First experiences of beauty

As part of this work in Paris, I've been exploring how beauty fits into a woman's life (sorry boys) at different ages. I started to reflect on my own experience and realised that, even as someone who's never highly prioritised appearance, the influences have been there almost right from the beginning.

In early childhood I remember being keenly interested in my mother's makeup bag, watching her apply lipstick and blush in the front room mirror and of course wanting to emulate her. I also remember receiving toys with plastic lipsticks and 'make your doll pretty' instructions.

The 'Barbie Loves Beauty' styling head is recommended for girls aged 3 years +

On my tenth birthday, I had a group of friends from school join me at the local ice skating rink. My boyfriend gave me a bunch of daffodils while one of my female friends gave me a makeup compact, much to my mother's horror. I remember being surprised that it would be allowed, but delighted because birthday presents were a binding contract of ownership!

Makeup compacts designed especially for the beauty-conscious child

I do remember that, by the time I was 11, I had read enough magazines and seen enough adverts on TV to know that a woman has to use moisturising cream to keep looking young. I thought that, by starting really early, I would mature into the youngest-looking woman in the world. So I started using some of Mum's skincare products whenever I spotted them in the bathroom. As I rubbed the creams and serums into my face, I would imagine a future where I would be interviewed for my beauty secrets.

Isabella Rossellini told me to do it!

Starting senior school at 11, I was teased for having hairy legs and begged my mother for the equipment needed to start shaving them. I also thought my eyebrows were too hairy and tried to shave those off... and logic told me that if you shaved your legs then surely you must also shave the hair from your arms..?

Of course as a teenager it was all magazines and peer pressure, makeup tips and images of young models with perfect skin. I'd steal goodies from Mum's bag and collect free samples... I guess if I was a teenager now I'd be watching videos on YouTube and reading beauty blogs, trying out all the different techniques.

Anyway, on reflection, it seems that I've spent my entire life being shaped by the world of beauty, even if I did resist it as I grew older and my priorities changed.

And now maybe I'm part of that system... I go to children's parties as a face painter, with a book full of ideas themed on favourite films, superheroes, animals... but so frequently the girls will ask to be made up like Miley Cyrus or other favourite celebrities, with coloured lipsticks and black eyeliner.

How was it for you? Did you also have dolls, books, things to influence you as a small child, or did the 'pretty priority' come later? Do you have children now and do you see them being influenced?

Are men missing out?

So, I've been spending the last week or so working in Beauty in Paris. I've been interviewing women about their beauty choices, reading about how mothers deal with introducing beauty regimes to their daughters, and I've even undergone a makeover myself.

Having my face 'done' by an expert

But there's one voice that I've yet to hear: that of men.

It makes absolute sense to me that men should be just as interested in their visual appearance as women. It's not as though there's no historical basis for men using makeup. We'll avoid diving back to the Ancient Egyptians or the Renaissance for the moment and stick to the 20th and 21st centuries... Obvious examples like David Bowie and Boy George continue the idea of makeup is a feminine trait whilst celebrating their gender-spanning artistry. But who ever thought Elvis Presley effeminate for wearing black mascara to accentuate his baby blues? Or Johnny Depp less of a man when he portrayed the heavily made-up Jack Sparrow? Male style icons have used makeup throughout the decades and used it to set the standard for facial attractiveness.

Now, in this new millennium where gender has moved from a binary choice to a fluid spectrum and where a man can be the brand ambassador for a line of luxury womenswear, it seems only logical that makeup use should be normalised amongst our masculine friends.

Jaden Smith (son of Will Smith) modelling a very expensive skirt ensemble with his female colleagues

It certainly doesn't seem to be something that's talked about openly, unless you're a young vlogger on a mission, but there's much evidence to suggest that 'grooming products' like tinted moisturisers, bronzing powders and beard-filling pencils are on the rise. They're sold by specialist providers and I've seen them in men's bathroom cabinets (Airbnb hosts, do you really expect us not to look?). But I've never heard them mentioned in conversations.

YouTube's Beauty Boy (link above) publishes tutorials on how to get that 'no makeup' look

And, perhaps most surprising, the big makeup brands are not capitalising on it. You can walk into a prestigious beauty store in Paris and head straight for the men's fragrances, but those delectable little coloured pods on the other side of the room are clearly marked NOT FOR YOU.

So what do you say, chaps - are you being massively overlooked? Is makeup something that appeals, or indeed something you already like to indulge in? Are there still stigmas that prevent you giving it a go, or would you rather steer clear of the whole thing altogether?

I've never been to Paris

Born and raised in the United Kingdom, the much romanticised city of Paris has always been within easy reach. Such easy reach, in fact, that it takes quite some avoiding.

As a soppy teenage girl, of course, I read magazines and absorbed television dramas in which girls just a few years older than I would be whisked off their feet and taken on a surprise trip to 'gay Paris', to dance among the fairy-lit trees, to sip on delicate cocktails... and of course to engage in arousing embrace atop the Eiffel Tower.

Remember when Lisa off Hollyoaks got taken to Paris in a helicopter?

Why would I want to spoil that opportunity by going there myself first? When my man came along and flew me to the French capital it would be the first time my eyes ever beheld it, and it would be the most magical experience of my life.

Yeah.

Any teenage girls reading this, allow me to impart one snippet of wisdom from my now deeply cynical thirty-something-year-old pool of experience: never wait for someone else to make your dreams come true.

So now I'm finally going. It's not entirely by design - I asked to pick up a project somewhere in Europe for a month or two and, when my assignment to Brussels Airport went wrong, Paris was next on the list. I'm needed for 8 weeks to work with a luxury brand on their makeup division. And while that sounds like the dream of many a young woman with a love of beauty products it's a little outside my comfort zone.

Let me tell you a little about me:

My favourite shop in the world is Matalan Clearance in Newport, Wales (see below). If I want to treat myself to a designer dress or handbag, I visit the nearest charity shop or - at a push - eBay. But most of the time I'm happy to just pull together an outfit based on whatever I can find - the more colourful and quirky the better.

Everything's £1 at Matalan Clearance!

I don't wear makeup every day, although I'm capable of wielding a lipstick when necessary. I'm pretty sure the rouge I'm using now was originally stolen from my Mum's bag around the same time as I was pouring over those vacuous girls' magazines. I'm about two stone (28lbs) overweight. My nails are often stained from kids' facepaint or Copic markers, my hair gets cut once a year and my beauty secret is that I occasionally have to shave my big toe.

I'm happy with all of that. It's me - it perfectly suits my priorities. I care about learning new things, expanding my horizons, looking out for others and doing work that positively impacts human lives. My recent projects have been focused on better delivery of government services, on finding ways to include people often left behind, and on seeking out new opportunities for communities in developing countries. I am immensely proud of that work and I don't care that I look like this doing it:

Zipping around the Solomon Islands with my colleague Joyce

But that's not going to work in Paris. This will be another new experience for me, another opportunity to learn and to develop, by immersing myself into Parisian culture and into a different type of society, one that values outward appearance and luxury, and I intend to fully embrace that.

So today the transformation must begin. Day by day I'll be learning more about the world of beauty and making changes to myself that will allow me to better understand it. I'll be embarking on a journey from double-chinned feminist hippy to glamorous Parisian femme.

Enjoy the ride!