Does being seen without makeup cause you anxiety?

I wasn't sure where to post this but I am wondering if anyone else out there suffers from this.  I admit I am getting better as I get older but I still feel very uncomfortable being seen sans makeup.  I wear makeup everywhere I go.  To the corner store, to the gym, to the beach etc.  I don't always have a full face of makeup, but eyeliner and concealer and lip color are a must.  I wish sometimes I could let go of this but when I am out without makeup I am not even able to hold my head up, or look people in the eye.  I try to "hide".  It comes from years of having acne and covering that up.  I no longer have terrible acne, just the odd minor breakout here and there but the anxiety of being seen without my makeup lingers.  When I first began dating my fiance I would wait until he left to wash my face at night and when we moved in together for along time I would wear makeup to bed.  It's ridiculous.  I don't do that anymore but am wondering how common this is? 

Nah, I think its my age. Take me as I am or dont take me at all.

HOWEVER, I will admit that I do not go out of the house (other than to my moms) without some type of makeup on.  Whether it be lipstick and mascara.  Or a gloss and creme glitter shadow base, or something.  There is always some type of highlighter on my face.

omg I TOTALLY understand. I'm the same way. I feel like I look so bland without makeup..washed out...etc. OK this is how bad I am:

I won't answer the door for UPS (or anyone!) if I dont have at least some makeup on. I don't even think my fiance has ever seen me without makeup (LOL). How crazy is that?! So I completely empathize with you and how u are around your fiance. I just feel plain ol' ugly without it. Also, like you, I had really bad acne. I was put on accutane for mine and that cured it, but the anxiety thing about good looking skin is still with me.

My anxiety about it is so bad that I've had "nightmares" about being in the middle of some busy public place in my pj's and no makeup and having everyone look at me and say mean comments. 

I'm getting better with it (like dream was saying) with age...I've learned to be OK with having super light makeup on, or almost none at all. But I still will wear a hat when I do that! And I never go anywhere super busy like that either.

I think it comes down to how you were raised (my mom  ever went anywhere without makeup), and how much makeup you tend to wear--it's a big diff going from dramatic to none than it is going from super light to none imo. Great topic! Thanks for sharing.

Too funny.  I also won't answer the door for UPS either w/o makeup and I do the hat thing too if I am wearing very little makeup AND I've totally had the nightmare too!  Thanks GEL and DW, I am working on adopting your attitude of 'take me as I am".  Love it!

I feel self conscious that people who talk to me face to face when I have no makeup on, see all the imperfections of my face....that makes me cringe.  Foundation and powder are a must for me.  Everything else I don't need.

LOL! Me too! I've become self conscious cuz I was talking to my kickboxing instructor and she was looking at the acne scars on my chin the whole time. Now I feel like I need concealer to leave home and to of all places, the gym!

At the minimum, if I'm leaving the house, I brush in foundation and brow powder, and that's only if I'm going straight to the gym. It's not so much that I can't stand to be without makeup, but I just feel drab without it. If that makes any sense. Like the days I hang out at the house with messed up hair and no makeup, I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and it's down right scary! I honestly feel more energetic with makeup and hair done. Crazy...I know...

No. I workout without makeup on. Perhaps if I were going to work or were to go out, etc, I would feel like I would need to wear makeup. I would never get anxiety from it though.  

We relate! Pretty much everything you said is how it was for many years. Especially, the sleeping in your makeup part. I don't think I let my SO see me without any for several months. 

One of the worst parts is having unexpected company. OMG, that is a nightmare. I'll be cleaning or whatever and have to zoom upstairs to put some makeup on just to show face and say hi. It sucks!

If I ever, somehow manage to get great skin you bet your boots I'll be wearing less makeup and probably none at all most of the time. Makeup is fun and it makes me feel pretty/sexy but it can be a chore and a burden sometimes. 

Even though I still have to wear it, it's not as bad as it used to be. Thank goodness!

It´s not that bad with me, but I have some anxiety about people who always see me made up seeing me without makeup for the first time. It´s like I am 100% certain that they will think "wow...so I guess she´s not that pretty after all". It´s not that I wear a ton of makeup (at least not during the day), but I feel like the makeup I do wear totally transforms me. When I´m made up, I get an instant confidence boost (my husband said that he doesn´t feel like I need the makeup, but he likes that I´m more confident with makeup on) because I like the way I look then. When I go somewhere (like to the grocery store) with no makeup on, I like to avoid looking into any mirrors & and my reflection in glass windows.

So bottom line: I really don´t even wanna see myself with no makeup on! lol

I draw and fill in my eyebrows every morning, that's the one thing i always make sure i apply.

For the rest when i was younger i had acne and terrible makeup skills. The result i think was even worse with makeup than without, so at some point i was through with the hassle of hiding everything, WTH, i have acne, you will have to take me as i am.

