You should make an effort...

I hope you told them to mind their own business...

She's of an age where it really was the done thing to put your face on before going out". My mother, who'd be in her 90's if she was still alive, used to say to the 15 year old me " Never go out without your lipstick darling, even if it's just to the newsagents. You never know who you might bump into! "
It's taken me decades to finally dump that advice and no-one I bump into ever looks askance at my unlipsticked mouth!

Wear it if you want. Don’t wear it if you don’t Nobody else’s business.

Personally , I wear light make up everyday because I like it.
Have to admit that I wouldn’t leave the house without mascara simply because if I saw a reflection of my self without it , I would think I had left my eyes at home.

Another good answer would have been. "I don't want to look like an aging painted doll" then add under your breath "Like you do!".
Easy to think of good ripostes after the event. Sadly this lady must be so think skinned that even an insult would probably not hit home, but it would make you feel better.

I have a real problem with applying makeup, if I take off my glasses I can’t see anything ! I have magnifying mirrors but even with a *12 with one eye closed I still can’t see what I’m doing it’s a total hit and miss what I’ll look like at the end.

I was once forced to wait while a very unpleasant person insisted on putting on her lipstick before seeing me to the door! The message was "I never appear in public without lipstick. You should do the same."
Just made me laugh.
I've also been told that I need to wear high heels. I'm barely over 5 ft tall but have no intention of crippling myself.
Bitches gonna bitch.

How very rude! It's funny how some people of 'a certain age' think they can be blatantly outspoken and offensive and get away with it. If you are happy with your lifestyle and appearance vampirequeen then take no notice of her. I haven't worn makeup since my teens (except for a handful of special occasions), basically I can't be bothered. I'm 70 and yes I have a few lines but that's only natural, age doesn't come alone. I think I usually look clean and tidy (barring dog hair on clothes!!) and I really don't care what other people think - but woebetide them if they said so to my face!!

My mums 90 and always wears makeup and I’m proud that she still wants to look good. I’d never leave the house without it!

Well Vampire I think you should go with what makes you happy. I think it has a lot to do with confidence. When I was younger I wore almost the full caboodle due to a complete lack of self-confidence and it was just what you did - like applying armour to protect you from the world.

Now at almost 66 with lots of life experiences behind me I have gained confidence and I don't care if other people think I have a big nose, an unfashionable hair style or wear the wrong labels. As long as we're clean, neat and tidy what does it matter?

"Why do you need to wear it?" would be a good question for your friend.

When a friend and her DD were visiting me, they ahd wangled acommodation through my Mother.
In the morning when I took them on the first tour her DD spent over an hour putting make up on. She is a very pretty girl and I commented to her Mother that surely she did not need it all.
I got a snide comment about my own DD who was not wearing any along the lines of 'perhaps your DD should look at herself, it might help her'.
I just said she does not need it, she is a natural beauty.
She is now an X friend and my Mother got a dressing down for dumping her on me.

I would probably wear full makeup if I was stranded on a desert island!
I wear it everyday for ME not anyone else. I remember my Gran saying she could not face the day until she got her 'war paint' on. I know that feeling. I do only wear false eyelashes for special occasions now having worn them daily from age 16.
It does nobody any harm & makes me feel good.

Blossoming so sorry to hear you had SJS. Our son had it after taking Carbamazepine and was in ICU ventilated for nearly two weeks. Horrendous. It took a long time to get over at the time.
I hope you are completely better now ⚘⚘⚘

Its up to the individual. I was always involved in beauty therapy and so I love wearing make up! Not through lack of confidence or being vain. I am always interested in the latest beauty products that come on the market. For example, lipstick that doesn't smudge at all. It must run in my family as my cousin is the founder of GHD hair straighteners and at 74 she looks absolutely stunning!. She and Joanna Lumley have always been my role models! I am still in my sixties and may change my mind in ten years time, who knows!

I think it's possible to get locked in to a look you see in the mirror. I wear mascara and a bit of concealer if I'm going out (so as not to scare small children) or going on zoom. Otherwise, I don't bother. I've never got away with lipstick. Whatever colour I try, it makes me look prim and pursed up. I did one of those photo shoots several years ago where they do a full make up on you (and pose you in leathers, straddling a motorbike!) and I was in the loo scrubbing it off before I left to go home. I see myself when I look in the mirror and it just wasn't me.

When so-called celebrities show photos of themselves without any make up, you would hardly recognise them! Susannah Reid did it recently and the difference was amazing. It must be very confusing for a man who lives, in effect, with two different women.

If she actually said you should "make an effort" that was very rude.
If not, she may have thought she was simply giving you a tip that you would look nice with make up on.

Does she usually seem to open her mouth without engaging her brain?

Wearing make-up (when you don't feel like it) is so 'yesterday', so 'Kardashian' so FAKE. When I had a massive operation for a brain tumour my face changed and it became impossible to wear make up anyway for over two years, it affected my eyes and my lips. What a trauma to have to go without a bit of mascara or lipstick! But also what freedom, how liberating. I now know that if I am judged by whether I 'look good enough' then that is someone I need to avoid. Their problem not mine. Embrace the real you and enjoy the cost and the time savings!

I like to wear a little makeup when at work or somewhere special I remember my ex partner becoming quite annoyed and making an argument when I went makeup free at the weekend if staying in he said he felt it showed I didn't care about impressing him as much as my work colleagues laughable now when I look back

It's nobody's business how you dress, whether you wear make up or not, how much you weigh, how you should style your hair - or to comment on anything else that doesn't impinge on other people.

My husband's boss invited us to a dinner party at which I sat at the opposite end of the table
He raised his voice and said that I was very animated and obviously intelligent but had I never considered using a hair dye as my white hair aged me considerably
I replied that I had noticed that he was rather short and had he ever considered wearing built-up shoes.......

It isn't some kind of moral victory not to wear make up, you know.
Wear it, don't wear it.
Who cares?

Tell them to mind their own business

People who rely on makeup are subconsciously revealing a certain lack of confidence in facing the world without it. Or: they are excessively vain. However, I was once in Paris and saw an elderly lady wearing a Chanel suit walking towards me. She was obviously made up, but whoever had applied it had produced a work of art, since she looked terrific.

Oh how rude was that comment! I always wore make up everyday lipstick mascara foundation, but since March this year it’s really only mascara, what’s the point of lipstick when you are wearing a mask when out, and I’m not going to put it on to be indoors,

Tell them to look in the mirror.