Hi. Can we all just be really honest here for a minute when it comes to women wearing make-up? When men try and tell women that they love the natural look and believe that women don't need or should not wear make-up, they are referring to this type of girl pictured above, Exhibit A. She has a few freckles, sure, but her skin is essentially flawless. She has no acne, no birthmarks, no port wine stains, no Vitiligo, no genetic dark under eye circles or heavy bags under her eyes, few wrinkles if any, and no scars surgical or otherwise. I think most of us would be hard pressed to find a reason for her to really wear make-up other then for the fun of it, or because she wanted to, or she was going to an event or something, but for the rest of this woman's life, she could go make-up free, and most importantly for the most part, go free of judgement for going out in the world with her natural face.
Now contrast that with the equally natural faces on left below:
Facial discoloring, deep under eye circles
Vitiligo, a non-contagious genetic condition which causes patches of your skin to lose pigment completely.
Cystic Acne, extremely difficult to treat and often re-occurring
Port Wine stain, large, deep red birthmark
Just because we left behind the bullies of the world in high school doesn't mean the world beyond those doors are loving and accepting of things you are born with and cannot change. I all but guarantee that these women have been ridiculed for their conditions and made to feel bad about the way they naturally look. It's easy to say to someone it shouldn't matter, until of course you have been in their shoes and had to deal with the constant comments and stares and offensive things people tell them flat out. I don't think its fair to just throw a blanket statement over every woman who makes the choice to wear make-up to say she's trying to deceive the world or some guy in a club with her make-up. Some women wear make-up so they can simply live their day to day lives without feeling like the world thinks they are monsters or sickly or made to be the butt of some cruel joke.
Aside from the genetic side of it, everyone wants to see the actress Kerry Washington on right. They would look at her and say she's gorgeous and flawless and so natural on photo right, but underneath, without the aid of 3 make-up artists doing hours of make-up, to make her "look natural," she looks like most of the rest of us...under eye circles, acne, undefined brows, etc. but no one is paying for a magazine cover, a movie, or a television show with the Kerry on left. If we're being honest, given the side by side, I'm sure if we polled, the percentage to prefer right over left would be significantly higher and yet left is truly natural.
Same thing goes for stars like Sofia Vegara's "natural look" as created by hours of make-up on right. People don't want to know she has the same bags or perhaps pale skin and wrinkles some of us also tend to have without the aid of make-up. People just like to think that she looks like on right all the time, like she wakes up like that, but she's a human being and likes to wear make-up to not necessarily mask her true face, but enhance it.
And just like us normal folk, and the varying degrees of natural, there are models and celebrities who do in fact fall into that naturally flawless category of Exhibit A, like a Heidi Klum. Not everyone wins the genetic lottery like this where you'd once again be hard pressed to find someone who would judge her natural face, on right, or ridicule her for what she was born with in a side by side comparison with and without make-up.
I understand that most guys don't want someone to look like an entirely different person underneath their make-up but on the same token, those same people judge harshly someone with bad acne or dark under eye circles or various genetic disorders. That's what women and men are up against and why some find comfort in make-up, and feel like it does allow the world to view them as just as beautiful or "normal" or worthy of praise as some of their counterparts and to go through a day without ridicule.
And by the way, some men wear make-up too and probably for some of the same reasons women do...enhancement, beauty, evening out of skin, because it makes them feel good, to cover up the same types of genetic disorders, etc.
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