My daughters were horrified this week to see a photograph of singer Katy Perry without make-up.

They couldn’t believe how different she looked; how, as they said, ‘plain and ordinary’.

I explained how celebrities like her have both the time and money to devote hours to their appearance.

Photos of Cheryl Cole, Kate Moss and countless other famous stunners minus their layers of slap reveal average-looking women, not head-turners, beneath.

Applied the right way, make-up can work wonders for a woman’s appearance. That’s one of the reasons I don’t wear it – I wouldn’t want to distract my male colleagues from their work, cause builders to fall off scaffolding, or get press-ganged into joining a top modelling agency.

I’m not anti-make-up but the problem is that once you start wearing it, you can’t stop.

Many women would not go out without make-up. In the days when I did wear it, I would have felt naked leaving the house without it.

If you’re used to wearing make-up, it is a brave thing to go without – but often, people look better.

Earlier this year, female contestants on the dating show Take Me Out went without make-up for a national magazine.

I thought they looked far prettier bare-faced, so did my daughters.

They are just getting into make-up, much to the horror of my husband, who moans about the number of tubs and bottles cluttering up the bathroom.

They are disappointed by my lack of interest, that I haven’t got a dressing-table littered with lotions, potions, compacts and curlers (eye lash as opposed to the Hilda Ogden variety).

And the fact that, not knowing at what stage you apply toner, cleanser or moisturiser, I can’t teach them anything. ‘Let your skin breathe,’ I spout as I steer them towards the natural look.

But I remember myself at that age when make-up was part of life, like eating and drinking.

Going au natural is such a big deal that nowadays there’s even a national No Make-up Day, challenging women to be less dependent on it.

I’ve gone without for so long that, were I to apply it, I’d emerge looking like a toddler experimenting with their mum’s make-up.

Like everything else, I’d have to ask the children to help.