The recent wave of #nomakeup selfies has done more than raise cancer awareness, it's made us all think about make-up and what it fundamentally means to us. Hot on the heels of celebrities, like Gwyneth Paltrow 'bravely' 'daring' to bare during self-conscious-uncoupling to us mere mortals, US new station ABC News reports that brides are going make-up free, too.
Carolynn Markey, from Virginia, took the no-makeup bridal plunge. Typically not a make-up wearer, Carolynn didn't want to suddenly start wearing mascara et al, just because it was her wedding. 'I wore flowers in my hair, I wore a really pretty white dress, I wore heels,' she says. 'I don't think you need to wear make-up to look beautiful.'
According to Anja Winika, the director of popular wedding website The Knot, Carolynn isn't the only one. Brides sans makeup 'is a big trend', Anja says. 'They want to feel as much like themselves as possible on their wedding day' – which, for many,means leaving the make-up on the counter.
Anja's words about brides wanting to 'feel themselves' gives us all food for thought, but we're not sure about the implication that make-up somehow conceals your authentic self. We think: If you feel good in make-up, wearing it is true to yourself. If you're a no-make-up girl, we totally get why you want to be a no-make-up-bride.
If you're a no-makeup girl, we totally get why you want to be a no-makeup-bride
Leandra Medine, the US blogger behind Man Repeller, recently addressed her make-up regime – or lack thereof – in a blog post, after being both questioned and derided for her lack of interest in the wonderful world of cosmetics. 'The comments sometimes appear as compound questions like, "You could be really cute, but why don't you wear make-up?" Other times they're just plain insulting. As recently as last week, I've been called an "ugly whore",' says Leandra.
So, why does she do it? Because 'I am lazy,' she says, simply. 'Although just because I don't wear make-up doesn't mean I don't believe in good skin. More important than that, though, I am comfortable with what I look like. I don't hate what I see when I look in the mirror. Even if legions of others don't agree.'
Props to Leandra for paying no need to the weirdos who have called her 'ugly as fuck' (via e-mail) – it's an admirable stance for a 24-years-old, a positive statement to make to her thousands of readers also in their early twenties and teens. For women, these years can represent troubling terrain where 'liking' your own body doesn't come easy. But equally, we don't buy the idea that the women who never leave the house without a smooth blanket of foundation, a generous sprinkling of concealer, plus a full smokey eye and perhaps a lipliner and glossed bouche, are somehow not presenting their 'real self'.
After posing the question on Twitter, I encountered one woman firmly in the 'put your full "face" on before you see anyone' camp. 'I think it's common courtesy to wear make-up in the workplace,' @anon remarked, before going on to say that 'you wouldn't turn up to work without washing, would you?'. Er, having stinky pits isn't quite the same thing as having a bare face, but there are plenty of women who feel that make-up is empowering and makes women feel better about themselves.
'No woman should feel obliged to wear make-up if it gives them no pleasure,' says The Guardian's beauty columnist Sali Hughes. 'That's the opposite of what beauty should be. But I am not keen on going "make-up free" being celebrated as some badge of honour. Opting out of make-up certainly doesn't make one person more worthy than another. Interestingly, I find the people most likely to make qualitative comments about women who wear no make-up, versus those who do, are men. "Beautiful girls don't need make-up" is the one I hear most often, which suggests women wear make-up out of need rather than choice, self expression, creativity or pleasure. It also implies that beautiful women are somehow superior to average-looking women, which is a far more damning statement about the commentator than the subject.'
It's true that famous women are revered for 'refusing' to wear make-up. In the fashion industry, Katie Grand and Phoebe Philo are often admired for their bare faces, although it's worth remembering that this may be their preferred aesthetic as much as it is Dita Von Teese's lacquered lips – in which case, why is one considered demonstrably 'less vain' than the other? In February, The New York Times' T Magazine observed in an interview with Phoebe that 'her intentionally mousy hair and no make-up are the mark of a woman who relies on more than looks to get her way'. Is wearing make-up truly an accurate indication of how prone you are to exercising feminine wiles in the workplace?
For Glamour's bare-faced fsshion firector, Natalie Hartley (below), wearing no make-up is a lifestyle choice. Her only concession to cosmetics is a pop of orange eyeshadow. 'I am not over make-up, I just hate high-maintenance. I like to keep things simple, so I smudge orange eyeshadow around my eyes. It's not perfect, but that's always been my approach to make-up,' she says. And what about those women who wear a lot of make-up? 'I think back in the day it was considered a necessary facade and wearing make-up became a woman's identity. But times are changing and paring it back has become just as cool.' So each to their own, then? 'My motto has always been: Be yourself and, as long as you are happy, then who cares? That said, when women have great skin I don't think they should bother to cake their skin in foundation.'
Full disclosure: I don't often wear eye make-up. I live for Elizabeth Arden's Eight Hour Cream in the hope that it will give me preternaturally 'dewy' skin, I can't live without concealor and, occcasionally, I embrace a 'bright lip' – as it is singularly known in 2014. But only very, very occasionally will I apply mascara or eyeliner – a part of most women's daily make-up arsenal. This is not because I feel like I make a better impression without eye make-up. I actually often feel quite hamster-y with a 'nude' eye. It is because after suffering from a lifetime of terrible eyesight, which causes me to regularly rub my sore eyes, I simply got bored of smearing goop across my forehead? But what is 'low-maintenance' for me is 'no maintenance' for others. As Sali says, why should not wearing make-up be seen as a badge of honour? Crunchy eyelashes are not my thing, but they look sexy as hell on many women, and these women find them a breeze to perfect.
We're done with weight-shaming women for their shape, and now we say it's time to leave her the hell alone for what she puts on her face.
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Pictures: Jason Lloyd-Evans, Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.