Tuesday 10 February 2015

Beauty for Everyone

Sometime being in this industry challenges my beliefs and standards more than I ever expected.

Take for example, your glossy magazine. Most ladies buy them at least sometimes, if the don't buy them then they are subjected to them in the doctor's waiting room or at least eyed up by them in the supermarket.They feed us from a glance at the front cover the line that beauty is equal to extravagance, spending power and perfection. These mags are full of ads about some miracle product or another, designed to complete your life, for the bargain price of fifty quid.

Many do a high budget/low budget comparison, but I believe their budget in the 'low' end to be very different to mine.

Okay so I buy mainly high end products for my professional kit. Clients expect them. Do I buy them for my own? Do I hell.

Increasingly and overwhelmingly, in one way or another, we are all force fed this image of glamour and money being very much the same thing. A high amount of desirability is attached to high-end products, mainly due to their advertising costs, luxury packaging, 'free' give away enticements - this is not news. But the news is, there are a phenomenal amount of extremely cheaper products that do just as good a job. Just because an item is more expensive, it is not necessarily better.

For instance, Primark do a small range of make up brushes. Some of them are quite rigid and stiff, but others are ideal. Their double headed eye shadow/concealer brush (£1) is a bit stiff, but ideal for precision work. Their blusher brush (£1.50) is a good duo fibre short bristle blusher brush, but it's even better for putting foundation on. I prefer it to my MAC one. The little set in the image are not brilliant at all but fine for travelling - there's not much room for brushes on motorbikes!



Why does beauty, glamour and vitality have to be the preserve of those bestowed with a large disposable income? It does not.

There are, of course, some superior products, 'hero' products the brands like to call them, like YSL Touche Eclat, MAC Prep and Prime, Clinique's Dramatically Different, Lauder's is Repair Wear I think, and these are much loved and trusted products worldwide.  This is for a reason. But not everything with a swanky name or free make up bag is.

Lauder own and control the majority of the high end concessions definitely in the UK but I think world wide. They roll out expensive advertising campaigns selling you their vision of expensive beauty because they work. Take away all that, would you still be interested?

I was once told that if you treat cheap clothes the same way as you treat very expensive clothes, the will last the same amount of time and make you feel just as good. I think this applies to make up and beauty too. The expensive stuff might smell a bit nicer, look a bit nicer on your shelf and give you a luxury feel, but I bet there are others out there that really are just as good for a fraction of the price. I had some luxury body wash for Christmas last year, lovely it was. Really beautiful. I decided I would use this all the time, it's lovely. But then I accidentally used an old one one day. I didn't even notice until I was out, and my skin wasn't any less soft or comfortable, there were no real tangible benefits. I was still clean.

I'm going to be writing a series of blogs about beauty for EVERYONE.

Please bear in mind that common sense SHOULD prevail here, if you know you're allergic to an ingredient, do not use a product with that in. If you use a product and it feels anything less than great - stop using it and remove it asap. It's important to say that this same thing applies to high end products. If your skin is very sensitive, approach with caution and don't push it. Cheaper isn't always better, just the same as expensive isn't either.

Are you on a tight budget? Do you wish you could blow a wodge of cash on make up from the department store's beauty counters? I'm here to tell you that this is not the only way.

From 1 minute emergency make up to low cost liners, having a look that makes you feel comfortable and confident is not about flashing the cash.

Beauty and confidence is not the preserve of the rich (or in debt)!

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