I don't look good without make up

[Immigrantsong]

Not sure if anyone can empathise, but I don't look good without make up. I take great care of my skin, but i suffer from hereditary dark circles that make me look unwell and way older than my age. My skin is also quite shallow and can also contribute to make me look sick.

I can afford good skincare and have seen the dermatologist. This isn't something I can fix with skincare.

With make up on I look great, but the disconnect of the 2 so different images is something I can't come to terms with.

I don't let people see me without makeup as they always ask if I am sick. Everyone is used seeing me all made up.

I just don't know what to do. I don't like my skin at all or how i feel ugly without make up. I need to wear it to look professional, it just wouldn't be appropriate for me to be without it. I look seriously unwell.

If you can identify with this, how do you deal with it? Do you dread summer holidays and the beach too?

I just look shit full stop without make up. No eyebrows (even with regular tints) tiny eyes, I'm just a different person.

Thing is if I had all the money and time in the world I would have regular fillers, tattooed eyebrows and eyeliner, tattooed lip blush and constant eyelash extensions.

I won't go on holiday without a pre-spray tan on sunbed first for a base colour and just roll with it. Use big sunglasses and embrace it.

You probably think you look shit. When in actuality fact you really don't.

I look rough without makeup but pretty good with it...the difference is genuinely startling. Like a different person. I once went to work bare faced and lots of people asked if I was ill. On really hot days when I don't want to wear it, I just put on sunglasses and lipstick

Unfortunately I have no advice, but I'm in the same boat. I also have dark circles (which DS1 has inherited) which look dreadful with my pale skin. I used to get asked if I was wearing brown eyeshadow when I was a child. Erm, no, I'm 9 .....

I'm sure you are being way too hard on yourself and that you look perfectly fine without make up. That said, I can empathise! I feel that I look SO MUCH BETTER with make up. I would never ever go to work or for an evening out with a bare face. I've had many bare faced days at home during lockdown, and would go to the park, gym, or local shop without make up but not much further than that. I don't stress too much about it - I feel so much better with even minimal make up so it's part of self care as far as I'm concerned

I look exponentially better with make-up, but I can't be doing with it and I think it's just another pressure put on women to conform.

I made a conscious decision to stop wearing make-up years ago. If someone doesn't like the look of my face, they can bloody-well avert their eyes.

Meant to say, I really do look like a different person with make-up on - just minimal make-up, not the full works, which weirdly makes me look just as bad as no make-up. Once my dark circles are covered, I suppose I just healthier and more awake.

I’m sure most of us look better with the blemishes airbrushed out, that’s how they manage to make us spend hundreds of pounds on skincare and make up! TBH at 46 I’m a bit past giving a shit.

Lockdown has helped with that, knowing that loads of people have been unable to get their hair/lashes etc done and have put on a few pounds . I’ve been going for my daily walk without worrying about clothes or make up. Worst comes to worst I put sunglasses on!

But yes, my aunt keeps video calling me and she’ll always say “oh are you ok, you look tired/ill” when I haven’t done my face

Honestly life’s too short to beat yourself up because your face looks better when you paint a difference face on top of it.

Maybe try to cut back a bit on make up gradually, so you’re not totally reliant on a full face of it for confidence. Eg some days I put a bit of soft smudged eyeliner and some colour on my lips, but don’t bother with concealer/foundation.

I know tans are not fashionable these days, but I know I look a damn sight better with a tan than without!

Maybe look at your diet and make sure you’re not deficient in any vitamins and drinking lots of water.

I don't look good without make up either. My friend looks dewy and fresh without it and I get 'are you feeling ok Northern?'
I have vitiligo on my face, a few thread veins and zero eyebrows. I've never plucked them they are naturally sparse. My lips are the same colour as my face too.
No one believes that people can actually look worse without it. I'm not kidding when I say Iook unwell without it. I stick by my mantra that I wear makeup for me though I have worn it throughout lockdown.
That said all I do when I do my makeup is foundation to even out my skin tone, draw on my eyebrows and put on some pinkish lipstick. Basically I'm colouring in the blank spaces

I look a shit ton better with it too. I don’t think I look ill without it though and do go,out without it.

