A Year's Worth of Make Up

About a year ago (fittingly enough) I decided to stop wearing "make up" every day and to spend the money I normally would spend covering up my face and what I perceived as my flaws to take better care of my skin. It's been a very liberating experience in many ways and I do wear a little make up from time to time either for special occasions or if I have a really bad blemish, but one thing I've realised is by giving up wearing makeup every day I like my face more. Not because my skincare regime has suddenly made me more beautiful (although my skin does look better than ever and when I do wear makeup I no longer need foundation), but because I no longer spend 15 mins to an hour every day examining my face for flaws and covering myself up.

For their short film Natural Beauty, directors Lernert & Sander applied a year's worth of makeup to a model's face and the end result is a goopy, drippy, mask-like mess. The beauty of their model Hannelore Knuts who has a gorgeously symmetrical face is lost behind the 365 layers of airbrushed foundation and yet what I find most poignant is that by the time the last layer is applied she looks sadder. Maybe it's acting, but she does. I wonder if the directors showed her what she looked like at the very end and if that caused what I perceive to be her sadness.

It took 7 bottles of Ellis Faas foundation and several bottles of blush, cream eye shadow, and lip gloss to create the "look" over a period of nine hours.

The Dutch duo of Lernert & Sander are famous for torturing chocolate bunnies and other thought provoking work. I really hope to see more and more of their work in the future because it has always moved me, but as a woman this has hit me differently. I am someone who has always believed there is something physically beautiful about every person if one takes the time look closely everyone has something that is near perfect about them. And in this past year I've realised that "everyone" happens to include me too.

Watch the video below and if nothing else today, look at yourself in the mirror and learn to love your natural beauty and if you look long enough you'll realise it's not just skin deep.