by Georgia Luckhurst

Last weekend, at a sleepover with some of my friends, someone asked me: “If you’re a feminist, aren’t you really against make-up?” It was a shock to be asked – firstly because we were eating pizza and watching Modern Family, not exactly the usual setting for a serious debate. Secondly because I’d never really considered how make-up fits into the feminist sphere.

Make-up is a battleground, one half going proudly bare-faced and the other side strong advocates of their favourite brands. Personally, I’ve always been a stubborn member of the latter faction. When, at the age of eleven, my acne flared up and my self-confidence dropped, make-up gave me the opportunity to reinvent myself as someone a little less shy and a lot more brave. I know I’m not alone in being a feminist who has an infatuation with make-up—one of my favourite feminist Twitter users, Melissa Antoinette, also loves using cosmetics and has made me feel more secure in my love–but I wondered what other feminists thought.

The mysteries of the private SPARK bloggers group on Facebook are not about to be diverged, but I will reveal that my fellow bloggers gave me some fantastic responses. Some, like Ty and Izzy, admitted freely to wearing make-up on a daily basis, as I’m used to doing. Others, such as Melissa and Bailey, were accustomed to barely wearing any cosmetic products, and celebrated a natural approach. Bailey put it beautifully when she explained her position on the debate: “There is MASSIVE cultural pressure around what it means to look professional as a woman, and I think that starts in your teen years when being attractive is frequently tied up with makeup. I think makeup is one of those really complex conversations, because it’s a form of expression that can be totally beautiful and fascinating, but it’s also something that’s used as a tool to attack people who don’t use it the way we’re ‘supposed’ to.”

I decided to go a week without make-up, risking both my nerves and my self-worth. (I really do sacrifice myself in the name of science.) What did I find out? Well… it wasn’t that scary.

Most school days, I wake up at 6:00am so I can have a shower, style my hair and spend half an hour in the bathroom, applying layers of foundation, bronzer, mascara and eyeliner. The regime is time consuming and meticulous, and often I end up re-applying if I feel I’ve over compensated. However, deciding to be brave, I began to start each morning with a gentle cleanser and moisturiser, to counteract the dryness of my skin caused by my decision to always wear cosmetics. I had minor heart palpitations on my way to school the first day, worrying about other people’s reactions. Yet nobody said anything apart from one comment: “your skin’s glowing!” (Which I think, and hope, was a compliment and not just someone seeing through my disguise as a human to the true alien I am.) Furthermore, I felt lighter. Rather than having to fight over space at the mirror in the girls’ toilets to constantly update my make-up, I didn’t bother checking: as long as I felt the same, why would it matter if I looked different?

A couple of weeks after changing my regime, my skin’s starting to improve, which really is a miracle: where there were angry spots are now lighter blemishes, fading back into my skin, which feels less weighed-down. Yes, I admit, I did wear a bit of eyeliner on Friday, I used it to create my favourite look – the cat eye – because I’m starting to realize: make-up shouldn’t be used as a shield deflecting the world. I used my concealer and foundation and powder and bronzer to mask myself, and my natural skin, which, though isn’t perfect, it’s softer than it ever used to be. I’ve realised that like experimenting with the clothes I wear and my accessories, make-up should be about creating dramatic looks and standing out from the crowd: not blending into the idea of how we’re supposed to look. I’m sick and tired of the numerous products which once clogged my skin and now clog the space in my bathroom. Make-up should be used to experiment, to shock, to inspire.

I’m not never going to wear foundation again – of course I will. I’d never want to ban girls–or boys~– from wearing make-up if they like it or if it makes them feel better about themselves. However, I’ve gained so much from not wearing as much make-up as I used to do regularly, and not just in terms of a bit of a lie-in in the mornings. My skin is better, my confidence renewed and best of all, when I do wear make-up, I can really mix up my look.

I used make-up for years to feel more beautiful, more glamorous. Now, just by having lowered the amounts I wear, I feel more gorgeous than I ever have before. As Izzy said: “I ended up deciding that I wear makeup as an expression, but also to look nice- but I don’t need it to feel good about myself.”