Yes, I can be a beautyaholic and a feminist

When best-selling author Marian Keyes, 56, posted a series of videos revealing her love of shopping in beauty emporium Sephora last week, it went viral. She tells Grazia about the power of make-up – and Botox…

month, LATE LAST I had two rare days off. I thought about sleeping for 48 hours, but I was already fixated on the Eurostar – only two and a half hours to Paris! And what have they in Paris? Yes! Sephora! When I go to a branch of Sephora, anywhere in the world, a euphoria comes over me, that I’ve christened ‘sephoria’.

I worried about seeming like a philistine getting the train to Paris just to go to Sephora but then thought, ‘It’s my time and it makes me happy.’ There’s a pressure to do something deeply Parisian, like go to the Louvre or stroll with your loved one by the Seine – but I thought, ‘No, I’ll get the Sephora Express and immerse myself in Sephora for as long as my adrenaline can stand it.’ I booked a hotel 0.3km from Sephora Champs-élysées. On the first foray, I was there over an hour and bought five items. Then I thought, ‘I need to go and lie down and eat some sugar.’ The next morning, I went back and spent more time and money.

What does make-up and beauty and skincare mean to me? It’s impossible to explain: I simply love it. On Twitter, where I posted videos of my ‘sephoria', some people say things like, ‘You and your trips to Paris; what about homelessness?’ But I think: I work hard, I earn my money honestly, I pay my taxes and I give generously to good causes. I don’t drink; I don’t take drugs. So I’m allowed this. I adore beauty products: everything about them, taking them out of the box, removing the lid… It’s wildly enjoyable. I don’t think these products will save me from turning into my granny, that’s not what it’s about. I take it all, especially the anti-ageing stuff, with a pinch of salt.

I’m honest about having had Botox and fillers. I don’t want people to look at me and think I have a smooth forehead because of creams and skincare. I don’t want people to waste their money expecting miracles.

It’s a tricky one, Botox and fillers – in one way, I am being a bad feminist by buying into the patriarchal lie that women are only valuable when they look young. But I live in this patriarchal society and, against my better judgement, I’ve internalised those messages. So when I was looking at those two furrows between my eyebrows, which were deep enough to plant potatoes in, it made me sad. So, I tried Botox – and the frown went away. As a feminist, the only way I can cope with getting Botox is by being honest about it.

It’s only as I’ve got older that I’m comfortable going out without make-up. The generation below me have pushed back so much harder against the destructive messages than mine ever did. There’s more acceptance of myriad types of faces and bodies. I feel freed by that. Make-up gives me so much pleasure but, these days, I am quite fine with going out with none on, too.