Is makeup tznius?

apy: There are many existing such threads already, discussing those issues.

Pacman. And what was the consensus, it it tznius or not to come late to shul? What about applesauce? Tznius or not?

The consensus was that it is very easy to engage in letzanus on a halachic issue that makes one uncomfortable.

so what age should girls begin to wear make-up?

If there is any laitzanus, it is directed at the notion that “makeup” is inherently not tznius. Remember what the kiyor was made from.

A group of people who feel a certain way about something, do not determine halacha. Make up is not inherently tznius, nor is its use by those not in shidduchim. Being in shidduchim does not automatically confer tznius status on all applications and uses either.

If the above is wrong, please name a posek who said so.

I will look into the tanchuma, bli neder, tomorrow morning when I get to shul. I don’t own a medrash tanchuma at home. In the meantime, this tanchuma is brought lihalacha, where?

Forgive me for being naive but why should girls be allowed to wear makeup in shidduchim anyways? L’masseh they all do and it seems that the frummer they are the more makeup they tend to wear but the torah says that a woman should look good for her husband and not other men. If you say it should be muttar because they are potentially going to get married while that is true the chances are not in their favor as evidenced by the large shidduch crisis and even so if the shidduch worked out it might be a mitzvah haba baverah because the makeup was gorem the shidduch. if the makeup is not gorem the shidduch or doesn’t help then why wear it at all?

pac-man states that the woman should dress to her husband’s likes in the house and b’tuah outside the house. if that is true, why is it that many to most wowen would not be caught dead outside without a sheitel (which in many cases is anything but tzuisdig) and find no problem with putting on a snood (which we know is not as flattering) as soon as she comes home?! it would seem to me that the opposite should be the norm.

apy: You said above you’re looking into the Medrash Tanchuma after shachris this morning, and will report back. What were the results?

to apushatayid,

i feel that we should be dealing with a total package. we should not only be talking about makeup when sheitels often times draw much more attention to the woman, especially to the younger women who are “in the parsha” and wear the natural hair cuts. these are often so good, that one cannot tell that the hair is being covered. my sister on more than one occasion was approached by someone at a chasunah and asked if she “was bizy”.

“my sister on more than one occasion was approached by someone at a chasunah and asked if she “was bizy”.”

So was I. Should I start wearing a tallis to weddings? A wedding band? A red sticker on my forehead?

to apushatayid,

the point that i am trying to make is wearing a sheitel in most cases defeats the purpose of t’zeus. there was an ad in several of the frum papers several months ago that said in part ” your sheitel can be so good that noone needs to know that you are covering your hair” is this what we as frum yiddin are striving for? we see many times that people are complaining that we are influenced by the “goishie vert” in terms of have we act and think, etc. i find that sheitels are a perfect example of this. the gedolim of previous generations would most likely look aghast at the current state of affairs.

So don’t buy a sheitel if you feel it isn’t tznius.

Apushtayid, look in the beginning of Yishaya about the Bnos Zion and the Gemora in Shabbos which elaborates on it.

And, quite frankly, this matter is obvious. Stop being so riled up about it, when you are on the wrong side of the issue.

MDD. Again, the gemara discusses HOW the women carried themselves, HOW and why they wore perfume. I am not making a case for emulating such behavior. I am making one argument only. Makeup is not inherently untsnius. Neither is perfume, jewelry or clothing. It is how it is used, applied, worn or carried. To argue from the tanchuma (which is a snippet of a sugya in 6th perek of shabbos) or the gemaras elaboration of pesukim in yeshaya to the contrary, is a distortion of the gemaras.

It goes without saying, that if you believe that any of the aforementioned items are in fact inherently not tsnius, don’t use them. Don’t confuse your beliefs, with halacha though.

Again, I asked for a posek who says “makeup is inherently not tsnius” and the obvious implication that it not be used at all. Since I got answers from sources that include perfumes and jewerly, let me add those to the question as well. In fact, the bnos yerushalayim walked the streets of yerushalayim, are you inferring it is assur for them to do so as well? Where are these poskim? (I have no doubt there is a Rav somewhere who made a takana for his tzibbur regarding these things but it is not my question..)

(Yes, I learned to keep my mouth shut after this, yes I learned a lesson in being dan likaf zchus, even when it seems farfetched too)

In reference too “wearing a lot of make-up in public is not tsnius for a married woman.” Waiting for the valet after a chasuna I commented to my wife about a woman standing a few feet away from us who was wearing way too much makeup. I said something to the effect of, if she smiles any wider, whole sections of her face will crack off. Unfortunately, I said it a bit too loud and she heard. She pulled my wife to the side and (my wife reports) proceeded to wipe away makeup from a section of her face revealing a large welt.

Yid. All I’m saying is that not everyone who wears makeup, even lots of it, does so for nefarious reasons.

Whatrutalkingabt, may you have siyatta di’Smaya to continue.

Aposhutyid, even if a woman does not have badd kavonos, it is wrong for a married woman to wear a lot of make-up as it attracts strange men.

MDD. I’m not sure where you live and I dont know what men you are talking about. I can only speak about one man, me. Where I live and work, the only women whose makeup attracts my attention are those who wear as much as Bozo the Clown and use similar colors too.

As long as your nails dont hang 4 inches below your knees, they are probably OK.