Vglorify without hiding. Express what you love and don’t love about your face. Let’s talk about p“positive” effect of makeup with Gaia Masera, content and beauty creator, author of the book Anyone can wear makeup. If he knows how to do it! (Fabbri Editore).
Body Positivity, word to the beauty creator
Gaia Masera, what does the concept of body positivity mean in your professional experience?
I would summarize the body positivity concept like this: the unconditional acceptance of one’s own image regardless of any critical issues we can find in the image reflected in the mirror. Beyond the unrealistic standards imposed on us, it is essential to remember that we are unique and different people, also and above all thanks to what goes beyond beauty standards.
Because of my job, I spend a lot of time in front of the mirror and I often found myself at criticize the image I saw, partly due to the scars scattered here and there, partly due to the discolouration, pimples, dark circles and so on and so forth. However, I realized that I would never have criticized anyone else in the world like this as I did myself! I would never tell a friend the things I said to myself, so why was I doing it? Well, for me body positivity is the unconditional love we owe to ourselves, reminding us that every body is precious and deserving of respect.
Photo by Nik Hartley, styling by Alessandra Corvasce
How can make up become a means to increase one’s self-esteem?
The make up is there helps us enhance our strengths on a daily basis, diverting attention from what we prefer to minimize. I don’t like the expression “hiding” imperfections, because this implies having to be ashamed of what is natural and should be accepted with serenity. Unfortunately, the culture we live in has hyper-normalized unpleasant and unsolicited comments, leading us to mask our insecurities to the detriment of a healthy relationship with our face or body. My hope is that the make up becomes more and more a way of expressing oneself, as well as an intimate and serene moment that anyone can dedicate to themselves, to enhance themselves.
Is there a make-up product that gives us more confidence?
There is no universal make-up product that makes anyone who wears it feel completely at ease: for some it may be concealer, for others it may be mascara to emphasize long, curved eyelashes, for still others a red lipstick flamboyant that gives an instant boost of self-esteem and confidence. Beauty is uniqueness, make up is the tool with which to express our differences and peculiarities, underlining and enhancing what we love about ourselves and minimizing what can undermine our safety.
In recent years we have moved from corrective make-up to more expressive and “tailor-made” make-up. How do you interpret this change?
I couldn’t be happier with the trend the beauty world has taken on lately. Makeup is not just correction, but it can be a way of expressing one’s creativity and personality. The goal must always be the same: to feel comfortable with the image we see reflected in the mirror, which can be different every day. The important thing is to remember not to do it for others, but for us.
Today, can even presumed defects be an element to be enhanced with makeup?
The acceptance of defects and imperfections goes hand in hand with the constant change in beauty standards and the most fashionable trends. Make up is a clear example of this process, given that a few years ago the trend tended towards hyper-covering and heavy full-face, while lately light and light bases have been preferred. there is much more focus on skincare.
Contouring, with which you can make a nose thinner, a face more tapered or a forehead less high, is less and less marked; the concealer, once used on top of already very covering foundations, is now used to illuminate, to lift and emphasize rather than to hide or erase. One of my favorite beauty hacks is to turn pimples into beauty moles: since you can cover the redness but not the three-dimensionality, use an eyebrow pencil to draw a brown dot on top. And voilà!
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