One thing I have got right as my thirties loom is my make up. In my teens and twenties I experimented with an array of different techniques (and bronzers) resulting in many a questionable look.
There was the blue eye liner dragged beneath the lower lashes inspired by Effy from Skins, an interesting look for a 25 year old modelling herself on the star of a teen drama. Nineties lip liner on a nude lip made entirely invisible by foundation. Orange foundation (entirely accidental). Orange Oompa Loompa hands (in the early days of fake tanning), over plucked and unpencilled brows, thick black eyeliner (halfway down my face by 11.30am), glitter eye shadow, hair mascara (way back in ’98) and ridiculous false eyelashes that hadn’t been properly secured.
Nowadays though it seems young girls are skipping this chapter entirely. Thanks to the Kardashians and their make up artist Joyce Bonelli, contouring is widely practised and with endless tutorials on YouTube, girls as young as thirteen can trot off to school red carpet ready.
As I crawl towards my thirties I feel humbled when I remember the days of foundation tide marks and pearlescent Bourjois eyeshadow. How can you grow as a woman unless you’ve left the house feeling like a celebrity, preened and ready to be papped when in actuality you’ve gone four foundation shades too dark and you’ve got an eyelash strip stuck to your cheek? Yes I’ve looked a sight in my time, but armed with some Charlotte Tilbury and a YouTube tutorial I’ll be marching into my thirties with my head held high and perhaps a savings account for surgeries…
