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?

Without make up I do look sick. It is definitely not because people are used seeing me with make up. Anytime i have tried cutting down on make up and wearing less, people mentioned i look tired a d unwell.

It's the pigmentation and dark circles. I ha e rather pale sallow skin but pigmentation and dark circles makes me look as if I am battling some type of serious illness.

I need to do some serious coverage to ensure this doesn't show and for me to look healthy.

I don't like looking sick, so I will keep applying make up to feel the way I feel on the inside. Looking so unwell on the outside brings me down and attracts comments from others.

I appreciate all the views and have taken every into consideration.

I don’t look sick without makeup but I look very tired. And it’s not because people aren’t used to seeing me that way it’s because of my complexion. Not sure other people who don’t know me are in a position to contradict that statement.
I like wearing makeup - I feel much better with it . And it’s totally not up to anyone else to judge that or decide that I need to wear less. And even with it on it certainly looks nowhere near perfection . It just looks like me - the way I want to look

DS1 inherited my dark circles. At almost 12, he hasn't started wearing makeup(!) and yet he gets told how tired he looks all the time.

I would say try to mix some fake tan with your moisturiser; that way you can easily gauge when the colour is OK and hold back, before adding it back on when your real colour is beginning to take over again.

I would also recommend having your eyebrows microbladed and dyed and your eyelashes dyed and lifted (or go for extensions - I've tried them and didn't like them). You can also try serums like Revitalash to make your lashes grow longer. I use it and it works.

Also try and use an oil or a rich moisturiser on your cheekbones to give you a glow and act like a highlighter.

I don't like the way I look without make up either (olive skin with some sun spots, dark circles, etc) but I feel so much better when I've just had my eyebrows waxed and my eyelashes curled. So much better. Hope this helps.

I understand OP. I'm fairly pale skinned and have blonde brows and invisible lashes. Don't look that great with a bare face although lockdown has actually made me like my make up free face much more, i think ive just got used to it!

Good skin and a tan help. My oily skin is fairly good these days, was awful in my 20s, i swear by the Ordinary Niacinimide now for clear skin and reduced pores. Also Olay touch of sun moisturiser - i use it twice a week, i much prefer the colour to any of the tanning drops ive tried

Make up wise - I'm down to just tightlining the top lash line with a grey eye pencil, a quick swipe of mascara, swoosh of translucent power on Tzone, vaseline rose on lips and done. I'd never join a work call without doing these quick steps! I look sooooo much better.

The fake tan tip is definitely something I am planning on doing. I just need to work around applying along my tretinoin, as this can make me peel and a fake tan on peeling, dry skin looks bad.

Looking at LED masks too. Does anyone know a good make?

The max factor powder foundation is brilliant for when my skin behaves. On other days, the la roche posay toleriant powder or the bare minerals offer more coverage.

What treatments can help with dark circles or pigmentation? I had TCA peels before and they helped a bit.

I am so grateful for the solidarity and sisterhood you have all shown here, thank you all very much.

Project E on Amazon do good LED masks.

I look hideous without makeup and slightly less so with it. I have never once, in 18 years, been to work without make up, although I occasionally go without it at weekends etc. but if I bump into anyone I know, I feel awkward and embarrassed.

It's not even an age thing, OP. I looked shit without make-up when I was 18. I suddenly remembered this the other day and it cheered me up about ageing.

Anyway, make-up is an absolute miracle worker, we all know that. I scrub up pretty well and I look like a bit of a beast without make-up and in all honesty so do most women.

Why even care. Just put your slap on and forget it.

This is me too. I've posted on here before about my dark circles and bags. My skin too looks sallow. No red cheeks even after exercising.

I'd be interested to know what make up products everyone with similar looks uses?

I have sunken in tear troughs. Just shit genetics - I’ve had this my entire life and I’m only in my early 20s so no amount of skincare/lifestyle changes will help.

Although I look mostly the same without makeup, no matter how perfect my skin looks - I always get comments about how tired I look without makeup on due to my eyes. Here’s me thinking I look nice, but then I’ll run into someone I know who inevitably passes a comment on how tired I am, am I okay, am I working too hard etc

I am booked in for tear trough filler as I’m sick of relying on makeup. Usually I’d use concealer, translucent powder, fix+, then another powder to erase my under eyes.

I am sure most people feel the same!

I am always fascinated watching the ladies from IT cosmetics on QVC taking off their make up to show what is underneath. The lady has Rosacea as did a few of the models.

I wear foundation and eye make up (plus lip colour) mainly because my lashes are quite fair and short (despite having brown hair!). I am now 60 (cannot believe it myself!) so my eyebrows are non existent almost and so need some eye definition. I do feel if I have done my eyes I may as well pop some foundation on.

My skin is better than it has ever been (now I have admitted to myself how old I really am - could have sworn I was still a teenager!) but I do have some redness (high blood pressure). Sometimes I can get away with a C.C. cream, other times I bring out the big guns!

I feel terrible going out without make up, basically haven't done it since I was about 14. But for me that is largely because by eyebrows and eyelashes are really pale. When I have had them tinted occasionaly over the years, I have not felt the need to wear make up. I don't have them tinted all the time because of the cost.

But what it showed me is, we may have the one weak area that makes us feel we need make up, but end up doing a full face. I have been trying to get into the habit of just doing light make up on lashes and brows a lot of the time. So maybe just focus on what you feel you need to do, and gradually cut bits out until it is really pared down.

This is me. Even my mum used to say I looked ill without makeup. I have no eyebrows - mixture of over plucking and the effect of age, short stubby eyelashes and uneven skin tone. I look bloody awful. The effect of spending five minutes putting my face on is spectacular. I thought we’d got rid of all this judgemental “makeup is anti feminist” nonsense back in the 70s, it’s very sad to see it still being trotted out.

I don't know. I don't think focusing on your looks sounds healthy for you. I understand that skincare is an interest for you - so maybe it's a bit like being a golf expert who hasn't got a naturally good swing. Can you indulge your interest by advising products for others or is it all about 'perfecting' your own looks? Which is somewhat futile as skin tends to change anyway as we get older. Or can you focus on other interests? Be the protagonist not the ornament. And observe and admire how the pigments in your skin change rather than try to change them? I think all of us get the 'you look tired' when we don't wear makeup. I don't want to tell you you probably look fabulous, or that you should accept looking awful, because none of us can objectively rate your looks and it's irrelevant anyway, we are all somewhere in the middle on the various scales of objective perfection, all just muddling through, and so negative comparisons to others are irrelevant.

anyone who tells you that you look ill without makeup should be punched.

no, not really - I'm not actually advocating violence but why do people make comments that are a) stupid and b) insulting? What man ever got told he looked ill when he wasn't face-painted?