Magazine features: Celebs Without Make-Up. Sick of them or secretly like them?

Until pretty recently, I was an avid magazine reader but I don't buy them nearly as much as I used to. I sometimes miss curling up with them on the couch – scrolling through blogs on my laptop doesn't feel quite the same – but there's one aspect of certain women's magazines that I don't miss in the slightest.

I'm not a bit sorry to be, er, missing out on snarky articles packed with photos of celebs wearing no make-up and looking like death warmed up on a bad day.

The gist of these features is never “woah, how good does Eva Longoria look even when she's just rolled out of bed?” or even “see? Celebs are just like us non-famous folk!” There's always at least a nasty undercurrent of “ha ha, STATE of yer wan!” in the accompanying captions, sometimes accompanied by a quiver's worth of red arrows to highlight greasy roots, frizzy ends, dark circles, blemishes, uneven skintone etc.

Slebs looking proper gorgeous without make-up

I don't believe that spreads like these are designed to make readers feel better about themselves by showing them how perfectly normal slap-free female celebrities look. If that was their intention, why print the least flattering shots possible of them nipping to the shops for a pint of milk sans make-up, eh? I think they have the potential to make readers feel a bit crap, actually: “Jesus – if this magazine thinks that Demi Moore is shook-looking without her face on, what would they make of me without a layer of Double Wear Light?”

What do you reckon? Am I overreacting to some harmless poking fun at celebs or do these bitchy photo features get on your wick, too?

Images via Now Magazine