Anyone else find the idea of make up a bit wierd

[Whirliwig72]

In the last few years I've pretty much stopped wearing make up, only putting on the occasional dab of blusher or mascara if I'm going out somewhere posh. I used to wear quite a lot but increasingly I feel really weird covering my face and skin with 'stuff'.

I was thinking about it last night and the more I thought about the wierder it seemed that women routinely put colours and shiny stuff on their faces but men for the most part do not. I'm not knocking anyone that wears it but am I alone in feeling this way?

I don't think it's for men particularly although I could be wrong.

I don't wear it myself but sometimes feel I should as I would look better. But I don't for second think Dh would look better if he started putting on a full face of make-up in the morning. I know that's mainly just convention (women wear make-up, men don't) but why don't we think men look bare/pasty/small-eyed/undefined or whatever without make-up?

badtaste that's right. She had DH fairly young then we married and started TTC fairly young (for our social group). Usually wouldn't give her age, but think its relevant when discussing makeup wearing (and realise most MILs are quite a bit older than this).

Some of my relatives thought she was a bridesmaid at the wedding rather than mother of the groom and she generally is styled so she looks younger than me (unless I'm doing well at the student jeans and hoody look when at home). But its not make-up that does that, its more fashionable clothes and brightly coloured hair...

As someone with long term acne I am desperately grateful for makeup (specifically concealer). I feel sorry for teenage boys who don't have the option.

I agree with yak - it's no weirder than any other form of body decoration, including clothes and shoes (unless purely practical), jewellery etc. All of those are a bit weird if you think about them.

lilbreeze I am convinced my DH would look better in mascara and possibly eyeliner (once I'd got used to the shock ). Sadly he refuses to try it

I don't wear make up and find the thought of it a bit odd. But I agree there are all kinds of human customs and things we do that seem weird if you think about them too much!

OP, it has sometimes crossed my mind how weird it is that we paint our faces with coloured paints on a regular basis. But I still do it because I look pale and washed out without it.

I rarely wear any. But admittedly it's because I don't have a clue how to wear it, what suits me and am plain not used to it. That said I have also had many comments from men and women that I don't need to wear any.

Fate me too on both accounts. Dont really know what Im doing or have the confidence to wear it, plus people have acted surprised when I tell them I dont wear any and they said that you cant tell.

Im going to stick my neck out now and say that I just think about all the money Im not wasting buy new make-up and remover all the time.

I wear it every day.

Without it I look like a boiled potato.

Anthropologists say that subconciously either women wear make up to look like babies (big eyes, rosy cheeks, clear skin) or to look sexually aroused (rosy cheeks, red lips, open eyes). It is either to make men want to care and protect them, or to make them want to have sex with them. This is the psychological origins that we are unaware of on a day to day basis.

When you think about it like that it is a very weird thing to do everyday when you go to work.

And I often wonder who set the rules. Yes make up makes your eyes look bigger but why is that good? Why is it good to have red lips? Why is it good to have rosy cheeks? Why is it bad to look like a boiled potato?

I still wear most of it because I am a slave to convention and it is what other people in my industry expect.

Cat surely a very beautiful potato tho!

It was good enough for Cleopatra...

Jan - that's fascinating. Ewwww there is no way I'd have wanted to look aroused at my old workplace yet like you I used to wear it every day .

If cosmetics have sexual connotations what does this say about little girls wearing make up (think child pageants!)? Horrible thought but I think it adds weight to the argument that girls are encouraged to grow up way too fast these days and that it's so wrong.

I hear you, OP.
I am 26 and somehow bypassed the period of time in your early teens where you start experimenting with make up.
I have been bare faced my whole life! My excuse is that I'm no good at applying, I always look worse after I've finished!
I will put on a face for nights out, special occasions, job interviews, important work stuff but even then I don't really know what I'm doing and I have the same 'look' for daytime work stuff as I would for a party/night out, and even then it's quite a minimalist look.
I used to use the excuse that my skin was bad but that's not really true as it's just as bad make up free!
When I do wear make up in the day, I wipe it all off as soon as I get home, I just hate the feeling of a layer of something on my face!

Having said all that, I do look at these women who look beautifully made up every day and feel If i could do my own make up and look lovely for everyday wear and special occasion, and really vary the look, I would probably wear it most days, but seeing as when I do it it looks like crap, I just don't bother!
I would pay big bucks for my face to look the way it did on my wedding day when I had a pro do it. It was amazing, and I felt quite attractive for once in my life!
My list of things to do now I have more time to myself is as follows:
Go to gym more and try & lose a bit of weight
Revamp wardrobe to fit fabulous new skinny self!
Sort out hair do and learn how to do more styles on myself!
Learn how to do proper make up once and for all!

keepthechange I couldn't have worded it better myself. I know I can get away with what I can do, but I dont feel any more beautiful for it and feel a bit fake TBH. Although it is something I would like to do one day................... Though TBH I just think I have a CBA attitude with it.

I do think it's a little odd, but on the other hand I love make up, I am a total junkie and buy anything and everything. I wear make up pretty much every day unless I am having a pajama day like today although I have been known to put make up on just to experiment.

The looking like babies or looking aroused thing is really weird!

I do use make up to make myself look more awake plus I try to make my eyes look bigger and my skin look a bit clearer...... didn't realise I wanted to look like a baby!

I also look like a potato without make up. Not a look I like so I slap it on. I do it for me too, not for any man. I feel (and look) like shit without it.

I don't think I look like a potato but no matter what anyone says I think that I look a bit masculine without make up. It is something that I think about far too much. I have only mentioned it to a couple of people in real life who just laughed and said I was crazy. I wish I could wear my hair up but I just get paranoid.

At least with make up I feel more feminine!

I look ill without make up. Not just tired - ill. Boiled new potato that's been peeled + left to go grey

I don't think make up is intended to make us look like babies.

In general it's intended to make us look younger and healthier (big eyes = younger, plump rosy cheeks/lips = young and well nourished, clear skin = healthy).

Youth and health have been symbols of fertility since time immemorial and so have always been attractive to the opposite sex.

It's a bit less easy to explain things like coloured eyeshadow or nail varnish though!

I very rarely wear make up (a tiny bit of mascara & eyeliner maybe 3 times a year - the number of times i go on a proper night out!!) and i have never ever worn foundation etc. On a (v rare!) night out last friday i was accosted by two 17 year old girls who were quite tipsy & totally fascinated by the fact that anyone would go out with, in their eyes, no make up. i just said that i was happy with who i am and how i look, and that i totally accept i'm nowhere near perfect, i'm just me, take it or leave it. They found the whole idea of doing that completely alien & I actually found that really quite sad... I asked why cos they were both gorgeous but fake tanned, fake eyeslashes etc to the nines, & they said theydid not have the confidence to go out without it :(

I used to wear lipstick and clear mascara, but haven't bothered for years. I went right off it once I had given birth, as the thought of kissing my baby boy and leaving make-up stain on him was just horrible to me.

Fwiw I am on a bus right now, facing five women. I can see that some of them are wearing makeup, but at past 6pm heading home from work, no one looks much better than anyone else.

I also threw out all my qmakeup apart from one lipstick. I might restart one day with a clean slate!

I too am in the boiled potato camp. I agree as a concept it's odd but as India Knight says - who, given the chance of making their eyes twice their normal size, would say no?