I had such a great time in Manchester lastnight with the Look Good…Feel Better team. Selfridges held a Beauty Editor’s evening in their super-swanky new beauty hall in Exchange Square. Three of us, me, Sarah Stacey of You Magazine (my new girl crush, by the way; there is nothing that woman doesn’t know about beauty) and lovely Fiona Embleton of Top Sante Magazine were there to give unbiased beauty advice to anyone who wanted it.
Everyone was so friendly and we had lots of questions. The thing that I was really gobsmacked about though is how many of the beauty ‘problems’ women thought they had were more or less imagined.
Lady: “Look at my big pores.”
Me: “Erm, you haven’t got any big pores.”
Lady (squishing nose to left and virtually flat down) “Yes, I do, look what happens when I do this.”
Me: “Um. Do you do that a lot?”
Lady: “No, never.”
Me: “Well….”
Quite a lot of my advice seemed to be ‘stop looking at yourself so critically.’ I was so surprised at the perceived issues, where really they had great skin and looked pretty gorgeous. I was also surprised at a couple of people who only ever washed their faces with water (no soap), despite wearing make up and hadn’t thought to invest in a cleanser. It was a real wake up from my little beauty bubble where not cleansing is almost a police matter. Another big issue was under-eye circles (Fiona has done these evenings before and warned me ahead of time that dark circles is a biggie). Other than one lady, whose eyes were really puffy and I thought she may have an allergy, all the others had the tiniest traces of darkness that really were not noticeable or out of the ordinary at all. And yet to them, they were literally ruining their faces.
So, it goes back once more to the fact that gazing at your face close up in a magnified mirror is only what you see, and not what everyone else does. And, stop being so hard on yourself!
A couple of really specific questions were easier, such as the lady who walks by the beach a lot and her skin gets very dry and weather-beaten. She wanted to know what the best moisturiser would be – I sent her to Kiehl’s to stock up on their Ultra Facial Cream that was tested by the Greenland First Ascent explorers in 2005.. if that doesn’t do it, then I don’t know what will. There were so many skin care questions and none on make up – very interesting.
Anyway, the bottom line of it all is that some serious funds were raised for LG..FB, the place was buzzing with cupcakes, champagne, a DJ, and Manchester’s equivalent to Jedward taking polaroids for people to take home. If you get the chance next year, do book in.
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