Oh gosh.. totally relate to so much on here!   My low self esteem is why I started using makeup!  I started feeling ugly at a very young age and I started wearing makeup in the 6th grade.  It got so bad as I got older, I would NEVER leave home without makeup on, ever, like I would have rather DIED then do that.  I always had a compact with me to check my face, and I would be OCD with it and pull it out every 5 mins because I too also had acne when I was younger and I was always checking to make sure my zits were covered, but when you have cystic acne, it's kinda hard because they are awful mounds on your face with no white head ever to be in sight for months to come and it would just sit on your face.  I went to a couple different dermatologists and finally I was put on accutane.  It was so bad at some point, I would throw sheets over my mirrors because I couldn't even stand to look at my face because it was so bad.  (ha, I'm actually tearing up thinking about how much pain I was in)

Then once the acne went away, I had scars.  My boyfriend at the time would hold me down and try to pop the cysts, and use a needle to pop them to try to get a head, he would be like, "You need to get that shit out of your face, it will make it better".. but all he did was scar my face up.  I was so humiliated with the scars, I turned to tanning, for YEARS.  You would not catch me without a tan, because with a tan, you couldn't see the scars as much and I always wore my hair with face framed layers because they would cover up the sides of my face where the scarring was.  I remember one time a new b/f of mine at the time looked at my skin and was like, "Ohhh.. you kinda have a bit of roughage on the side of your face.. hmmph.. never noticed til now".. I wanted to DIE when he said that.  I always had big problems making eye contact with people, and I HATED and still do people staring at me, cuz I always think they are looking at my scars or thinking horrible things about me like how ugly I am.

I ended up using drugs for many years and drinking because I felt so insecure with myself, I could not be social or go on dates without drugs or alcohol because I felt too ugly and the scars bothered me so much! 

I would go to sleep with makeup on if I had any boyfriend over, and to top it off, I DRAW my eyebrows in, so if you catch me without make up on, I look friggin bizarre because my eyebrows are so thin and light, I just feel so washed out and ugly.  My lips are a pale shade of pink and when I'm pale, they like blend into the background.  In recent years though, due to different circumstances that have come my way, I stopped caring so much about it, and even though you would NOT catch me going out without some sort of makeup on, I don't need the full face anymore if I'm running errands and I have no time.  I'll draw my eyebrows, curl the lashes and use mascara and put bronzer and chapstick.  But, I prefer a full face with eyeliner on the top of the lids, lipstick, blush, bronzer, eyeshadow, etc etc lol. 

IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE IN THIS LONG POST--- PLEASE READ THIS!!!  ****As I said, I HATED my skin due to acne scars (pitted acne scars), I always wanted microdermabrasion, laser treatment.  I got like 2 chemical peels when I was younger at the dermatologists office, but they really didn't do anything.  This year I bought a couple different chemical peels off the internet, and they have CHANGED MY LIFE!  My acne scars are almost GONE on the side of my face and as odd as this sounds, it also has to do with OIL OF OLAY REGENERST FILLER & SEALER.  I would use the chemical peels, keep them on for longer then reccommended, then I would wash it off, and put the OFO FILLER & SEALER on the actual acne scars, kinda like fill in the holes (and also put it on what I orginially bought the product for, my smile lines and the friggin number 11 between my eyes) and I shit you not, I woke up in the morning with my skin a lot smoother.. so I continued doing this and I don't know what the hell is going on, I don't know if from using the peel and then putting the sealer/filler in the scars if it's stimulating collagen or whatever, but my scars got a lot smaller, my pores got smaller, it was like my skin where the holes/scars were, like regrew back together..I'm going to have to find some older pictures of me if it is possible (cuz Lord knows I have done all I could to cover the scars back then) and try to do a before and after. 

Check this out... due to the chemical peels, the oil of olay and I've actually stopped tanning, people come up to me and tell me what beautiful skin I have.. random strangers (haha they also come up to me and tell me how much I look like J.Woww but thats a whole other story!)... my friends that I havent seen in awhile are like, "Did you get a face lift or something??  Your skin looks totally different, you look so rejuvanated and gorgeous".. People at my school were astounded the first day I came in after I did some serious work on myself with the peels over the weekend, people noticed instantly, you will notice after the first use of these two products.  I do not work for either company, but I wish I did cuz I would be the best sales person and I'd be making BANK! 

SORRY IT WAS SO LONG /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> IF YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE CHEMICAL PEELS, HOLLA!

PS - I ALSO HAVE FOUND A WAY TO ACTUALLY FILL IN ACNE SCARS AND MAKE YOUR SKIN A FLAT SURFACE.  HIT ME UP FOR THAT AS WELL!

Well dang Changingfaces, are the products a secret? I'd love me a good chemical peel. Maybe it would peel off some of my over 40 wisdom lines? 

But besides the products...your story is very inspiring. I'm so glad to hear that you are no longer hiding behind your hair, and have regained your self esteem. Our outer appearance means a lot to most of us, even though we are taught "pretty is as pretty does" and "beauty is only skin deep." Yeah yea yeah....I agree that exterior beauty is just that, but heck...we all have feelings! 

Congrats on looking AND feeling better /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> 

ChangingFaces: That's great you found something that works for you. What are these chemical peels called and their %? Where did you buy them? 

www.skinlaboratory.com.. I started with the glyco-lac/60 gel peel.. then I moved up to the HQ

I've boughten from skinlaboratory for over a year now, I use the glycolic 50% and really like it. When I use it consistently my skin is clear. I want to try the one mentioned before.

I can't go without makeup. The least I'll go out with is foundation, mascara, gloss. My face is just uneven colored and getting worse now that I'm in my 30's

Yeah, well the Glycolic/Lactic acid is awesome... my scars started going away with just that, but HQ blew it out the water

Changingfaces, you made me cry!  Your story is so much like my own.  Thank you so much for sharing.  I want to give these peels a shot since I have scars too but have been timid to try anything.  I am alreay using the Olay and love it. 

Nope. I'm more likely to leave the house without makeup than with.