By Anna Pursglove
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Rifling through my wardrobe for the perfect ensemble to wear for a romantic dinner with my husband, a low-cut dress and strappy sandals catch my eye.
The outfit is sexy with a hint of old-school Hollywood glamour â" very Scarlett Johansson. Unfortunately, my face is just plain scarlet and, while it destroys any seductive effect, thereâs nothing I can do to disguise it.
Because I have resolved to forgo make-up entirely â" for a whole month.
Beauty regime: Anna Pursglove left, with nail varnish and other cosmetics - and, right, she ditches the lot
Actually, it is not just make-up. I am undergoing a challenge that bans all forms of female grooming. It means no complexion-altering products (anti-wrinkle creams, eye creams, the lot), perfumes, dyeing, depilation, blow-drying, hair-straightening or conditioning. If itâs not necessary for hygiene reasons, then itâs not allowed.
So why have I â" a self-confessed beauty addict â" agreed to such a draconian, and humiliating, assignment?
Because a recent survey found two-thirds of women believe facing the world without full make-up is more stressful than a first date or a job interview. Many of these women were also unable to contemplate even the most mundane tasks (sitting on a train, for example, or answering the door) without selected areas having first been dyed, tinted or plucked.
This got me thinking â" am I one of these women? Could I give up my beauty crutches .â.â. say, for a month? And no matter what situation I found myself in?
Grooming, after all, is a way of asserting ourselves in just about every sphere of life. Women do it to attract a mate, but also to compete in female company. We do it to show power and poise in stressful situations and to make ourselves appear poised and collected (particularly when we donât feel it).
Natural: Anna Pursglove two weeks into her no beauty regime
Our state of grooming can reveal our level of wealth, job and marital status â" even our emotional state.
We have fine-tuned antennae for other womenâs grooming skills â" and therefore expect them to scrutinise ours â" and, as I know only too well after years editing the beauty pages of glossy magazines, we cannot get enough make-up and hair styling tips from the worldâs most glamorous women.
Like so many, I find spending time on my appearance enhances my mood. Maybe itâs the legacy of teenage years spent applying illicit slicks of mascara in the school toilets in order to deal with adolescent traumas.
Maybe itâs the fact that a properly put-together face has seen me through all the big milestones of my life â" dates, job interviews, my wedding day. I even recall the relief of being reunited with my concealer after giving birth to my children. I may have been shattered but knowing I didnât have to look it was a comfort.
So what are m y beauty âmust-havesâ? Written down, the list is longer than Iâd like.
Among my favourite monthly treatments are microdermabrasion (where the skin is treated with exfoliant crystals to remove dead cells), Keratin (long-lasting) blow-drying, Shellac (long-lasting) manicures, eyebrow threading and eyelash tinting, plus waxing (legs and/or bikini line, depending on the amount of flesh I plan to show that month).
Then thereâs the âoccasionalsâ list including chemical peels, laser thread-vein removal on my face, spray tans, semi-permanent eyelash extensions and teeth whitening.
When it comes to make-up, the microdermabrasion means I donât need foundation in the day, although for special occasions I use Diorskin.
I always have an Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat concealer pen to hand, along with Hypnose mascara by Lancôme (expensive, but Iâm a natural blonde and resemble a lightly coddled egg without it). The Eve Lom brand is pricey, but my choice when it comes to cleansers, toners and moisturisers.
On my lips I favour Carmex balm (cheap but effective) and my final make-up bag staple is a Dior red lipstick â" in case of any unexpected glamorous situations.
Totting up this bewildering list, I chose to lay down some ground rules for my challenge. After much procrastination, I decided that if a product or treatment could be classified as primping or preening, it was prohibited.
In a nutshell, if youâre in pain without it (Vaseline for badly chapped lips, for example) or if it has a hygienic or practical purpose (unscented shower gel, say, or drying your hair in order not to freeze on the school run) then itâs allowed. If the purpose is styling or pampering, then itâs banned.
I confess that before embarking on my beauty detox, I have one final splurge. A session of microdermabrasion is top of my to-do list, followed by a manicure and pedicure, plus a Keratin blow-dry (which should l eave my hair groomed and glossy for four weeks) and eyelash extensions. Finally, I am ready to start.
The first few days are surprisingly easy â" Iâm not my usual glossy self, but nor do I look too unkempt.
But by day three I realise Iâve made a fatal mistake with the hair. Keratin blow-dries only retain their effect if you use a sulphate-free shampoo.
But Iâve committed to using bargain-basement brands â" and every basic shampoo on the market appears laced with the stuff. Immediately Iâm up frizz alley without a styling product: my usually luscious locks have been transformed into a fluffy mess.
