Women can be seriously tricky to understand, there are so many things they do, say and own that make no sense whatsoever to blokes.

Somehow we’re expected to have an inherent knowledge of everything they know. But unless you’ve gone through the teenage years as a girl you’re never going to quite understand the subtle differences between women’s products.

We thought we’d put together a few FAQs about women’s clothing and beauty products and settle them once and for all. Then we won’t spend quite as much of our day-to-day lives looking confused.

Make Up

Make up is a complex subject, there are so many different varieties of well… everything. This is our quick guide so you don’t trip up!

Mascara – goes on eyelashes to make them look longer. Applied with a mascara wand. Not to be confused with …

Eyeliner – the clue is in the name – it lines the eyes, usually comes as a pencil or liquid.

Lip Gloss – shiny lip product, can be clear or coloured. Often comes in a small bottle with an applicator.

Lipstick  – similar to lip-gloss but can be either shiny or matte, comes in a “stick”.

Lip balm – moisturiser for lips, often flavoured. Can give a similar appearance to lip-gloss.

Concealer – applied to problem areas like spots and dark circles to make them less obvious.

Foundation – applied to whole face to give an even appearance.

Though it’s probably best not to go shouting about your newfound knowledge… it might look a bit odd. If you want to show off just wait until she’s run out of something and then go and buy her a new one. Thought best to stick to basic items like mascara, eyeliner or clear lip-gloss. Otherwise she might not like it.

Shoes

Why do girls need so many pairs of shoes and boots, and why do they have so many that look the same?

Unlike blokes women appear to need far more than the basic three pairs of shoes (smart, casual and trainers). In fact many women have numerous pairs of each style or colour. The reason why is simple apparently… because they want them. Some women amass tons of bags, some like jeans and many just love shoes. 

Plus those two pairs of black heels that look exactly the same to us menfolk, actually look nothing like each other apparently. It’s all about being coordinated and given the different aspects of women’s outfits it’s understandable that they need a bit more variation in footwear. There’s very little rhyme or reason to it. Might be best to write this one off as a great mystery that we’ll never truly understand.

Gossiping

Many girls love a good gossip, and while we may well join in if it’s someone we know/ are interested in we don’t tend to be fussed about people we’ve never met and/ or never will.

This never seems to be an issue for women; whether it’s a close friend or a distant relative thrice removed they love a good natter about them (usually to us…and we’re not great at taking part). I prefer to take this as a compliment, if a woman wants to tell you all the latest gossip it’s probably just because she wants to tell you about her day. Which is nice really. If in doubt smile and nod… she might not notice.

So hopefully this will give you a bit of an insight into how the fairer sex ticks, and maybe even earn you a few brownie points too!