Unrelated to the hives - this is nifty. Twitter cookbook

Twitter cookbook

That's brilliant!

Jessica, I hope whatever it is, it goes away soon (and definitely that the stress which hopefully (?) caused it will disappear, as well).

I will admit, too, it does make me want to find a world-class makeup artist and photographer so that just once, I could see what I could look like.

Yeah, me too.

Especially since I'm so completely ignorant in these matters, they look like magic to me (when D, one of my former roommates, got married, I spent the day with her, so I got to watch the woman who did her makeup do her job. It was totally like magic - she took this color, that color, a bit of this and a bit of that, and suddenly D was a beautiful striking version of her already-pretty self. Magic).

I think the pictures without makeup are also taken to maximize the unattractiveness, while the ones with makeup are carefully lit and touched up to make them more attractive. I remember years ago seeing a spread on makeovers in a magazine. They dragged women out of bed at 5am (!), no makeup, no hair styling, no coffee (!!!), stood them up against a wall and put a strong white light on them. They all looked terrible. Then, after makeup and hair and wardrobe, they were carefully posed and lit ... and looked beautiful.

A *lot* of those "no makeup" pictures were from movies.

The hives on my arms have gone mostly down. I'll check the ones on my legs and torso in the bathroom later.

A *lot* of those "no makeup" pictures were from movies.

So rather than "no makeup" they're "lots of makeup that's meant to make this person look bad"?

carefully lit and touched up

Yeah, there's the whole thing of touching up and improving (or not, I guess - more than once I find that the touched pictures lost something in the process) that's never possible when looking at mirrors, even with all the makeup and hair style and lighting.

I wanna see before and after shots of a man in Manscara.

What was the other wacky male makeup thing?

Most of the makeup-less shots are candids, which are almost always less flattering.

Seriously -- the Marilyn makeup-less pictures aren't candids; they're posed, but just with no makeup. Which is why her makeup-less pictures look so much better than the other actors' makeup-less pictures.

The Halle makeup-less picture seemed posed(ish), and it's notable that her makeup-less picture is one of the only "good" ones.

(Also, I think I've been living in a cave, because there are about 3 of those actors who I don't even recognize, in either state [makeup-less AND made-up].)

A *lot* of those "no makeup" pictures were from movies.

So rather than "no makeup" they're "lots of makeup that's meant to make this person look bad"?

See, I *knew* that you can't trust the made-up photos, in the sense that they've been colored and curled (or straightened) and carefully lit and then retouched in Photoshop (or whatever) afterwards.

But to find that I can't trust the makeup-less photos? Man.

But to find that I can't trust the makeup-less photos?

Is there anything you can trust on the internets these days? I mean, besides LOLcats....

Hmm... some of the no make up pictures are from movies, most notably the one of charlize theron, I think. But plenty are just paparazzi pics.

I think Julia Roberts is rather pretty without makeup, though the lighter color of her hair is not great.

The widow's peak and heart-shapedness of Marilyn's face is always so startling.