I really tried to understand the mentality of MUA posters, but I think there is too much difference between the culture of makeup where I live and where MUA users seem to live.

I am from Paris, France. And here, almost none of the "everyday makeup" that get posted to MUA would be considered normal, and even the "natural makeups" would be considered a lot of makeup. Only the no make up makeups look normal.

Most women here look like they are wearing no makeup, or very very little (a bit of mascara and a bit of lip color). Most women don't wear foundation, or at least never a full face. It's considered pretty tacky, and people will assume you have bad skin if you are noticeably wearing foundation.

I can't help but find full faces to be either weird (uncanny Valley weird) or maybe pretty like a painting if it's very well done. If I see a woman wearing a full face typically MUA makeup I'll assume she must be very insecure, not really pretty or she recently came out as transsexual. I know mua users think only a misogynistic insecure guy can think like this, but this really is my opinion.

Why would you change your face so much? If the answer from the community was "I want to be prettier", I feel like it would be less hypocritical (Even if I think a full face is ugly, that probably just because I am not used to seeing it often). Yet that answer is shunned. The overwhelming response is "it's fun" or "it's a hobby". Which is fine really. I'll never think a woman wearing a weird lip color or having crazy graphic liner is insecure or ugly. I also like to put on some crazy makeup to have fun from time to time and I totally get that people that are really into makeup would want to do it more often. I recognize that it's a legitimate hobby and it required skills.

But I am taking about doing an overdone face everyday. Of course, the makeup is going to be very similar everyday. This is less "having fun" for me and more "I want to change my face because I don't like how it is originally". Most mua posters accentuate the same features, and look super similar. It's all about imitating one look, often the Kardashians (which all look incredibly fake and ugly to me. They should fire their makeup artist and hire someone that can make them look like humans. They are probably beautiful women under that makeup, idk.)

Then another reason often thrown around is that it's personal care on the same level as skincare or haircare (haircare being different from dyeing your hair improbable colors). I am deep into the rabbit hole for these two things, but I think they are vastly different from makeup. They are about improving yourself, improving what you have to its full potential. They don't change your apparence to something unnatural or add unnecessary ornements. They are about making your hair or skin look like they are supposed to, which means healthy and strong. It would seem like, as makeup communities, skincare and haircare would uniform the apparence of women but paradoxically, it allows for much more diversity than makeup. Bad skin and frizzy hair all look the same, but healthy skin and hair brings out the uniqueness in the features of people.

Whereas makeup can't do that. You conscientiously draw on your face to make it look like something else, so of course you'll have to have a reference. (I am not saying you can't improve your facial features with makeup, but even then these techniques have an arbitrary purpose (that isn't specific to the individual)).

I also don't consider fashion and makeup to be the same (Even I must say they are pretty close, much more than makeup and skincare). Humans don't have natural clothing from birth, just like they don't have natural makeup. You could say makeup is the clothing of the face. But I feel like there are a couple of important differences.

First off clothing is necessary whereas makeup isn't. So there is an utilitarian approach to fashion that doesn't exist for makeup. If you have to wear clothes everyday, it makes sense to spend a lot of work on it. Whereas nobody has to wear makeup.

Secondly clothing covers the body whereas makeup is all about that face, and this is a big difference. Most of the ways you communicate with the rest of the world is through your face. Your face is what immediately distinguishes you visually from others. You are your face much more than you are your body. (I don't like to compare women too much, but I think women with pretty faces and a shit body have it easier than women with banging bodies and a butterface). This si why the niqab and burka seem so much worse than the hijab. The hijab is a fashion choice (more or less controversial) , the niqab hides the face. Masks it. Makes it impossible to distinguish between women. Makeup isn't a niqab, of course. Yet, as I said earlier, it is a conscious mask of sorts.

Finally, a lot of people say that makeup is an Art. Yes, yes it is. I won't deny it. Makeup is obviously a sub genre of painting. But, don't try and pretend that the full face you do every morning before going to work is art. It's not. It's probably skillfully made, no doubt. But it's not art. To draw a parallel with fashion again, fashion is obviously an art. But dressing every morning in well chosen clothes ISN'T art. It can be a way of personal expression, which is great. Of course in the case of the mua look, it's not so personal, just like the MFA uniform isn't really personal.

I finished my ramblings. I am not too proud of this opinion, to be honest. I am open to discussion.

English is my second language, so they must be grammatical errors all over the place, sorry for that.