Is charity fundraiser brave? A nearly fresh-faced Rebecca Moore wonders if anyone really cares

You may have noticed a billion selfies appearing over the last few weeks, all with scrubbed faces and females proudly declaring a #nomakeupselfie.

The “brave” act of appearing in public without the usual daily allowance of slap raised money for Cancer Research UK but it also raised so many clashing concerns that it was hard to keep up. First, there was the encouragement: comments like “You go girl!” and “You’re a natural beauty!” filled social media newsfeeds across the country.

Next came the negativity: “Well, she’s hardly a natural beauty” many sniped about various images, apparently taking offence that someone would dare to compliment another human being on their appearance, even if said human being is not in fact a supermodel.

Then came the backlash: Why should we be making such a big deal about women wearing no make-up? It should be perfectly normal.

I happen to agree with this last comment but it was amazing to see the conflicted emotions prompted by such a simple craze.

Yes, some of the pictures were carefully positioned to show the women in their best light, possibly with the photographic blur turned way, way up high. Yes, some women pouted. Yes, some probably wore fake eyelashes. I don’t know. But I do know I don’t really care.

Nobody nominated me to undertake the no make-up quest. I take this as a compliment since I’m hoping this means that I don’t ordinarily wear enough make-up for people to believe it would be embarrassing enough to “out” me.

Having said that, perhaps I wasn’t nominated because people feel safer with me kept firmly behind my blusher. As it turns out – and completely unrelated to this craze – I’ve recently been wearing markedly less make-up than normal (which isn’t saying too much since I’ve never been particularly skilled at applying it). The annoying thing is that nobody’s much noticed.

I wanted some kind of reaction – preferably not a negative one – to at least acknowledge the fact that I’ve spent years handing out large sums of cash on the stuff.

It feels like going to a really expensive hairdresser and nobody noticing. As much as you don’t want everyone to point and laugh when you step outside, you do want some kind of reaction to the cash bomb you just blasted.

I have a sneaky suspicion from reading the comments accompanying the no-make-up-selfies (and from my own experience) that – whisper it – we women barely need any makeup at all.

In fact, were we not to wear it, very few people would even notice.

The people who do notice are more likely to compliment us on our appearance rather than immediately force our faces into paper bags.

Never mind doing it for a excellent cause such as Cancer Awareness – well, do it for that too – but also do it for your own bank account. Honestly, you’ll be amazed at the lack of reaction you get.