Why I don’t wear Make-up

I’ve addressed a lot of big issues up to now on my blog but this may well be the most controversial stance: I’m a girl approaching twenty and I don’t wear make-up. Before you have a heart attack I would prompt you to look at the description above and keep in mind that you’re on The Change Channel and the script over here is different to the general one that society tends to follow. There’s no doubt that deciding that make up is not for you is being very different, especially in our culture. It’s very daring.

You probably remember it yourself: the plentiful ticks of the clock that would go by before the girls would come out of the toilets (if you’re a guy); the hours that your peers would spend in front of the mirror caking themselves with make-up before they revealed themselves at school (if you’re a girl). I remember it for sure. Funny thing is, make-up was against the rules of our school – and it is for most schools in the country – but it was still seen as essential for a lot of the girls, especially from Year 9 (ages 13/14) upwards.

1. I like to be the real me.

 I remember the advertisement of this product that always used to come on when the teen TV had finished for the day and was replaced by teleshopping. It was called ‘Sheer Cover’ and it was a form of foundation that promised to cover all skin imperfections. What I found ironic was that their slogan was ‘Let the real you shine through’. Ermmm…

How is covering your entire face and often other parts of your body with make-up letting the real you shine through?

I don’t pretend to have perfect skin. I’m nineteen and we all know that those teenage years bring a lot of spots. Do I get annoyed when I spot yet another raised surface on my forehead? Yes, I do. Do I wish my skin was perfect? It certainly would be ideal. But why pretend? Everyone repeats that saying so often: ‘Nobody’s perfect.’ But with make-up we suddenly try to pretend that we are. Why?

I feel guilty even considering the prospect of painstakingly applying make-up to my face when I know that there are issues I need to address on the inside of me that are much more important. Studies show that the average woman spends over a year of her life applying make-up. Think what I could do in a year! I could travel the world, have a baby (but that’s not going to happen any time soon, don’t worry!), learn another language – I could spend that time developing my inner self to have ‘the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight’. (https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/1%20Peter%203%3A4)

If ever I became perfectly perfect then perhaps it would make sense for me to look perfect. But at present I can tell you I need more patience and faith and have other things to watch out for – so I’m not there yet.

Another reason I refrain from agonising over eye-liner and fumbling for the foundation is actually I think God did a pretty good job of making me on His own and He doesn’t need my help to create a masterpiece. I am ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ and I know it. I believe every one of God’s creations is beautiful and precious – even if they don’t fit the standards of beauty that our society lays down as law. To read my treatise on the world’s botched-up perception of beauty click here: Why the World’s Definition of Beauty is All Wrong.

I’ve grown up in an environment where make-up wasn’t valued. My mum doesn’t wear make-up and my home church has never put it on the cards. But naturally, being a young girl in today’s society there did come a point where I started to think about it and wanted to be sure I was not wearing make-up because it was truly what I wanted to do and not something I felt was being forced upon me. I had a weakness for eye-shadow – it can be used to match your clothes really well – and after a friend told me I had “camel’s eyelashes” I thought perhaps mascara wouldn’t be so bad.

Way way back when I was in Year 7 a couple of my friends bought me make-up as birthday presents. I didn’t know what to do with the little packages, seeing as I didn’t wear make-up (and at eleven years old felt no reason to do so) – but as the products were powders my mum suggested I keep them and use them for art. Being a very creative person I did so, and you can still find eyeshadow in some of my most intricate work.

I never used the make-up for anything else. Until years later: I decided I would try it for myself so that I could say I knew for sure what my stance was. I fished out the make-up discs from my art supplies and applied some eyeshadow and the different shades of ‘lip shimmer’. It could be that it was my first time applying make-up and I didn’t know how to do it ‘just so’ but it didn’t appeal to me at all. The more I tried out the shades the more I felt like a clown. I looked fake. There were a load of colours painted on my face and it just didn’t feel like me. I stared at myself in the mirror and blinked back at my reflection. Then I decided that make-up wasn’t for me. Eyeshadow might be able to match my outfit but my face wasn’t a handbag or a dress in need of being accessorised. It was a natural part of me and I wanted to keep it that way.

