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I work at a small tech company in the accounting department. Our dress code is business casual, but most of the rank-and-file dress toward the casual end of that.

I am female, in my early twenties. I was raised in a very conservative family and never wore makeup growing up. I never bothered with it in college, and have no current interest in learning how to do makeup. My skin isn't perfect, but neither is it terrible (occasional slight acne).

Up until now I have been working on internal projects, but will soon be in a position to interact with some clients and representatives from other companies we do business with. I am worried about giving an unprofessional first impression (and thereby reflecting poorly on my company) if I do not wear makeup.

Is this a reasonable concern? Will not wearing makeup harm my professional career? Should I spend the time, money, and energy to learn how to do makeup?

I'm a senior technical architect, female (and umm, not in my early twenties any more), and I really only wear makeup if I'm going into meetings with our larger clients where I need to be more formal. Day to day, I just don't wear it. It costs a bomb and looks crappy by the end of the day unless you spend significant amounts of time either preparing beforehand or repairing during the day.

There are plenty of other women I've worked with who wear makeup every day, and others who never do and it hasn't seemed to have any particular impact on their careers either way. It comes down to being an effective team member, not what shade of lipstick you wear.

My preference is just to wear makeup for the really formal stuff where I'm representing the company to outward facing clients (and then only really light), otherwise nope :) But that is simply my preference. The choice really is yours!

I am a Senior Software Engineer, and I have not worn makeup for most of my career, and it has never held me back. Just as a fyi, in most cases requiring women to wear makeup can be a discrimination issue, especially if it is not relevant to your job. For example, it would be acceptable for a fashion model, though not as an accountant, where your deliverable is basically your math skills. There have been precedent-setting cases related to this issue, such as Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins. (Please note that I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.)