can't help you

oh, adam. there's nothing wrong w/big titties.

Uh, I don't usually wear it at all, unless I have some whopper zit or dark circles under my eyes a few times per year. Then maybe I'll put some concealer on those parts.

I used to when I went to clubs because it was kinda fun. I knew just as many guys at the clubs who wore makeup too though. It was like an art project back then.

Did you know that people who wear lipstick actually end up ingesting gallons of the stuff (usually made with petroleum and other nasty products) throughout their lifetime?

Adam: "Why men find the bulbous ass and oversized tits attractive is something I may never understand."

To be fair, it's biological, and not all (even heterosexual) men are attracted to all that T&A. Evolution has ingrained men with the need to find a mate with a certain waist-to-hip ratio, so even if your ass is TOO big that's still not good. Also, full breasts are a natural indication of healthy milk production for nourishing babies (just as the "proper" sized hips indicate a woman who are capable of, and can survive, natural childbirth). Of course, some men are highly attracted to larger women as an overall size (which used to be a very popular choice as fat on a women was once - and for a long time - indicative of health [perhaps from a well-providing husband] and thus child-capable, and later wealth as in the Elizabethan era, because they could obviously afford to eat in excess). There are also heteros that find the flat-chested, twiggy/non-curvaceous women attractive - although THAT is something *I* will never understand...

You were likely attracted to "flat chested small framed tomboy" women, because you were really just attracted to boys all along, thus women who lacked traditionally feminine features would be most likely to attract you.

HOWEVER...
Adam: "what is it with MAKE-UP?"

THIS I agree with you on. I hardly ever wear make-up at all. On a day-to-day basis, I wash my face, and that's the end of it (and my husband loves that - he hates that so many women hide behind make-up as a security blanket because they have low self-confidence - not to say that ALL women who wear make-up think themselves ugly, of course). Even when I do wear make-up (for special events or when I really dress up - it's more to compliment my outfit so I don't look so visually imbalanced; i.e. black-tie formal from the neck-down, grocery-shopping from the neck up; lol), I never wear lipstick or even lipgloss. Food, beverages, my own and my husband's body, and chapstick are the only things that ever touch my lips (perhaps there are a few more qualifiers in there but I don't have that kind of time). I also despise liquid foundation. I wear a sheer layer of mineral powder, and a touch of mineral blush. The other day in fact, a friend of mine took me to get a free presentation of some Mary Kay products. We used them on only half our faces so we could see and feel the difference they made in a side-to-side comparison. There was face wash-exfoliater-moisturizer, morning cleanser, evening cleanser, lip moisturizer, lip balm, and their liquid foundation also had skin-improving qualities in it, and I had to put it on half of my face.

I felt so ugly.

The color didn't match, it covered my beautiful freckles, it exaggerated my larger pores, and my face (well, that half of it) looked like it was covered in something other than skin (which of course, it was), and that DISGUSTED me. I washed my face strait away after getting home, and I felt uncomfortable the whole trip back. After I scrubbed everything off, I asked my husband to feel both sides of my face to see if he could tell a difference. He said their was a difference, and he liked the left side better. I told him afterward that was the side that wasn't treated with any Mary Kay products. He made me feel so happy and beautiful as to make up (no pun intended) for the whole ordeal.

I will wear eye make-up (mascara, eyeliner, and occasionally eyeshadow). However, I usually like to have fun with it. Browse through my profile pictures and on page 3 is a close-up of me with black liquid eye-liner on - it's in a fun design. I don't wear make-up to try and fake people out about what I look like naturally, I wear make-up like I wear my tattoos - a small, complimentary artistic touch to the natural curves and lines of my body (or in this case, my face), that are fun and beautiful without going overboard.

I rarely wear makeup, but when I do, it's not a self-worth issue; it's a marketing issue. It's the same reason I've lost 45 pounds and plan to lose 15 more. I'm making myself more marketable, sexually speaking.

Makeup is a bit trickier in that regard than weight loss. Although there are men who are sexually attracted to fat women, the *vast* majority of men are much more attracted to slender women, so as my body shrinks, my potential dating pool enlarges. The math on this is fairly simple. But the percentage of men who don't care for makeup is much higher than the percentage of men who are attracted to fat women, but still (as far as I can tell) lower than the percentage of men who do like to see at least some makeup on a woman, so some balancing must be done.

