世論 What Japan Thinks

There’s been a number of women-only questionnaires on iShare lately, so while I wait for them to redress the balance, here is another one for the ladies, a look at makeup.

Demographics

Between the 9th and 14th of September 2010 454 female members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 31.1% of the women were in their twenties, 29.7% in their thirties, and 39.2% in their forties.

Not having had any experience of applying makeup, I cannot directly comment on the survey, but given that my wife takes about 30 to 45 minutes to get her face together, it does seem like far too much bother, but then again she used to apply makeup for professional reasons.

In Q1 it would have been worthwhile to have a cross-reference against employment status to see how many people went to work without putting their warpaint on.

Research results

Q1: About how many days per week do you apply makeup? (Sample size=454)

	All	Twenties N=141	Thirties N=135	Forties N=178
One or two days a week (to SQs)	11.0%	10.6%	12.6%	10.1%
Three or four days a week (to SQs)	12.3%	9.2%	10.4%	16.3%
Five or six days a week (to SQs)	36.1%	43.3%	28.9%	36.0%
Every day (to SQs)	19.4%	12.1%	27.4%	19.1%
Almost never	21.1%	24.8%	20.7%	18.5%

Q1SQ1: Are you skilled at applying makeup? (Sample size=358)

	All	Twenties N=106	Thirties N=107	Forties N=145
Very skilled	1.1%	1.9%	0.9%	0.7%
Reasonably skilled	26.5%	28.3%	23.4%	27.6%
Reasonably unskilled	58.9%	56.6%	58.9%	60.7%
Totally unskilled	13.4%	13.2%	16.8%	11.0%

Q1SQ2: Do you like doing your makeup? (Sample size=358)

	All	Twenties N=106	Thirties N=107	Forties N=145
Love it	4.7%	7.5%	2.8%	4.1%
Like it	35.2%	42.5%	34.6%	30.3%
Dislike it	49.7%	41.5%	49.5%	55.9%
Hate it	10.3%	8.5%	13.1%	9.7%

Q1SQ3: Do you think doing makeup is bothersome? (Sample size=358)

	All	Twenties N=106	Thirties N=107	Forties N=145
Ofen think so	59.2%	60.4%	61.7%	56.6%
Sometimes think so	35.8%	35.8%	33.6%	37.2%
Never think so	5.0%	3.8%	4.7%	6.2%

Around 70% of those who applied makeup up to four times a week often found it a bother, yet only 43% of those who applied it every day did, suggesting that many of those who less frequently applied makeup only did so because they had to. This was backed up by the statistic that 91.9% of those who hated applying makeup found it often a bother.

Q1SQ4: Regardless of it being work or private situations, have you ever thought “If I can be without makeup, I don’t want to apply makeup!”? (Sample size=358)

	All	Twenties N=106	Thirties N=107	Forties N=145
Often think so	53.9%	55.7%	56.1%	51.0%
Sometimes think so	39.7%	37.7%	37.4%	42.8%
Never think so	6.4%	6.6%	6.5%	6.2%

As with Q1SQ3, the less frequent makeup appliers more often wished they could do without.

Some of the reasons for wishing they could go without makeup was that it costs time and money, it damages the skin, it’s a lot of hassle to remove it at night when tired, looking after the skin is difficult, and that they hate makeup running due to sweat.