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

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

I explained, as I have done on many occasions, how celebrities like her have the time and money to devote hours to their appearance.

Photos of Cheryl Cole, Jennifer Aniston, Kate Moss and countless other famous stunners minus their layers of slap reveal average-looking – certainly not head-turners – women 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 spotted and 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. Applying it becomes part of the daily routine and it is impossible to break. Many women would not go out without make-up.

In the days when I did wear it – not much, mostly mascara and kohl – I would have felt naked leaving the house without it. As a teenager, even a trip to the local supermarket with my mum demanded a couple of sweeps of my waterproof wand in case I bumped into anyone from school.

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 regularly moans about the growing 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, curlers (eye lash as opposed to the Hilda Ogden variety), pads and puffs. 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,” is all I spout as I steer them towards the natural look.

But I remember myself at that age – applying 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.