Here is a site that provides a Make-up Poll Resluts. The survey was taken by women of different cultures. It doesn’t state when it was conducted. It’s too small of a sampling to get an accurate pulse reading from the world’s female population, and as the site notes, didn’t control who took it. For these reasons, take the information for what it’s worth to you and your GF.
However, it does ask some questions and provide statistical results that might help settle the debate. Here are two:
Why do you wear make-up?
Because all of my friends do: 1.74%
To be popular: 1.16 %
Because of pressure from my mom: 0.69%
To impress boys: 14.58%
To feel better about myself: 32.52%
To experiment with other looks: 34.26%
I don’t wear makeup: 15.05%
How does wearing make-up make you feel?
Prettier: 379
Confident: 295
Self-conscious: 40
Not good enough: 16
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Personally, I think that the reason women choose to wear make-up and jewelry mainly stems from their culture. It’s some sort of ‘peer pressure’ created by several factors: one being that other women do it, and another is that a woman is considered less attractive if she doesn’t. In the latter case, it seems to stem from media sources and one’s inner self. The only people who have told me that I would look better with make-up are the clerks in the make-up stations in dept. stores. No surprise there. Plop a make-up wearer down in the middle of a group of people who do not wear any and see how long she keeps it up.
Here are the reasons I used to wear make-up:
* Wearing it was only allowed once I reached a certain age. After years of observing my mother and older sisters put it on before going to school or a party, it was a big deal.
* My friends wore it.
* A point was reached where I thought that I looked better with a bit of make-up.
About three years ago, I stopped wearing it. It was psychologically difficult at first, but the benefits outweighed this one minor drawback that was eventually overcome. The main reason I chose this path was because my SO said, “You don’t need to wear make-up.” He was quite right. Old friends don’t gawk at me as if I walked out of the house naked. I’ve made new friends that don’t suggest that I could use a bit of color in my face. The SO hasn’t said, “I’ve changed my mind.” And most importantly, I feel liberated from the worry, the expense, and the time-consuming act.