We’re all on the look out for silver linings at the moment, and there’s a particularly important one emerging, that women everywhere are probably relishing in the sheer luxury of.
NO MAKE UP!!
Since we’re not seeing anyone, or going anywhere in particular, our days are being spent with scarcely more than moisturiser and lip balm gracing our faces!
Beyond lightening the load of our morning routine, the lack of pressure to ‘self-present’ is having a profound effect on our skin (finally, it can BREATHE!) and also on how we are evolving to see ourselves... and others.
You could go so far as to say, this gradual acclimatisation to the no-makeup look is recalibrating our confidence and mindset, away from all the enhancements that both widely came to depend upon.
As a result, natural is becoming the new expectation (and aspiration) of a nation of women revelling in the new ‘wash and go’ freedom that normal everyday life had to some extent denied us!
Ultimately, it’s probably safe to say make up usage WILL resume in the not so distant future, but there’s no doubt that this period - where we’re all getting re-aquainted with our ‘default’ looks - will have enduring benefits.
One of these is that we might come to see the ‘made up’ look in a different (perhaps less positive?) light, one that pales next to the real faces we’ve gotten used to seeing on FaceTime, social media and in the mirror over the preceding months.
This could be a good thing, potentially, since it would stand us in the best stead to seize any and all opportunities for social connection, free from the no makeup anxieties that previously created stumbling blocks.
By nature, we tend to gravitate to the things we need in times of crisis, and if this crisis has proved one thing...it’s that the make up bags gathering dust across the nation, are clearly not as important as we once thought they were... or as the cosmetics industry maybe wanted us to believe!
‘In the rush to return to normal, let’s pause to consider which parts of ‘normal’ are worth rushing back to.’