Beauty, Makeup, Society

Does makeup really make girls more beautiful?

Last night, my boyfriend and I were discussing how make-up changes people’s perception of beauty and I wanted to write a blog post about it to open up further debate.

So the main question I want to raise is – is make-up really helping us girls enhance our natural beauty; making our eyes pop and flaunting our bone structure… OR… is it making it harder for us to be more beautiful, as the standard of what is considered beautiful has increased? This post may make my boyfriend and I seem very shallow, but I want to point out that it was just a general discussion about how society view people. Obviously it’s what’s on the inside that counts – we are ALL beautiful.

But anyway, what started our debate was when my boyfriend made a comment about how girls are lucky to be able to coat their faces in make-up, style their hair and get their nails done whilst guys can’t do a thing to change the way the look. He said that even the most unattractive of women (by society’s standards) can use beauty products to fool everyone into thinking they’re stunning, whereas guys remain natural so it’s harder for them to look and feel “good-looking”.

I appreciate his point – for example, if a guy has a spot they can’t hide it in foundation like we girls can – unless they want to receive a ton of abuse from their friends and colleagues. However, my response to his thoughts was that actually, make-up makes it harder for us to feel attractive, because its all a charade. If we went to a bar or club with our hair tied back and no make-up, no-one would look twice. I think that is wrong. We should be able to go on dates without the mascara and lippy and still feel sexy.

I’m sure this doesn’t apply to everyone, but once we girls wipe our make-up off and throw on a pair of glasses, we no longer feel attractive – even though we all are. Unfortunately, now that make-up is available to us (and has been for a long, long time), there’s no way the world will just suddenly stop wearing it. But this just means that we’re not embracing what we were born with!

So what do you think? Does make-up really make girls more beautiful, or does it just mean that, without it, we are “uglier”? Please leave me a comment with your thoughts.

13 thoughts on “Does makeup really make girls more beautiful?”

  1. I think it makes us more beautiful! I think sometimes we feel uglier without it because we are so used to seeing ourselves and others with it on to extenuate the features we have. In the end makeup can’t change you only highlight what you already have.

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  2. It depends on who you ask. Some people really do hide behind their makeup. Others go for a natural look. Some do very drastic changes (like contouring–which can make them look like an entirely different person). I bet girls that use makeup on a daily basis feel beautiful with makeup on, and “ugly” without it. I definitely think society has raised its standards on beauty, which causes a lot of women to feel insecure. In my opinion though, I don’t think women should hide behind their makeup. It’s great if they want to accentuate certain features, but they should go make up free for a couple days and they should be able to feel comfortable without makeup. I love makeup, and only wear it on occasion. I have blemishes and flaws but I love the way I look without makeup, even with my glasses. I honestly feel beautiful in my own natural skin, but I feel like a princess when I wear makeup. Lol.

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    1. I totally agree with your insight so thanks for sharing! It’s really nice to hear that you still feel gorgeous without your makeup because so many girls don’t and it’s sad! But yeah, it definitely varies from person to person and the people we choose to surround ourselves with likely have a huge impact on how girls feel about themselves!

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  5. Interesting post! I always thought make up made me look prettier, until I learned from my husband that he actually isn’t attracted to women who cake on the makeup. Being with him has helped me embrace natural beauty on everyone, including myself. It’s reassuring to know that for some people, make up isn’t necessary. Everyone has their own opinions, though. 🙂

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  6. I think it’s just all in your perception. First off, I’ve always hated that when girls in movies get a make over they immediately lose their glasses. I love my glasses. I think they make me look like a sexxy librarian, which I am, a librarian that is. But I never wear make up, except for pictures. And the only reason I wear make up for pictures is because you have to, the lights really wash you out. I have had some pictures without make up and depending on the shot it’s not too bad. But for the most part to get the professional look you do need it, or your skin will be washed out and your eyes just disappear. At least on me.

    However, on an every day basis I don’t wear a lick of make up. I am lucky I have naturally great skin, God bless my mom for passing that gene on. But I have had some people think it’s weird that I won’t wear make up, but I find it uncomfortable. I mean as soon as a photo shoot is over I’m scrubbing that junk off as fast as I can. But I think guys have it easier, because in a way we’re programmed to accept men’s flaws. We see them all exactly as they are all the time. Even the guys on TV aren’t altered the way women are to have this look of perfection. How many shows is there that has an over weight man that looks perfectly average, but married to a thin beautiful woman who always looks her best? Men aren’t necessarily held to the high standards women are because of the make-up we’re expected to wear, and the way women in movies and magazines are made up to look. I mean they even have them wake up in the morning looking perfect. puh-leez…

    But in a way I think make-up doesn’t really help anyone. We’re constantly saying that you should accept yourself as you are, but then tell them to go pile on the make up and alter the contours of your face so that you look completely different than your natural self. I find it ridiculous. I mean if you want to wear make up, that’s your decision, but I don’t think a girl should ever feel ashamed or less than beautiful because she isn’t wearing any.

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  7. I personally feel that we do not use makeup to make us more beautiful, yet to enhance our more attractive features. We are all beautiful naturally, and I don’t feel we hide under our makeup as we all have confidence to some degree, just some more than others. Wearing makeup is merely a style we have accustomed to and most of us have grown up in a society that we know to wear makeup. I think it is naturally what we are used to, and find it an excellent tool to make us feel good about ourselves, which does not necessarily mean we hate our appearance in the first place.

    Makeup is not misleading, because if you like us with our makeup, you should like us without – it does not actually change our features to make us look like a different person, it just accentuates them as we prefer them.

    Sometimes when it comes to getting dressed up, I wish I were a boy! They seem to have it so simple whenever they go out, all they need to do is fix their hair and they can leave!

    Everybody has their insecurities however, and we do what we can to mask them. And while I don’t think masking ourselves in makeup to hide what we don’t like is right, it is up to the person wearing the makeup to decide how they use it. We are ALL beautiful on the inside, as you said.

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  8. I think it turns everything into an arms race because it increases the baseline of what’s normal (or perceived to be – generally us women know that the ‘natural look’ can take quite a while). Germaine Greer has written really well on make up to this point. That said, I wear it and there are days when I’m very grateful I can! x

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  9. Such an interesting article! I am a teacher in an international school in Thailand. Before I worked there, I didn’t wear make up every day. But as every teacher around me wears make up every day, I feel that it seems to be the standard at work and I start wearing make up every day. I feel that it has become one of the expectations in my work place.

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