2. I want people to love and respect me for who I am, not what I look like.

It’s my approach to life in general: I appreciate much more when someone compliments me on something I’ve done rather than how I look. It means so much more to me when someone tells me they loved something I’ve written or hearing me sing than when someone tells me I look good in the dress I have on. I’m not saying compliments on appearance are bad. What I am saying is I did not do any work to get the face I did – God did all of that work and I can take no credit for it. But I do work hard at my singing and writing and other skills so encouragement on that front is something that I had something to do with.

It’s something I’ve discussed with friends before: would you want your lover to wear make-up or would you as a lady wear make-up for your beau? I’ve been particularly interested to hear the male point of view – and actually, my guy friends have told me they much prefer the natural look on a girl. It shows that she’s comfortable in her own skin and feels free to be herself.

On the other hand, girls my age have told me they wouldn’t wear too much make-up on their first date with a guy because they wouldn’t want him to expect more than he was getting. I find that quite intriguing, upon considering what happens on the next dates and when you eventually get married: do you have to make sure you have on that same amount of make-up as you had on that first date so that he’s never disappointed?

And what if he falls in love with you only because of the face you had on when he first met you? We already know how much our culture values physical attractiveness in women. When you’re wearing full foundation, concealer, blusher, eyeliner, mascara, eyeshadow, lipstick, even fake eyelashes (!), can you really be sure that it’s anything but your decked-out face that has drawn him over? He might hear you speak and actually not care about what you’re saying but linger around because he thinks you look ‘sexy’.

Of course physical attraction is an important part of a relationship. But I can say without faltering that if a man were to fall in love with me solely because he found me attractive I would immediately turn the other way. I am not just a body. I have a brain and emotions and talents that go beyond the exterior, as does any other woman. We’re picking up from the bottom of the pile if we go for guys that don’t see that.   

3.  It’s a business that prides itself on making women feel bad about themselves.

It’s funny to me that feminism deals with so many other issues but neglects to talk about cosmetics. Like so many other social phenomena, make-up is the result of a male-dominated narrative. I can give you many examples throughout history that illustrate how when men said something it came to be and was accepted as fact. Take for instance the narrative in the 50s that dictated that women could be no more than wives and mothers. That was said by men who didn’t like the fact that women were doing the same job as them and doing just as well, and could eventually get to the stage where they were earning more than their husbands! How about shaving? Few people know that shaving for women only came about in the Roaring 20s, when sleeveless dresses became the fashion and suddenly the under-arm hair women had had for centuries became ‘unsightly’ and ‘objectionable’. Why? Because razor companies (owned by men, of course) wanted to create a new market to squeeze the money out of – and the perfect way was to make women feel that in paying their way and shaving away they were becoming more feminine. In the meantime guys’ bodily hair isn’t spurned at all. Apparently hair on women is unhygienic but on men it’s just plain clean. (Do you know I was once asked by a guy – at secondary school – if it was true that women grew hair under their armpits?)

It’s the same with make-up. Do you ever see make-up marketed at men? Cosmetics industries swallow up billions of dollars each year by telling women that using their products will give them power, make them stand out and will give them irresistible confidence. Is it any wonder then that women often feel low self-esteem without “putting their face on”? (Do you realise how loaded that term is? We’ve gotten to the point where women don’t even see their natural assets as worthy of being called a face…) You’ve seen the stories about women who never leave the house without make-up on. I’ve even heard depressing cases of women who get out of bed before their husbands stir so that they can put on their make-up afresh before their spouse sees them. (I can’t even…) Not everyone has it that bad, admittedly, but there are still very few girls I know who won’t leave the house without any make-up at all – just a bit of mascara and eyeliner and that’s all – but they will never be seen without it. I suppose there’s another problem with wearing make-up regularly – when you don’t wear any people don’t recognise you.