Not made up: Anna Pursglove two weeks into her no beauty regime with the painting on her toenails looking decidedly chipped
Day five and I realise Iâm due to attend a wedding at the weekend. The dress stops at the knee â" but the leg hair doesnât! I may be a natural blonde but â" regardless of shade â" below-knee fuzz isnât a good look. I experiment with 10-denier tights but somehow leg hair is most offensive when itâs poking through sheer hosiery.
Mercifully, the weather on the day is truly awful â" the brideâs dress even goes see-through in the rain so the furriness of my shins is way down the list of sartorial disasters.
Seeing women re-applying endless coats of make-up in the loos brings home to me exactly how much of the stuff we wear. I do feel a fleeting sense of liberation at not having to spend ages checking my face, but this is counterbalanced by the stress of trying to dodge the wedding photographer.
By the end of week one, I feel like every part of me is peeling. My lips, deprived of their regular coatings of moisturising lipstick, are parched and my lower legs are scaly without the daily applications of rich body lotions.
Enlarge ÂDifference: Anna Pursglove's hands two weeks into her no beauty regime, left, and at the end, right
Iâve also aged about a decade, as deep lines appear â" particularly around my mouth. Where people used to comment that I look young for my 39 years, Iâve now been asked several times whether Iâm ill, tired or hungover.
On the up side, the lack of plumping moisturiser has made my face look thinner and friends are wondering whether Iâve lost weight.
For week two, Iâm on holiday with my family and a group of friends in the Canary Islands â" and wearing a bikini is a nightmare.
I struggle without the, er, more intimate waxing that swimwear demands.
âWow, thatâs quite a 1973 vibe,â is my best friendâs comment the first time I recline on a Lanzarote beach. I dive for a nearby towel and stay covered up for the rest of the holiday. I know body hair is natural, but Iâm just not ready to embrace it. My unkemptness makes me feel as if Iâve let myself go.
Ditched: Anna Pursglove with her hair straighteners and hair brushes after four weeks without cosmetics
Back in England, my face is now the problem zone. Having dyed my eyebrows and eyelashes for most of my adult life, I am shocked by their swift return to natural blondeness and bushiness.
Meanwhile, without regular treatments my fingernails and toenails are peeling like the layers of an onion and Iâve begun gnawing my fingernails for the first time since my teens (having included nail files on the âunnecessary pamperingâ list).
And then â" quelle horreur! â" I am called into the offices of a leading fashion editor to talk about a top-secret project. Do I have the experience? Absolutely. Do I have the look? Not so much. Iâm sporting chipped nails and completely off-message black skinny jeans to hide my leg hair (itâs all about delicate, but flesh-baring broderie anglaise this season).
I explain that I am on a mission to uncover my inner beauty, but Iâm beginning to see what those women meant about job interviews being tricky without the reass urance of grooming. Iâm yet to hear whether I got the gig but Iâve a feeling itâs a No.
As the second half of the experiment wears on, I seriously consider giving it up. My three-year-old daughter asks if Iâm âfeeling a bit sicky?â while my six-year-old son wonders whether he can show solidarity by ceasing to brush his teeth.
Foremost among my concerns is that Iâve started avoiding going anywhere where Iâll be closely scrutinised. Other people (particularly women) have noticed my radically altered appearance and Iâm getting tired of explaining what Iâm doing. I cancel a couple of evenings out with friends and am pleased when it rains on the school run so I can hide under the hood of my raincoat.
I havenât quite stopped answering the door, but Iâm certainly feeling unpleasantly self-conscious, especially when a delivery driver asks â" at 4pm â" whether Iâve just got out of bed.
By week four, the attributes that I have spent my adult life emphasising â" eyelashes, eyebrows, eyelids, lips â" are virtually invisible at best and chapped and flaky at worst. I look child-like and aged at the same time.
Meanwhile, the things I would most like to hide now seem to have become my defining features. Iâve had rosacea for a few years, which has left me with florid skin and small veins on my cheeks â" blemishes I usually cover with makeup â" while under-eye bags and creases by the nose and on the forehead seem to have deepened.
Iâm battling hair so fluffy and frizzy I look like an extra from a Bon Jovi video, and my nails are bitten down to stumps.
So, as my experiment comes to a close, what I have learned? Has the rejection of outer beauty uncovered oceans of it on the inside?
Honestly, no. I feel in no way liberated (although Iâve saved at least £40 on treatments). I feel inexplicably grubby and Iâve started dreaming about mascara (the product I missed the most). I ha ve made my peace with my extremely short nails, but the leg and underarm hair will be whipped off the second this experiment finishes.
