“A woman should wear fragrance wherever she expects to be kissed”-Coco Chanel
Laura Reynolds looks at some of the cheapest beauty products available
Having never really thought much about this before, I struggled to defend myself and justify this obscene amount of money spent feeding the beauty industry’s gaping maw. “It, er, makes my skin tone look even” was the best I could come up with. The look of scornful incredulity on the Other Half’s face was a thing to behold. But it got me thinking. I don’t have spots. I don’t have a hideous facial disfigurement. My foundation often wears off halfway through the day without me even noticing. So why do I buy it?
Like any female, I’ve been conditioned from an early age about beauty. Wearing make-up is the done thing, the norm. Going out of my house without some form of eye make-up is a very very rare occasion, and often leads to friends recoiling in horror or patting me sympathetically with a “Rough night last night?” No, no, I’m just ugly, I like to say with a beaming smile. If there is a God, I hope my tiny shrew eyes are of some sort of amusement to him or that he will reimburse me for the many eyeliners and mascaras I have drained in my lifetime. But I digress.
Foundation is a placebo for me. I don’t need it but I want it, I need it to feel that little bit more in control, that little bit more confident. After wearing foundation nearly every day for four years now, it’s a hard habit to break. But I want to do it, even if it’s just so the Other Half will stop spluttering (“£25, £25?? You could buy a small island in the Pacific for that!”). So for three whole days next week I will not let a speck, nay an atom, of make-up touch my face, and record my findings. Small children may have nightmares, dogs may bark, old ladies may cross themselves but it’s all in the name of The Yorker. Stay tuned.
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It was a real refreshing change to attend Itchy Feet at the Duchess last Monday. For one night at least York seems transformed into a little piece of 50s/60s heaven, practically porn for the more vintage inclined among us. OK so the Duchess isn’t quite a glamorous 50s cocktail bar, the floors are sticky, it’s very gloomy and it’s often chock-full of hipsters, but nevertheless a feast for the eyes. Girls in red lipstick, A-line skirts and bouffant hair-styles, delicious.
And a lot less painful than the last Itchy Feet, when walking home I managed to fall arse-first onto the ice, despite clinging to two male acquaintances. That’s the last time I ever wear flats on a night out.
I find this really depressing, simply because I know you're not alone - so many girls I see at university (and from the ages of 12 and up!) plaster their faces in foundation to cover up imperfections, and ironically it's usually the make-up itself that's making your skin have them in the first place! As someone who proudly never wears foundation (I'll venture into a dab of cover-up if there's ever some hideous redness or spot, but one stick lasts me months), just throw it all away, invest in a facial cleanser instead and start over. As for eye make-up, trust me when I say that *all* you need for eye make-up is a smidgeon of eyeliner to make your eyes pop - that's it.
In any case, good on you for setting an example and ditching it for three weeks - a step in the right direction!
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