No. 01 — COLOURFUL COSMETICS
In the wake of the no-makeup makeup look, colourful cosmetics are making a comeback. Whether it’s with a dramatic blue smoky eye à la Dua Lipa or a swipe of pastel-purple polish, there’s a fun way for everyone to join the bright side.
MANUCURIST GREEN FLASH LED NAIL
POLISH IN BOIS DE ROSE (15 ML), $26
No. 02 — BELOW THE NECK
The 360-degree approach to skincare and wellness has translated to an increased interest in what’s happening from the neck down. Online searches for body oil are way up, and there are plenty of options to try that offer sensoriality and skin benefits, like firming and smoothing.
OLVERUM FIRMING
BODY OIL (100 ML), $98
When I was about three or four years old, I would sit on my parents’ big brass bed and put on my mother’s makeup while I watched Sesame Street.
“You look ridiculous!” she’d say when she caught sight of the mountains of blush I’d dusted across my cheeks. Our early encounters with beauty products and rituals can be incredibly formative experiences and become memories that we cherish, even if they were negative. It’s this shared experience that we’re examining in this issue of the Living Beauty Journal
In our cover story “On Nostalgia,” Randi Bergman explores the incredible power of nostalgia and how it shapes our beauty habits well into our adult years. The founder of Capsule 98, a content platform dedicated to formative moments that shape us all, Randi has made nostalgia her niche, and it’s an emotional force we can all appreciate. Some of my first beauty products, like The Body Shop’s long-gone makeup collection and Jean Paul Gaultier’s Classique, still pull at my heartstrings; catching a whiff of Marc Jacobs Daisy always reminds me of when I first met my husband. Others, like Oxy10, trigger a visceral shudder of disgust.
No. 03 — CELEBRATING THE 1970S
I’ve been obsessed with all things 1970s in home decor and design for some time. (Let’s just hope Jell-O moulds don’t make a comeback!) It’s also the decade that saw the advent of Biologique Recherche’s Lotion P50—the game-changing exfoliator is 50 years old.
BIOLOGIQUE RECHERCHE LOTION P50T (250 ML), $130
No. 04 — HAIR RESTORATION
What was once a hushhush procedure is becoming increasingly common, with men from around the world flying to Istanbul for discounted hair-transplant procedures. Recovery is lengthy and difficult to conceal—and a good reminder to all to make scalp care a priority—but by all accounts, the results are worth it.
MANTA HEALTHY HAIR BRUSH, $45
No. 05 — THE RETURN OF THE BLOCKBUSTER
Barbenheimer was the talk of the summer, breaking box-office records on opening weekend. Personally, I couldn’t be happier that the big-movie-theatre experience is back, especially when there’s a chance that Tom Cruise himself might randomly pop in. There’s immense value in storytelling—consider a film-school degree the new MBA—and this is one medium I love to experience.
No. 06 — BLUE
ZONE LIVING
Blue Zones are areas of the world where residents live much longer, healthier lives than most. It’s a way of life that’s inspiring research around the world, including the development of the new Biologique Recherche Masque Caviar Vert, which is made with mineral-rich seaweed from the Japanese Blue Zone on Okinawa Island.
BIOLOGIQUE RECHERCHE
MASQUE CAVIAR VERT (SINGLE), $54
We also consider the role that beauty plays in the experience of new Canadians in “Basement Beauty.” My grandmother, a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Canada in 1948 and always looked impeccable, would regularly get her hair done in a woman’s basement near her home in Toronto. The strong smell of hairspray that surrounded those appointments sticks with me to this day.
Some of the most poignant and universal beauty moments are ones that have been captured for the silver screen.
In “Screen Shot,” Lesa Hannah takes a look at some iconic beauty moments in cinema history and the work that went into creating them. Like Lesa, whose Instagram account @the_makeup_trailer is her personal love letter to onscreen hair and makeup, I love film. There’s nothing better than an ugly-duckling story to prove that we can all change our circumstances.
And what would a look back be without some major milestones? As we mark the 50th anniversary of Biologique Recherche’s Lotion P50, we take stock of the success of everyone’s favourite multifunctional exfoliator and the innovative brand behind it. Working with Biologique Recherche has been lifechanging for me, and I know you’ll join me in celebrating this innovative company's achievements.
xo Mariam Founder and CEO Living Beauty Inc.
“Our early encounters with beauty products and rituals can be incredibly formative experiences and become memories that we cherish, even if they were negative. It’s this shared experience that we’re examining in this issue of the Living Beauty Journal.”PICTURED ABOVE IS A VINTAGE MIRROR PASSED DOWN TO MARIAM FROM HER GRANDMOTHER
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to wellness; this fact became crystal clear to Dani Binnington following her breast cancer diagnosis and surgical menopause. Taking positive steps toward her own good health and a happy life has been a deeply personal journey—one that has included developing the Manta Healthy Hair Brush, which was created by her husband, Tim, to care for her delicate hair and scalp.
It’s a road that she helps others walk through Healthy
Whole Me, a community support hub that includes events, a podcast, yoga and online discussion groups. In honour of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we sat down with Binnington to hear her story and some of the tips she has learned along the way.
I was diagnosed with a really aggressive type of breast cancer when I was 33.
With three young children, I thought that I just had to do everything the doctors told me to do. It was like life was happening to me instead of me directing my own life. That was a really big learning curve— understanding how little control we have in life.