But I do know how to use the right products to make my skin look clear and bright, my eyes and lashes better, my cheeks more flushed and healthy looking and my lips fuller.

I don’t use anything brightly coloured. I simoly enhance and correct.

I also sometimes think it’s Like a different person though and that the difference is startling.

This morning I woke up Like a tomato faced sweaty medusa, a shower some hair styling, a bit of make up, simoly because I felt like it. and I looked like a very different person

When I saw a friend with make up on for the first time I didn’t even recognise her, she looked completely different and I said so out of shock, as it really didint look like her....she may have taken that as she looks shit without make up but the opposite is true, she did look nice with makeup on, but she didint look like sally, so I preferred her without it.

My sister in law looks rough without makeup on, because it’s very rare she is ever seen without it. I think people get used to seeing you a certain way and any other way is strange.

For the hot weather wear sunglasses and lip stick, but once people get used to you without makeup they won’t batter a eye lid because they will be used to it

Isnt that pretty normal? Everyone looks super different without makeup, that's why we wear it :)

I'm pretty sure I could have written this - it's not the difference between looking okay and good in my case, it's the difference between looking like a corpse and a human. I basically just wear make up all the time.

I also have super pale skin and dark circles. Always get asked if I am ill or tired if I dont wear makeup. A tan hides a multitude of sins it seems!

I feel exactly the same! I actually can’t bear to look at my own face in the mirror without any make up on I don’t particularly wear much compared to other people’s standards but it makes such a huge difference it’s unreal.

This is me. I have uneven pale blotchy skin with several age spots, I don't go out without full make up on.
It's my skin tone more than anything, if someone could invent a real life Snapchat filter that I could apply to my face each day that would be great thanks!

I also think I am completely transformed with makeup - and the most minimal at that (cheek and lip tint, that’s it)
But maybe the transformation is in my head? I think I look ill and tired without a bit of colour.

During lockdown I have barely worn mascara, and now kind of prefer myself without it!! But tinting eyebrows and a nice moisturizer can go a long way. I just use a bit of concealer and powder and bronzer, and a lipgloss and comb my eyebrows. Doesnt take long and I would do the same on holiday at the beach, I dont tend to get my face in the sea water anyway, so find it lasts most of the day and a bit of colour from the sun helps

I don’t wear a lot of make up day to day but I always wear a dark brown eyeshadow and black mascara as my eyes and eyelashes are non-existent. I’ve done that every single day since I was a teenager and I don’t think people would recognise me without it.

I don’t have great skin either but I think I get away with it if I wear eye make up.

Yep, me too, i am also part of the dark eye circle club iv bought every magic cream and roller out there....to no avail. I look better with makeup, and iv worn it practically every day since my teens, but now at 40 im starting to resent it, wish i could just give it up and embrace my natural unbeauty....people i know would think iv gone mad tho! Haha

You really don’t look bad without make up, you are just used to looking a certain way because of make up.

If you went for 2 months without wearing any you would get used to your own face again.

Same. I don't think anyone else cares but I wear makeup every day so that I don't frighten myself in the mirror. Not much, but it makes an enormous difference, possibly because I am very blonde and fair-skinned with very pale lips, lashes and brows. It's always been that way. 30 years ago I backpacked round India with a friend. The first night that we were able to stay in a decent hotel, have a proper shower and put a bit of make up on she burst out laughing when she saw me. She said she couldn't help it but I was so utterly transformed by a bit of mascara and lip gloss.

I am the opposite, I can't stand my face with make up on. I just look like a hideous clown, I have had it applied professionally several times by different people, so it isn't just that I can't apply it.
I am just feel prettier without, I look like me not generic woman.

I wear make up every day, it’s how I feel when I look in the mirror!! Brightens my mood

I look like a ball of dough with red blotches without makeup

I spend a lot of time on my skin so I don't really need foundation any more but it doesn't make my lips and eyes look better for sure.

I'm sure lots of people feel like you