The impact of a bright red lip..

I read a brilliant article in 'the stylist' the other day
that  quoted Carla Bruni as saying that her generation of women do not need feminism,  it then went on to point out her ignorance and finished by telling her and her  friends to ‘keep schtum’.  I thought about this article a lot this week, and today as I looked down at the lipstick rim left on my starbucks cup it got me thinking about how beauty interacts with feminism.     Being a self-confessed beauty junkie I will be the first to admit that people watching in my world translates to makeup watching, and the best place for this is the 8am tube run. Full of men and women in suits travelling to work, it is a sea of different looks, a smoky eye here, a plum lip there, where it is difficult for the working woman to express herself through her clothes, her face is a blank canvas of possibilities. With coinings like'power lip' and 'power brow' popping up all over the place in the last few years, it’s easy to see how makeup is associated with the way we feel and not just the way we look.  Makeup trends, like fashion trends, reflect the feeling of the moment, of where we are in society, just as hemlines grew longer with the recession, eyebrows have become thicker and sales of lipstick have overtaken lip gloss for the first time in years, because ultimately what’s a bit of shiny gloss compared to a fiery power lip. The catwalks for autumn/winter 2012 saw huge beaded brows at chanel, graphic liner at altuzarra and red wine stained lips at Gucci, making it clear that making a statement is ‘in fashion’.  Although I feel perfectly comfortable walking out of the house with not even a quick curl to the lashes, half the fun is the ritual of sitting at my dressing table in the morning and having a way to express my mood, from the brush to the face, it is a form of art that’s beauty is that you can see it everywhere,  on the faces of others. I have to admit that I think carefully about not only how to dress myself, but how to dress my face. The power of a bold lip is part of its allure, a matte red can give me a feeling of authority and confidence, which then translates in how I move, talk, feel, and I don't think I'm alone. You have only to read newspaper articles to see that women are being arrested in parts of the world just for wearing makeup, showing the effect that a bit of mascara can have on an entire culture, if I have the right to make myself feel powerful with a full brow and a red lip here, why should a woman on the other side of the world not be able to do the same? Here we see makeup being used by women as a tool in the fight for equality between men and women, because it is something we have that men don't, and I think just like feminism we need it. Now I'm not saying that everyone should wear makeup, there are those who are more than happy not to, but for me there should not be a line drawn between makeup and feminism,  I see every day when I look in the mirror, that they can work together.  That beaten up makeup bag, carried to work and back every day is like a secret, shared only by women, a set of tools that enables us not only to express confidence, but to make a statement, express a feeling. That girl sat opposite me on the tube, hair tied back, bright red lip, does not look like that by chance, she makes me think about equal pay, about how women are portrayed in the media, about  men shouting ‘hey baby’ at us in the street, about girls around the world who do not receive basic education, about women who do not stand a chance against men in court, about my own fears of walking home alone in the dark, and about how wrong Carla Bruni really is, how much we need feminism, and just sometimes, that bright lip. Of course there are those who will argue that it's just a bit of face paint, but what they fail to recognise is that it’s us women, who make it something more.


'While Europe's eye is fix'd on mighty things,

The fate of Empires and the fall of Kings;

While quacks of State must each produce his plan,

And even children lisp the Rights of Man;

Amid this mighty fuss just let me mention,

The Rights of Woman merit some attention.'



The Rights of woman written by Robert burns in 1792




Thanks for reading, 












On a side note, this new starbucks name thing annoys me a bit. A typical example of something the Americans started that will never work in the UK, we're not like you, we don't want people sat opposite us on the tube to know our name, frankly its just quite creepy. The photo above also proves that it doesn't work..I mean..'Frettie'...seriously...

Lush Cleansers

Recently I feel like I've discovered lush, I mean no one can deny that the smell that wafts at you as you walk by the shop is enough to drag you in nose first, but there's just so many products that its easy to get confused, or worse, carried away! I've learnt that its best to go in knowing what you want, to avoid lugging home a huge bag and burning a huge whole in your wallet. I am not claiming to know everything about lush, I haven't tried loads of their products but I've been really impressed with the few that I have tried, especially their skincare products. This post is a rave review about two cleaners, 'angels on bare skin' and 'let the good times roll';

Angels on Bare Skin- If you have pigmentation in your skin, you need this in your life. I started using it earlier this year and after a few weeks of using it every night, my pigmentation was gone! It lists ground almonds, camomile oil and lavender flowers among its ingredients and claim to reduce redness, giving an overall nicer appearance to the skin. I foolishly stopped using it over summer and sure enough the pigmentation crept back, needless to say I will never be without this again. It scrubs the skin a little, but not too much for it not to be suitable for everyday use, leaves the skin baby soft and most importantly removes all redness from the skin!

Let the good times roll- If you don't like sweet smells avoid this at all costs! It smells very strongly like toffee popcorn, which I think is great, but might not be to everyone's taste. It contains corn oil, polenta, maize flour and cinnamon, which the tub claims 'leaves you ready for close-ups. I wouldn't recommend using this daily as its definitely more of a scrub consistency than 'angels on bare skin', used every other day this leaves the skin incredibly soft, and is just a very pleasant treatment to use, I mean who doesn't want their face to smell like buttery caramel popcorn!?

Thanks for reading,