PALETTE CLEANSER
Our Beauty Editor rediscovers her make-up bag – and herself
A recent survey found that eight in 10 women downed make-up tools in lockdown. WH’S Beauty Editor Perdita Nouril was one of them. Here, she unpicks the psychology of make-up to find out if dusting off her brushes and palettes could help her come to terms with the new normal
Now I’m not sure about you, but my experience of lockdown didn’t feature a single loaf of banana bread. There was no newly discovered penchant for DIY, nor any sneaky trips to
Durham. It did include a bout of sciatica from hunching over a laptop, multiple attempts to get through a Zoom call without my two-year-old spritzing Cillit Bang at the dog and more quarantinis than I care to admit. Within minutes of Boris Johnson uttering the words ‘stay home’, I could foresee the above playing out. What I didn’t envisage was just how quickly I’d ghost my make-up bag.
As a beauty editor, I pray at the altar of make-up. I preach countless sermons on its transformative powers, and peacocking my way through the working week helps to imbue me with a sense of selfconfidence (lipstick does for me what shoulder pads did for my mum in the 80s). And yet, as life in the new twilight zone found its daily rhythm, my army of highlighters and eyeshadow palettes were left to gather dust. I wasn’t the only one, either; research from Boots found that 82% of women wore less or no make-up during lockdown. But while juggling work and childcare took priority over carefully buffing in foundation, it wasn’t until the rules started to ease that I realised my good days in lockdown were the ones where I’d factored in enough time to blend eyeshadow and swipe on some lipstick. As we collectively come to terms with life after lockdown – for now at least – could something as simple as make-up help us to face the big wide world again?
BLENDING IN
Back in normal times, I’d start every morning by highlighting my Hungarian cheekbones, use shimmer shadow to detract from my new-parenttired eyes and coat my lips in the sunniest shade of lipstick I could find. Beyond my own beauty bag, I was a defender of make-up’s place in the world – a woman on a mission to dismantle the idea that caring about your appearance is a form of narcissism. And yet, lockdown forced me to confront the age-old feminist question: if I didn’t wear make-up for others, then why was I so quick to give it up?
As life at home got underway, I was glad of the extra time I clawed back by not putting on a full face of make-up in the morning. I remained diligent with my skincare and I’d dab on my
Clé de Peau concealer for a virtual meeting, but other than that, I was make-up free. And it felt… good. It was a break for my skin, sure, but it was also a break for me; some respite from the feeling of always being ‘on’. But as lockdown wore on, I started to struggle. My daughter’s need for attention made it difficult to concentrate on even the smallest of tasks and the monotony of each day felt punishing. I worried about my parents, I missed my friends, all the while feeling acutely aware that my love-filled home and secure job put me among the lucky ones. I can hardly blame this feeling on my face; the pandemic and the lockdown that came with it have had a debilitating impact on our collective mental health. But make-up plays a bigger role in your mood than you might think.
PALETTE CLEANSER
Research exploring the relationship we have with our make-up bags makes for interesting reading (basically, it’s complicated). Some studies have linked make-up use with feelings of self-consciousness and anxiety, a finding that explains why some women find going make-up free to be empowering. And yet, other research suggests make-up can have a positive impact on your mindset. When researchers from Harvard Medical School and the D’annunzio University of Chieti in Italy carried out a study on female students, they found that wearing make-up boosted mood more than listening to upbeat music or colouring in, which in turn improved productivity. I suspect the camp you fall into depends on your motivation for wearing it; use make-up to make up for a shortfall in self-esteem and it might have the opposite effect, but treat it as another tool in your confidence arsenal and it can really help. Truth be told, I’ve done both. Like every anxiety-ridden teenager, I reached for thick concealer to mask
pubescent spots, but those aren’t the memories that spring to mind when I look back on my love affair with make-up. At university, I painted my eyelids with MAC’S neon bright eyeshadows before heading to raves; in my twenties, I perfected feline flicks that were sharper than the stilettos on my feet; and at work, I’d swipe on the boldest lipstick in my make-up bag ahead of a big presentation.
That make-up helped me access the different parts of my personality could explain why I began to struggle without it, psychologist Honey Langcaster-james tells me. ‘We know that women use make-up to present the best version of themselves to the world, especially in a working environment or when out socialising,’ she explains. ‘Equally, many women have weekends where they go make-up-free because they don’t feel a pressure to “perform”.’ It’s for this reason, she explains, that many women embraced a make-up-free life when we went into lockdown. ‘It can feel indulgent to take a break from your everyday life. Yet doing this blurs your private self, your social self and professional self, making it hard to distinguish between your different identities.’ Her explanation rings true with me. With no ritual to mark the start of my working day, or mascara to wipe away at the end, there was only ever one reflection in the mirror. It’s no wonder I felt like I had no work-life balance; like the Spice Girls lyric, the two had become one.
LIP SERVICE
In a bid to boost my mood and productivity, I make a conscious effort to reconnect with my make-up stash. I keep it simple to begin with, reaching for my all-time favourite lipstick, MAC Matte Lipstick in Lady Danger, £17.50, a fiery orange-red. Happily, the colour could be key to tapping into make-up’s mood-boosting powers, says psychologist Dr Vivian Diller. She tells me that colours have been used as a tool for self-expression since the earliest cave drawings appeared, and we still associate them with emotional states today. In 2019, a joint study by the universities of Auckland, Lausanne and Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz found that colours stir up certain emotions. Red was often associated with love and anger, pink with love, grey with disappointment or sadness and orange with joy or pleasure. As to the effect of adding a little colour to your face each morning, Dr Diller is clear. ‘It’s no wonder that, when you put on bold, colourful make-up, it can lift your spirits and add vitality to your sense of self.’ She’s not wrong. I do feel more spritely with a bold lip and brushed up brows. When I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, I think, ‘You’ve got this.’ It’s enough to make me turn on my camera for my morning Zoom meeting and, pleasingly, two colleagues comment on how much they like the colour. It’s almost as if I’m tapping into my pre-lockdown self again.
In the days that follow, I slowly begin to carve out more time in the morning to apply my make-up. Having grown accustomed to my make-upfree reflection, I swap out heavy foundations for sheer tints, such as Chanel Les Beiges Sheer Healthy Glow Highlighting Fluid, £38, which has perked up my skin without rendering my look mask-like. If anything, it’s the ritual of applying make-up that seems to be supplying the biggest serotonin hit. ‘Forming habits like a beauty routine helps to mark the beginning of your day, signalling to yourself that you’re worth spending time on,’ says Dr Sophie Edwards, an NHS health psychologist. In the field of psychiatry, social rhythm therapy – habitual daily behaviours, like waking up at the same time every day and having regular meal times – have been shown to be effective in managing poor mental health. Such behaviours are even more important now that, for many, work and home life are both conducted under one roof, says Dr Diller, who adds that ‘finding moments of calm, such as when applying your make-up, are vital if your normal routine is disrupted’. It explains why the creative labour of crafting a look, and the concentration it requires, has grounded me in ways that binge-watching box sets hasn’t.
While your self-worth can never be found at the bottom of a foundation bottle, make-up can be a potent pickme-up. Rediscovering my make-up bag after a period of absenteeism has left me more convinced than ever that the act of reaching for a lipstick is anything but trivial. Wearing make-up again has helped me to re-establish work-life boundaries and practise self-care. At a time when both are harder to come by, there’s something really attractive about that.
‘When I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror I think, “You’ve got this”’