Makeup that helps you be yourself

express yourself

“Once, while choosing mascara in a Dior corner, I discovered an incredible blue shade. Next, I took a bright pink “candy” gloss: the image came out playful, a little childish, funny. I remember this feeling of carelessness and now I use new shades more boldly,” 34-year-old Svetlana shares her impressions. Makeup makes it easy to try on different looks and experiment with them. “Today it’s a vamp with red lipstick and smoky eyes, tomorrow it’s a flower girl in soft pastels, the day after tomorrow it’s a French actress with gazelle eyes, arrows and rich eyeliner: it’s like women are trying different roles,” notes Lancome’s chief makeup artist in Russian Aleksey Molchanov. – However, not everyone is given to them immediately. Many people like red lipstick, but not everyone will dare to go public with it: too catchy, sexy, unusual. I met women who wore flashy makeup in their youth, then forgot about it for a while, and already at an older age they were looking for new options for themselves. When I offer such a woman a bright shade, at first she hesitates, and then she looks closely, tries, as if discovering a new part of herself, revealing herself from an unexpected side. Why not capture this mood of yours, feel it, and then, like an artist, capture it in make-up? This is a kind of way of communication with the world, an opportunity to express your emotions, experiences, moods. Change and even fool around, and then wipe off the makeup and … try again, as if from a clean face. “If you add pink lip gloss to the green eyeshadows from the spring collection, you get a fresh, sparkling look,” explains Tyen, director of make-up at Dior. – And if you take a warm beige shade of lipstick to the same shadows, a sensual, exciting picture will appear. Saturated makeup for both eyes and lips is good if you use lipstick in a muted shade – this look is reminiscent of the paintings of the Impressionists.

Get carried away with the game

The Dior eyeshadows from the spring collection are blooming. Chanel has striped blush. Clinique lip gloss is like colored pencils, and shadows are like paint bubbles. Guerlain is fulfilling the desire of young girls to look in the mirror anytime, anywhere by releasing first a lipstick with a mirror, and then, this year, mascara. Each season, Givenchy collects a new mosaic of eyeshadows from multi-colored prism squares. Decorative cosmetics seem to invite us into a game in which we determine the rules ourselves. “Neither make-up artists, nor cosmetics manufacturers, nor trends dictate women anymore,” says Andrey Shilkov, lead makeup artist at Yves Saint Laurent. – They listen to advice, do makeup from professionals, but as a result they always choose something suitable, natural for themselves. Of course, there are those who stop using makeup with age or, on the contrary, forgetting the measure, seek to hide age-related changes as reliably as possible. And yet more of those who, having tried both, and the other, and the third, trying on different colors, begin to better understand themselves, their desires and preferences. Such women hone their skills and get even more satisfaction from the process. “The meaning we put into makeup is much more important than technique or color,” sums up psychoanalyst Marie-Louise Pierson. “We don’t need to become different for the sake of beauty standards. It is enough to trust your taste and remember that we have the right to make a mistake, which in makeup is always easy to fix. For women, it’s about their degree of freedom!”

Do women make up (not) for men?

“We all strive to procreate,” recalls the philosopher Jean-Francois Matei (JeanFrancois Mattei). – Within the framework of culture, our natural sexuality is transformed into a set of seductive means, among which makeup is one of the most effective. Despite the fact that behavioral stereotypes are changing, the woman remains the object of sexual attraction, the source of seduction. And women know very well that by dressing, wearing make-up and perfume, they increase their attractive power. However, our need to attract attention is not always sexual in nature: for example, makeup can be a sign of social affiliation. Another function of makeup is protective. After all, the face always remains open to the views of other people. By hiding small imperfections or even out skin tone, you can create a “shield” from prying eyes. And therefore, without makeup, women sometimes feel defenseless.

Anthropologist David le Breton counters: “Even if makeup is done to attract others, it reflects the woman’s own self. So she unconsciously shows her ideal image of herself. Doing makeup, a woman approaches the ideal, although she understands that she will never fully achieve it. But it helps her to feel in harmony with her body, fuels self-confidence. And vice versa, excessive “coloring” speaks of doubt: the woman seems to be looking for support – “people see that I exist, even if I have such a strange look.” Some begin to actively use cosmetics already in adulthood. This is a sign of an important moment of self-identification, a way to continue existing for yourself and others. In hospitals, aesthetic procedures become part of the treatment. There are also women who fundamentally do not use decorative cosmetics: this is also a form of protest, they want to be loved regardless of external data. They do not want to be subjected to the pressure of society, which imposes “tricks for seduction”. Or they even see makeup as a sign of submission to a man. Someone does not want to participate in the social game or admits that they do not have the strength to save the fading traits – this is a kind of mourning in itself. In any case, external beauty (which can be emphasized with makeup) and internal (which is fueled by self-respect) are still interconnected and inseparable.

* J.-F. Mattei, H. Delmar “Philosophy of aesthetic surgery” (Odile Jacob, 2011).

** D. le Breton “Antropology of the body and modernity” (Puf, 2011).