My main goal with makeup is to enhance my appearance while appearing, as much as possible, to not be wearing any makeup. I have to say that the Bare Minerals line of powdered foundation has been like a little miracle in this regard. It does an amazing job of concealing under-eye circles and blemishes and blending and smoothing the face, making my skin look milky smooth, while just giving the slightest hint that there's anything there besides bare skin. It's really quite remarkable. Beyond the foundationy stuff, the sole purpose of which is simply to give an appearance of smoother, more even-toned skin, I don't actually wear that much. First, I wear virtually no eye makeup. I don't wear eyeshadow or mascara, and I just use a hint of brown eyeliner under my lower lashes and above my upper lashes, only on the outer part of the eye. I put it on as lightly as I can, and then I blend it with a Q-tip, so you can barely see that anything's there even if you're looking up close right at the eye. I do wear a bit of blush in the locations on my face that show color after I've been outside in the sun. As far as the lips go, I generally don't wear actual lipstick; I'm inclined to use a lip liner that's only slightly darker than my own lip color as my lipstick. First, I'll put regular old Chap Stick on my lips, and then I'll take the lip liner and color over the Chap Stick until there's a hint of color in my lips.

There are, of course, exceptions to this. If I'm really snazzing it up for some reason, I'll often do everything the same as I described above, but go with a totally wild shade of red lipstick, like I did here:

people.tribe.net/enrika/ph...8b3895b92c

Or if I'm having a photo taken, I might even wear my eyeliner slightly darker and use a tad of mascara, in addition to a more vivid shade of lipstick, and maybe even some lip liner, like I did here:

people.tribe.net/enrika/ph...2f607f330f

I'm actually wearing quite a bit of makeup in this photo, but other than the lipstick, it's not obvious. Which is the whole point.

The other issue with makeup, since I mainly wear it for the same reason a bird puffs up his plumage during mating season, is to not look like person A when I go out on a date with someone, and person B when I wake up next to him in the morning (if he's *tremendously* lucky, that is ;) ). The way I wear makeup lends itself to that reasonably well, since the idea is to look as much as possible like I'm not wearing any makeup at all. But it's still helpful to have a gradual morph from full makeup to no makeup, so at no point does it look like I've just taken off a mask.

Sometimes it's annoying that, as a woman, society in general expects me to wear makeup to enhance my appearance. But more often I'm actually grateful that it's perfectly acceptable for me to use makeup to conceal my flaws and accentuate my flattering features. There are some alternative social circles in which it's acceptable for men to wear makeup (though generally it has to be something fairly wild, like this: ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/...SY292_.jpg ), but for the most part, if you're an average straight guy, you can't wear makeup without getting shit for it. Which means if you're going on a date and you've got a bad breakout or a monster zit, or you just generally look fairly crappy that evening, there's not a damn thing you can do about it. I, on the other hand, have a variety of tools and techniques at my disposal for dealing with all of these situations and more. And since I only wear makeup maybe a few times a month, I don't spend a significant chunk of time dealing with it, like women who wear makeup to work every day. So, for me, it's more of a blessing than a curse... most of the time.

Does that help?

I think makeup can be done well or poorly.

In the right circumstances, like an evening out into a dark club, heavier makeup is appropriate. After all it's there to merely accentuate features, less is more.... but it it is dim lighting you need more to give one's features the same push.

But nobody who wears makeup right for that setting, will look that good in it when the lighting is brightly lit, yet I do see some people coming to the office with makeup that thick, don't know if that works with daylight and florescent lighting.

I think people just need to be realistic about what makeup can do for them. If someone is putting on way too much they might indeed be trying to fix something or hide something, that is the wrong attitude unless one has really bad blemishes, port wine stains, etc. where it is totally understandable. But I've, for instance, seen people put lip-liner around their actual lips because they think tracing a new wider border of color for their lips will make them look fuller but it's so obvious. A self esteem positive attitude for using makeup is to merely highlight the features of your face you are the most proud of, for instance, you are proud of your eyes... use a little eyeshadow subtly blended and a little eye liner and mascara to draw some attention to it.

Probably the biggest mistake I notice with makeup application is with the blending of blush and foundation and the poor selection of colors with both, it shouldn't look like a person's got a rash on each cheek. Get a soft rounded 1 1/2" inch soft brush just for blending, shun darker red blush for muted pinks if necessary mixed with just a tad bit of tan or pale colors to bring the pink down to just a soft glow on the skin from underneath rather than on the surface.

If makeup seems too obvious, it's just simply done wrong. But if makeup is done right, well... it's a turn on really.