she looks normal w/out make-up. she looks surreal w/ makeup- perfect. but we kno she's just normal like u or me... i don't look spectacularly magical w/out makeup on either lol

To me it's okay. Even prettier than with makeup, so natural. And maybe I'm blind but I find her younger on this pictures than "normally"...

Holy crap...her age definitely comes through here. She still looks pretty, but it's apparent that she's almost thirty.

She actually looks pretty good. The only difference is she looks older.

Ayu looks good without make up!! I never beleived she had the surgury cause if you looked at her face enough through her years, her eyes haven't gotten any different, she'd chose certain makeup and stuff, and plus, we all know she just got some big eyes...^^

Looks like a 27 year old lady to me for the 1st time....She still look decent imo anyway....:)

She looks different, I think I won't be able to recognize her if I meet her. I did not know make up could change a face so much.

I don't think is her!!!! because this dress i didn't see her wear it. And just a few picture can not prove it was her,you can just take a picture with someone which look like her!!!

Umm..it's from her official photobook so it IS Ayumi.
And she looks pretty good. I love her natural look. Of course she looks a little tired because she's working so hard. She's beautiful, though she looks older. :yes .

Lol, make up or not, one thing is sure, that is her :P

She looks decent in the picture the OP posted. But she looks absolutely nothing like her cd covers, photobooks, magazine covers and such. Make-up does WONDERS for celebrities, and I hope these pictures make that point clear for the young girls on this message board. It makes me feel so sad when I see comments like "I'll never be as beautiful as such and such" or "I'm so ugly in comparison to whatsherface." No your not! It's make-up, it's lighting, it's photoshop! You can be just as beautiful as Ayumi Hamasaki with the right clothes and the right make-up.

For example, look at Oprah Winfrey. She looks like a pretty older woman on her show. Take off that make-up and she looks like a disturbed hybrid between a cockroach and E.T. Her make-up people deserve awards for their work. I love you Oprah, I don't mean anything by those comments by the way!

On another note. What the heck happened to Ayumi in those pictures Akurei posted? The ones where she's wearing a white hat? Seriously, if I saw that walking towards me, I would run in the opposite direction. Sorry Ayu!

That's certainly a good message to send out. Sometimes people don't realize how huge a difference the money to buy good makeup, makeup artists, photo retouching, and the like can make.

Who else would it be? And she wears that dress in the Arena Tour 2006 photobook...in some of the other pictures where she has that dress on, she is wearing giant sunglasses.

That kinda suggested you're looking better than Ayumi without makeup... lol, not a provocation or anything, just this random conclusion came to my mind...
I think she actually looks completly fine without makeup, she looks like many other Japanese women... I think it's mascara that does the stuff. Avril Lavigne is a great example too, IMO.

And yes, I'd like those white hat pics again too.

here are the white hat pics

These.. uh.. were like 8 years ago..? XDD

yeah but Dustie asked for them

Thanks, I think she actually looks superfine on those pics. 0.o Those without the white hat are completly fine. The ones with the hat -- she's got the shadow on her eyes and she has no mascara or anything. Hence her face is so "flattish"-nothing, but still fine.

People who say she's ugly on those pics must be really beautiful themselves to say so >__>

i think she looks fine in all of them except for the last one. she looks like a cancer patient.

:yes

And the picture quality is really low, so you really can't judge her beauty by them.

^ the pic quality may be low but...I think the pic wasn't that great and all.. u noe..but that didn't made me feel any different about her...she ROX!! Always the Queen of J-POP to me!