Make-up tales

Feb 25, 2010

ONE of the channels on DStV did an expose (if you can call it that) on what lies beneath those beautiful pristine faces of Hollywood celebrity-hood. Basically, they stripped what they call the war paint (make-up) off and what lay beneath was not even half as pretty as the glossy products that get us

By Ilonka Nazziwa
WHAT LIES BENEATH

ONE of the channels on DStV did an expose (if you can call it that) on what lies beneath those beautiful pristine faces of Hollywood celebrity-hood. Basically, they stripped what they call the war paint (make-up) off and what lay beneath was not even half as pretty as the glossy products that get us ‘commoners’ (not in Hollywood) all tied up in the ‘wannabe phenomenon’ Halle B, held her ground though.

I am sure the sheer motive of that expose was to make viewing audiences feel slightly better about themselves or maybe demystify super stardom.

Indeed, it was somewhat slightly redeeming for my self-esteem. However, the whole ‘war paint’ idea lingered with me for some time in a sinister manner. Like there was a lot that had been said but even a lot more left unsaid.

Back in the day, when I was at university, I had a close friend who would never be caught without her make-up. In my view she was a pretty girl and yes the make-up did make her look even more beautiful but she once confided in me that whenever her boyfriend spent a night, she would have to wake up early, long before he did so that she could make-up.

He was not supposed to see her without it. That blew me away! I could not get up to read for an exam no matter how unprepared I was. (Oh, but recently I did get up early to be part of the Yellow Marathon).

And then, shortly after that, another friend who needed at least an hour and half each morning to get her make up on. She would do a wonderful job, and in a more ironic twist of events, a few years down the road, I find that I cannot report to work without certain basics in makeup.

However, I have no problem being seen without it for as long as I am out of office. For just a second, let us view make-up as ‘war paint’ just as it was referred to in the TV programme. War paint is used to conceal the warrior and make them look fiercer than they actually are!

What does that say about ‘us’ who cannot do without it in some form or the other? Many of you are probably running to the conclusions that the ‘war paint’ is part of the inherent nature of the female species to look attractive so as to fulfil the basic instinct of finding a suitable mate.

And I cannot deny that that is a possibility. But I am tempted to believe that in our era, ‘war-paint’ could also have become a mask behind which we hide from ourselves.

Those who market the products seem to believe so too. Look at the names of some of their products: ‘Vanishers’, ‘Concealers’, ‘Line reducers’, ‘Age Defying’, ‘Eye shadows’. These seem to promise something new and different, something not you. Could this be because many of us are so unhappy with who or what we are?

Do not get me wrong. Not all ‘war paint’ totting females and males (yes, all you metrosexuals) are in it for the escapist effect. I certainly hope that is not why I am always stocked with an ‘eye pencil’.

But there is that nudging feeling that if there were more of us that were happy with who we are, make-up would not be the multi-billion dollar industry that it is today.

Make-up would and should be just one of those perks of life, something you use to improve your well-being, like an apple a day! No one would get up to consume apples for half an hour prior to starting the day.

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