Stripped bare

Ireland’s most beautiful women without their make-up

Starting to wear make-up is a rite of passage in most women’s lives, but it used to be one that didn’t begin in earnest until their late school days. Before that, it mostly involved tinkering around as a young teenager with Pound Shop panstick, Juicy Tubes lip gloss, high-shimmer eyeshadows and, no matter what your colouring, heavy black eyeliner. All kinds of mistakes involving fake tan, smoky eyes, and dodgy foundation lines would be made

— the kinds of things endless YouTube make-up tutorials now educate even the youngest make-up fans against.

Nowadays, most young teenagers can contour like a Kardashian, and many wouldn’t dream of leaving the house without some sort of ‘face’ on. For some, make-up is a method of expression, a chance to get creative. For others, it’s a form of armour, a layer of protection between oneself and the world at large.

The women on these pages wear make-up all the time for work; they are models, TV presenters, actresses. As a woman, to work in the public eye is to be constantly judged, and to have the minutiae of one’s appearance regularly torn asunder — thank you, Twitter trolls and online commentors.

Like many of us, some of these women never leave the house without some sort of make-up on. For others, learning to do so was a huge personal milestone. So agreeing to go without make-up for our shoot was somewhat nerve-wracking. But also brave, and empowering. Two things all these women could claim to be.

Aoibhin Garrihy

I was in the Gaeltacht, and I remember arriving down and — shock, horror — all the girls had make-up and I had none. So I sent my mom a letter and she sent me down a little eyeshadow palette, lip gloss, a black eyeliner and clear mascara. Sure I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, but I was delighted with myself. It was after first year, so I would have been about 13.

Make-up wasn’t allowed in school. There were girls who tried it, but I was really sporty in school and I just never wore it. It was only in the latter years that we started doing fake tan, if it was Wesley disco on the Friday night. It was before Facebook — I guess we just didn’t have the same pressure. The Kardashian age hadn’t kicked in. At college, for me, make-up wasn’t really allowed. I did acting in college, and we had to be kind of blank canvases. I didn’t even know how to properly apply make-up until I started working. I was in

Fair City for several years. It’s great, because you have make-up artists and you’re learning from them.

Now, there are things on my face that I’ve become more aware of that I wasn’t before. It begins to creep up on you — that’s age. There are fine lines and stuff that you feel like you have to hide. That’s not something that I had to worry about years ago; I’m 30 this year.

I certainly like to wear make-up in order to feel confident, but it’s not caked on. There are areas where I would always have concealer, and I wouldn’t go without mascara. Generally, though, I’m happy to go without foundation, [enhancing my] brows, and even eyeshadow.

Getting older doesn’t bother me. I have never felt more comfortable in myself. I think I’m more confident in my skin than I was when I was younger. As an actress, it’s a more exciting time. The roles are more complex and they’re more interesting.