I have also started taking furtive sniffs of my Stella McCartney fragrance, which Iâve missed wearing nearly as much as mascara.
Far from saving me time in the morning, the time Iâve saved not brushing my hair or applying make-up has been eaten up fretting about whether I have the confidence to face the outside world.
My friends clearly think I look ropey as hell â" the words âtiredâ, âstressedâ and âfrazzledâ keep coming up. Although my husband genuinely doesnât seem to see much difference between made-up me and naked-faced me, I donât know whether this makes him a typically unobservant male, or a very good liar.
This anti-grooming mission has made me appreciate that my reliance on beauty treatments was a little excessive, but itâs also shown me that in some respects the beauticianâs salon is a haven for a busy working mother. Itâs rare time to take a mental and physical break and do nothing more than collect your thoughts.
On a more serious note, itâs also made me realise that women are highly disingenuous about the importance of looks.
Weâll merrily tell our daughters that their naked faces are beautiful, while applying layers of make-up to our own skin. We have no problem taking a high moral stand along the âno woman should be judged on her looksâ lines, while simultaneously lampooning any famous female who appears in public looking unkempt.
With our constant judging of each other, we women are our own worst enemies.
The pursuit of beauty is both a joy and a curse. It is an expression of feminine sexuality and of individual taste. Yet it makes us self-conscious and competitive, eating up our time and money. It is, in many ways, an addiction â" one Iâll be enthusiastically resuming the moment this experiment is over.
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Whilst it is a good article one has to suspect it is a little extreme. As a woman i wear a dusting of make up to work but absolutely live for the weekends when I can go make up free. I think it is a really sad indictment of life if women put that much pressure on themselves (and spend that much money!) just to get on. The sad thing is that her skin would be so much better without all the slap and a good moisturiser. I fully agree with Katie 0157, it is a definitely a confidence issue.
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I completely agree with you, David, Essex. I got on the 'chemical' train about aged 12 when I started wearing makeup to cover a few minor spots--how I wish I'd listened to my mum who discouraged the use of makeup and other skin products! 20 years later, I'm a slave to my makeup...still suffering with acne (which I'm positive is caused by all that I do to my skin) and I can't stop wearing the makeup that I need to cover the 'imperfections'. It is truly a vicious cycle once you start.. I will try to explain all this to my daughter when she's old enough and encourage her to go the natural route!
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I thought being women we;re meant to promote natural beauty, regardless. I hate make-up, I had to ware it as a child on stage for the entire part of my childhood and now I rarely use it. Why must women degrade themselves by trying to fit in with everyone else by having the same lip-stick or the same foundation. Why can't people just be who they are without the make-up and be unique. What utter sheep. Plus this article is biased! With make-up she is smiling and without make-up she's not. I'm sorry did you not mention the botox she injected into her face to have a "permanent" happy slappy smile on her face. You CAN be happy without make-up you know! I await the red arrows.
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Ladies, guys have to go without any form of enhancement to their appearance, so welcome to our world.
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wow, you were really brave to do that! I don't have all those treatments but would get serious panic attacks and be mortified if I now had to leave the house without having done my 'routine' to polish up!! Ur a great character and honest which can only be admired!! Most of us look plain naturally unfortunately, but we all want to look special when we can x x
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she looks just fine without the warpaint
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Joy, hilarious!
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Many women are now free from men's slavery gained their rights -- but then enslaved themselves to make-up. Very sad to read lines such as "a recent survey found two-thirds of women believe facing the world without full make-up is more stressful than a first date or a job interview" or "Many of these women were also unable to contemplate even the most mundane tasks (sitting on a train, for example, or answering the door) without selected areas having first been dyed, tinted or plucked" My wife is beautiful because she is kind a loving person, not because she wears make-up. Bonus: she looks the same all the time - beautiful. Unlike some others, which become uglier once they removed the make-up at night. Wonder how their husbands felt like.
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Is it not possible that the chemicals you apply to your body strip away the natural oils and that with a healthy diet and lifestyle your skin would recover naturally? It seems to me that the cosmetics industry is happy to sell products that interfere with the natural process, so that when you stop using them your skin and hair feels terrible, encouraging women to buy more rather than give their bodies a longer time to recover from the chemical abuse. Nice business model. I sympathise with women, who are often their own worst enemies and bombarded with slick psychological advertising that taps into their worst fears of not looking 'beautiful'. I prefer the 'natural' look; and by natural I mean naturally healthy skin and not post-cosmetic traumatised skin.
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I bet her boyfriend had a shock when he found out the truth
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