This is the VERY surprising thing that happened when I tried the controversial no make-up dating trend. I was especially shocked by one man’s reaction: OLIVIA PETTER

The second I get home, I go straight to the bathroom and reach for a make-up wipe. I want to erase all evidence of my three-hour date. It wasn’t terrible; I just didn’t fancy him, so all my extensive prep suddenly felt like a waste of time, money and energy.

That preparation began with an ‘everything shower’. To the uninitiated, this is the term millennial women like me – I’m 31 – use to describe a shower where every last part of your beauty regimen is enacted.

This includes (but is not limited to) hair washing, deep conditioning, shaving, exfoliating, and perhaps a face mask for good measure (the collagen sheet masks I favour are £20 a pop).

Then I carefully applied my make-up: concealer (Laura Mercier, £28.50), bronzer (Benefit, £33), mascara (Benefit, £27), and lipstick (Chanel, £45). Oh, and occasionally, if I’m feeling flush, a blow-dry (Hari’s in London, £42).

None of this is cheap – but it feels like a worthwhile investment in my love life. Or at least it did before I went on the actual date.

As I wiped my face clean, I wondered what my date had done to prepare for the evening. Had he even brushed a comb through his hair, let alone washed it with an overpriced conditioning mask? How much time had he put into his outfit choice, which comprised a slogan T-shirt and a pair of jeans?

I wouldn’t be surprised if his entire prep had taken less than ten minutes – the slapdash privilege of men everywhere.

Meanwhile, I must have spent at least an hour (and hundreds of pounds) getting ready, and my female friends have the same time-consuming and expensive rituals – a very one-sided kind of romance tax – before dates, too.

The disparity between the sexes in this regard is clearly maddening. So when I came across a new dating trend suggesting women forego any make-up on dates, I jumped at it.

‘If I decide I like them, then on the following date I’ll wear make-up and they’ll be so impressed,’ explained one TikTok user, who vows never to meet a man in make-up again. The clip has garnered more than 15,000 likes, with women applauding her for the smart tactic.

But online dating makes this experiment somewhat more complicated. The men who want to date me via an app are basing a lot of their judgment on my profile pictures, all of which show me wearing make-up.

In previous relationships, I’ve felt fairly comfortable ditching cosmetics after a few weeks. But I haven’t ever gone completely bare-faced on a first date. Perhaps I could’ve weeded out some bad eggs if I’d done so earlier. It could even feel liberating to turn up as my natural self.

So, I pledged I’d dare to bare for my next date.

A few weeks later, I was getting ready to meet Harry*, a 37-year-old insurance broker I matched with on Hinge. Glancing in the mirror before heading out, the bare face staring back at me suddenly filled me with intense anxiety.

Sitting across from Harry in the hotel bar an hour later, I initially struggled to concentrate on our conversation, insecurities buzzing around in my head. Was he staring at my face trying to work out why I looked so different from my profile photos? Did he feel misled? Or disappointed?

But as the date progressed, I started to forget I wasn’t wearing make-up. We were just two people enjoying pleasant conversation over a bottle of beaujolais. The date ended without a kiss but I put that down to a genuine lack of chemistry – and I felt buoyed by the experience.

I even thought I’d try the experiment out on a second date with Myles*, a 35-year-old music manager. The first time we’d met at a wine bar I was fully made-up. So would I flirt so readily without my armour on? The results were mixed.

Although Myles seemed totally unfazed at our brunch, and met my bare face without so much as a shrug, there was no kiss. We had kissed on that first date, though. But I put this omission down to a lack of alcohol – and I think we just didn’t fancy one another in the cold light of day.

All the same, I began to have my doubts about the experiment.

Luckily, third time’s a charm. I was determined to be upfront with Tom*, a 33-year-old engineer, whom I’d had great conversations with thus far over text. Nervously filling in my preoccupied silence, I blurted that I hoped he didn’t mind I wasn’t wearing make-up. ‘You look great,’ he simply replied, smiling. ‘Natural is always better.’

This relaxed me, particularly because he’d been so upfront. We wound up kissing on the street once the pub closed and arranged to see each other again. It was rather lovely to be able to kiss someone without worrying about leaving my lipstick on their mouth. We had a handful more dates before things fizzled out.

But even though I haven’t found The One, I couldn’t recommend dating without make-up more highly. It made me feel more comfortable in my own skin and it has shown me that my trusty red lip is not something I need in order to be myself.

It felt surprisingly validating to know that a man could still find me attractive without my warpaint. That may sound like an obvious realisation, but in a society that tells women we must subscribe to ridiculous beauty standards to be accepted by the male gaze, it felt pretty revolutionary.

My advice? Give it a go and see for yourself.

*Names have been changed