner. it’s just an aesthetic that i find appealing. I also think lots of tattoos and some piercings looks great. I think
long hair is beautiful on men. We all have preferences and those are mine. yours are different ans that is absolutely fine too.

Vanity means excessive pride in your appearance, abilities or achievements. If you think yoir appearance is better when it’s fake, that is direct opposite of vanity.

I do think on the stage and screen, harsh lights can wash a person out, and make up works great then to make them look themselves in spite of the lighting! But yes, as you say, either wearing make up or not is fine! Generally speaking, neither is objectively better looking than the other.

And it's ok to wear make up and it's ok not to. That's the point.

I agree with all of that BUT I have just been catching up with MasterChef 2026 and Anna Haugh's skin is honestly beautiful. I know she's been 'glowed' but whatever it is, it works.

I'm sorry you don't like your face. That's actually really sad. If make up makes you feel better that's good, but it's a shame you think your face needs to be changed and hidden in the first place.

What I don't like is the way people keep saying women look awful without make up, or much better with it. It's so misogynistic. People just look different with or without make up, not better or worse! Besides, a woman's purpose isn't to look ornamental anyway. But thinking that someone looks 'better' with make up is generally just sexist socialisation.

Why do people get so judgey about people wearing makeup? I don’t care who does or doesn’t. Why do we paint houses? Have choices of car colours, different cuts of trousers, dresses etc? People like and suit different things. Nobody suits a judgemental attitude. I will continue to wear makeup because I don’t personally ally like having rosacea and scars, small eyes with and lashes and no eyebrows which disappear on my face and a round baby face. That’s my choice.

I didn't think I'd have to qualify that with 'figuratively, not literally'. It's a turn of phrase!

What I meant (I thought, obviously) was that when one has clogged pores, it doesn't help to plaster the skin with paste, and it often just exacerbates the issue, creating a vicious cycle. It helps more to have the skin cleaned, uncovered, and exposed to fresh air (or I suppose treated with a medicated patch, perhaps) than to be covered in foundation. And it doesn't look any better, objectively speaking, having obvious inflamed pimple bumps being covered up by foundation. Just different.

Your pores don’t breathe

I don't think it's the weirdest thing humans do tbh.
I very rarely wear makeup. I used to wear a lot. I'm just as happy with my appearance as I was then.

Thats true – but if it's transparent enough to let the skin come through properly, then it's not hiding the blemishes people want to hide so there's no point, and if it covers the blemishes it invariably flattens the face's colouring unnaturally, doesn't match the skin's undertone quite right, is often too dewy, and just doesn't look any better in person, imo. It looks like a product sitting on the skin, masking it, because it is. Which is fine – but not better.

I disagree

more men would wear make up if people genuinely looked better with it.

i have never met anyone I thought looked better made up 🤷‍♀️I can appreciate make up, and that people look good with it, but better? No.

I think it depends on what type of foundation you’re using and your application method tbf.

lots of foundations are now more like tinted moisturisers. Less is more. Obviously everyone will have their own way of doing their own makeup but heavy cakey foundation is most definitely out when it comes to makeup trends.

I don't think the kohl improves their eyes though? It makes them more visible from a distance, yes, but at a normal social distance it's just distracting and draws the eye away from the pupil and iris. If anything, ringing one's eyes with kohl like that makes them look smaller, and overwhelms the person's eye.
On a purely subjective level, both people there would be more pleasant and engaging to look at without the eye make-up, and I also think objectively, their eyes themselves would stand out more during conversation.

I definitely disagree on foundation. In photos, yes it can, but in person under natural light it's so visible – as a pp said, it highlights any peach down, it so often looks like a mask has been applied, it shows up any lines or wrinkles, and can smudge or not be blended well at the edges, or be slightly the wrong colour or undertone, and if a person has acne it just looks unhealthy as their pores need to be able to breathe and be exposed to fresh air, not clogged up with gunk. It evens out the skin, yes, but at a cost.

It feels dirty to me. Covering up skin with mucky paints and powders. I hate seeing influencers chat while piling on layers and layers of facepaint. I'd want to wash it off immediately. It is a waste of time for me, too, as I exercise and shower a lot. It would just smudge. How do you put on suncream (also weird, essentially a layer of plastic), if you have make up on? Or is the make up.enpugh of a barrier to protect you from sun damage? It is so weird that make up is so normal for women and much less so for men.

Probably because being tipsy is a hell of a lot of fun.

Drinking tea is the only 'normal' and natural thing anyone on this fucked up planet does.

And I will die on this hill (as long as I have a kettle, gas or electricity, Yorkshire Gold and some milk).

OMG, maybe partly because I don't have to use taxis when I drink. I can use public transport or my feet. Not everyone lives in the countryside.

Secondly, the positives outweigh the negatives for now.

Yes, that's one of the common explanations given. Blusher mimics an aroused state too. Mascara draws attention to the eyes (big eyes a youthful thing?) and foundation makes us long younger.

Not weird at all. Some animals also enhance themselves as part of courting and mating.

Posts like these come across as so joyless. Even if someone has never worn makeup, surely they can appreciate that people do things like wear makeup, creative clothes, dye hair fun colours etc because they take joy from it and use it as a form of self expression? Unless the person finding it weird is living life like a puritan or in an Amish community, I don't understand their confusion.

Ive never gotten a tattoo and never felt to urge to get one, but I can understand why others may want to and how they may get enjoyment from it.

He's definitely wearing khol. However, I've just discovered it's an AI image [doh!] created as a man wearing khol.

To make up for it, I offer verified real photos of a young Afghan man, a Berber woman and a 4,500 year old Egyptian statue.