“Make-up makes me feel more confident”. That’s what many people tell me. More confident. The use of those two words to me indicates that most don’t feel confident enough without the stuff. Girls typically put it on to attract the attention of the guys as they’re told that this is the way to capture a man’s heart – or they may put it on so that they feel they “measure up” to the same standard as the other girls. I didn’t wear any makeup to my prom and I remember thinking that I wouldn’t look as good as the other girls. My mum assured me I looked beautiful just the way I was and I soon forget my concerns. In retrospect I realise that my qualms were just plain silly: what’s the point in competing over how we look? What a sad life.

4.  Make-up causes reduced self-esteem.

Remember the #nomakeupselfie campaign for breast cancer awareness that took social media by storm last year? I thought it was great, in that it pushed women and young girls to present themselves as they truly are on a platform. I was proud to see my friends wiping off the stuff. They looked beautiful and they didn’t need make-up to prove that.

So that was great. But the campaign did get me thinking about the social implications that it suggested. Usually when people fundraise for charity they do something difficult and out-of-the-ordinary. Here taking one picture of themselves makeup-free was what girls and women were doing to raise money – and what that showed me is that it really is an out-of-the-ordinary and difficult thing for females to do now, to choose not to wear le maquillage. So much so that many of the girls and women that posted pictures of themselves did so with make-up on: they just couldn’t take off that mascara or eye-liner – or even lipstick – for just one picture in the comfort of their own homes. Others just replied saying they didn’t think anyone needed to see their “disgusting face”. What a sad state of affairs.

 5. It’s actually quite physiologically harmful.

Il trucco (that’s what it’s called in Italian – literally meaning, ‘the trick’) does in fact cause quite a lot of physical damage. Covering up imperfections only makes them worse. Foundation blocks up pores and hinders the skin from breathing, which can often lead to acne and dermatitis. The vast array of chemical substances in cosmetic products have also been linked to health issues, surprisingly serious: cancer; hormonal interference; effects to a woman’s reproductive system; liver problems… Chemical impurities in cosmetics shockingly even include the toxic substance mercury, which is easily absorbed by the skin and can lead to kidney damage; and impair the nervous system, and can even interfere with brain development in unborn and young children. Ironically for a substance which is supposed to make you stay looking young – the presence of mineral oil in cosmetics can inhibit skin function and cell development, resulting in premature aging. http://www.collective-evolution.com/2012/04/10/you-have-the-right-to-know-17-chemicals-to-avoid-in-cosmetic-and-personal-care-products/

6.  It costs a lot of money!

The average British woman spends £9,525.91 on make-up in her lifetime. Need I say more? That is a heck of a lot money! That could fund a whole year of university tuition with money left to spare!

7.  Going make-up FREE is extremely liberating!

‘Makeup free’ used to be used by that oh-so-notorious British tabloid The Daily Mail together with ‘tired’ and ‘haggard’ to slate women who decided to ditch the rouge. I still have a lot of issues with that paper but I have noticed that they have now taken to praising women who go out make-up free as looking ‘radiant’ and ‘natural’. I hope to see this attitude welcomed more in the public vein. I’ve never worn an inch of foundation in all my nineteen years and I have found it extremely liberating. I can leap out of the house without thinking about having to flick my eyelashes up – or draw my eyebrows on. (Seriously I can’t believe that’s a thing now?) When people look at me I know they’re looking at me and not a fake, “improved” version. I gain hours every day by not having to apply and re-apply – and remove my make-up. I breathe confidence rather than have it stifled under a mask that clogs my pores.

I may still have spots that appear without being asked but actually I know they’re not that big a deal. They show that I’m a normal human being with imperfections, and the fact that my friends treat me in the same way whether or not I have an uneven skin tone shows that they value me for who I am and not for what I look like. Going makeup-free truly does make you feel free, my friend!