Men, do you like your woman to wear makeup?

No. I like girls that look natural. This goes doubly so for stuff like dying hair or breast implants.

I honestly never cared either way. If it looks good, great, if they don’t want to wear it, great too. I grew up in a restrictive Christian environment where makeup was generally “not done,” and then spent my teen/young adult years in a goth/metal scene where extreme stage makeup was common for both men and women, so I kind of like both looks.

I liked my wife to go without makeup while we were around the house or running about doing errands. When dressing up to go out to dinner or for social events I liked when she wore subtle makeup that was practically invisible.

These. Every guy I’ve ever dated (pre-moving in or spending several nights in a row) has thought that I don’t typically wear make up. Once a guy invited me out for some patio drinks, and I told him to give me a sec to put my face on. He told me not to bother dressing up and that I “look great without makeup.” Um, he had never seen me without make up. People I know right now (I should say guys) will from time to time remark on my lack of make up. Nope, I just go light and natural with it.

Yeah, I just have to reiterate that seriously, no makeup (no fooling) on most women means blotchy, unevenly pigmented skin; undereye circles; red areas (like around the nose, or worse: rosacea); zits or zit scars; flesh-toned lips; non-visible eyelashes, sparse brows.

If you seriously prefer that to even skin tone, flushed cheeks, eyes that don’t look tired, visible eyelashes, rosy lips…well, I’m going to be skeptical about that.

What you want is a woman who looks like that but doesn’t have to wear makeup to achieve it. And those women are few and far between.

I always preferred women without make up. I’m sure that actually many women wear make up that is flattering and that I don’t really notice, but if it’s too obvious, it’s rather a turn off (not a big turn off, but still). For instance lipstick is noticeable and doesn’t improve the look in the way gallows fodder mention (evenly pigmented skin, etc…). So, I tend to prefer women without it.

Women who think they look a bit better with very carefully applied makeup are probably right.

Women who think they only look sufficiently good when they’re wearing makeup, however, need to think about some things.

(Is it that guys just look better in general so that we don’t need to wear it to look OK but you do? Or is it that girls aren’t entitled to companions who are particularly good looking but guys deserve it? Or is it that guys are such shallow creatures that nothing about you matters except how you look, whereas to you how a guy looks isn’t more than of marginal importance? Or perhaps you know that boys all secetly apply makeup, minimalist and artfully done so that you can’t tell we’ve got it on, and as a clever female you figure you’ve got to keep up to maintain some equilibrium?)

Seriously: you look fine without it, even if you may in fact look a little better when you’ve got it on. Most of us who are attracted to womenfolk do like the way y’all look and not just as you look when very carefully accentuated. Do it if it makes you feel better overall when you do, but I can’t imagine that it could make anyone feel better if they carry within themselves the sense that they aren’t presentable without the stuff.

Now that I am in my sixties and my girlfriend is also she feels she needs a bit more makeup if we are going out. I have no objection with or without. My preference is light make up.

My red haired, freckle skinned girlfriend does indeed have circles under her eyes when she is tired and the odd pimple on bad months, but so what? She’s a person and that is what people look like. Why try and hide it? I get dry red skin in my T zone sometimes and sometimes an ingrown whisker. No one expects me to wear makeup even though I may look superficially “better” with it on, why should I ask her to? I like her without makeup not so much because she looks better that way, but because it reflects who she is, and I like who she is. If she started wearing makeup that would mean something in her personal philosophy had changed and that would concern me much more than blotchy skin.

I understand that as a culture we expect women to be well presented, but I like it when a woman has the confidence to turn her nose up at those expectations.

AHunter3, I think perhaps you need to think about some things.

Women wear makeup in large part because they feel they will be penalized for superficial imperfections. I’m sure you’d like to tell them they’re wrong about that, but they’re not wrong at all. Your personal opinion about the presentability of bare-faced women notwithstanding, a woman who wears no makeup is absolutely putting herself at a measurable disadvantage in social and professional situations.

Does this suck? It sure does. But it’s still true, and because it’s true, it doesn’t make much sense to chide daily-makeup-wearing women about the insecurities you imagine they must have.

PS. Like many things, wearing makeup doesn’t mean or do the same things when you’re a man as it does when you are a woman.

Yeah, that would get my gears cranking too. :wink:

Dropping back in just to +1 everyone who’s said that they’d rather ladies not wear lipstick, if those lips are going to be doing any kissing. Blech! I’m rather particular about this, which used to annoy my girlfriend to no end.

This. If I notice you’re wearing makeup, you’re doing it wrong.