My journey then included breast cancer treatment with chemotherapy and
radiotherapy, and I had lots of surgeries. After that, I found out that I was a carrier of a genetic mutation. And so, many years after my initial cancer diagnosis, I had my ovaries removed to reduce my risk of more cancers. There was a big time gap between my initial breast cancer diagnosis and becoming menopausal.
I think it’s crucial to say that because of this time gap, I was able to put my life back in order; I was becoming stronger, I was eating well and I was teaching yoga by then. That really helped me in deciding what to do and how to manage my menopause.
I think that for many women who are diagnosed with
cancer and thrown into menopause immediately, it’s really a double whammy. We’re going to do everything possible to survive, and we’re going to take all the treatment options our doctors offer us. We expect our treatments to have an impact on us, and we expect to lose our hair. But what we often don’t expect is the long-lasting late effects of cancer treatment—I’m really passionate about talking about those. It could be menopause or it could be severe anxiety, even a year or two after cancer treatment, or there could be low mood and other mental-health issues and the fear of recurrence. We think that all of these
things are going to stop when active treatment stops, but actually, many of them start when active treatment stops. We don’t expect it, and no one prepares us for it. And the expectation is “Well, you’ve finished cancer treatment, it’s great, you’ve done it, you should be so pleased with yourself. But that’s often the point when our life begins to crumble.
Sometimes women say to me that managing menopause after a cancer diagnosis is harder than chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgeries put together. Wow. Many women feel they shouldn’t complain after cancer treatment because they feel so lucky to be alive. It’s OK to say we’re not doing so great when we’re going through active treatment, but as time goes by, we don’t want to seem like we’re moaning on and on. So women often don’t talk about how desperate they feel in managing menopause.
In my opinion, managing menopause is probably the same whether you’ve had cancer or you arrive at perimenopause naturally and your hormones start to dwindle. And from working with hundreds of people through our workshops and programs and courses, I have found that a two-
pronged approach is what is really, really helpful. The one side is what you can do every single day yourself and how you can support yourself and how active you can become. And then the other side is tapping into resources. That might be your health-care team, your general practitioner, a specialist, a medical specialist or another doctor.
ourselves and consider how we’re actually doing. We’re so on autopilot—go, go, go, achieve, work, kids, family, elderly parents—that we forget to just take a moment and check in with ourselves. If we do that, we might notice that alcohol doesn’t agree with us anymore or that the hot flashes get worse after we eat a big piece of meat. It’s
Here are a few resources geared toward menopause and breast cancer.
HEALTHY WHOLE ME → healthywholeme.com
Dani Binnington’s menopause support hub shares information and tools to help others create a healthy lifestyle.
AFTER BREAST CANCER → afterbreastcancer.ca
While most organizations focus on prevention or the treatment stage, Alicia Vianga, owner of the Premier Jour Fine Lingerie & Swimwear boutique, founded After Breast Cancer in 2013 to ensure that women who’ve undergone breast cancer treatment have access to basic needs as well as specialty bras and breast prostheses.
PAXMAN COLD CAP → coldcap.com
Tapping into both at different times is the most helpful when it comes to what you can do every single day. There is no this or that approach. I feel like we need to understand what the bigger picture is and then choose what is best for us and also change our mind if needed. If we try something and it works, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to work forever. The best thing we can do is become a little more alert and sensitive to ourselves again. We often arrive at mid-life having forgotten to listen to
important to notice and understand patterns or triggers. So these are things we can do every single day or every single week at home; we don’t even need a doctor for that. And then there are many women who make all of these lifestyle changes yet still don’t feel great. It’s really important to find a sound health-care provider who can help with next steps. There are hormonal medical treatments, non-hormonal medical treatments and complementary therapies, and they’re all worth exploring.
This scalp-cooling treatment can help reduce hair loss during chemotherapy. The website is full of resources, including a list of nearby hospitals that offer the system and a Facebook group with more than 8,000 members.
SHE 2.0 → She2-0.ca
With an emphasis on empowerment, this Canadian blog and podcast provides content and curates products selected for guidance through perimenopause and beyond.
The new novel Sunshine Nails tells the story of the Tran family, first-and second-generation Vietnamese-Canadians who run a nail salon in Toronto. When a pricey American mani-pedi chain opens up across the street from their salon and rent goes up in their rapidly gentrifying neighbourhood, daughter Jessica steps in to help keep their business afloat. It’s a story about making it in a new country that author Mai Nguyen, whose parents opened Lee’s Nails in Halifax when she was eight years old, knows well.
Whether they’re operating out of a storefront or as a kitchen or hideaway business, beauty-based enterprises have offered many newcomers a pathway to financial stability and community. Recent immigrants not only make up a large portion of the Canadian population (Statistics Canada recently projected that immigrants could represent as much as 34 percent of the population by 2041) but also play an important role in the professional-beauty industry, which is finally being recognized in immigration policies. Last year, Canada added aestheticians to the list of Federal Skilled Workers who can apply for permanent residency through the Federal Skilled Worker Program.
The role of the beauty industry in the immigration experience is something that’s being explored from many perspectives, including academically. In her 2020 Ph.D. dissertation in sociology at Loyola University Chicago, Soulit Chacko shared her findings in “Shaping Beauty, Claiming Authenticity: Gender, Work, and Immigration Experiences of Low-Wage South Asian Immigrant Women Workers.” Her research described not only place-making practices in the beauty salon but also how participants claim their status and dignity, which are often lost during the immigration process. She argues that the beauty-industry workers in her studies created an “authentic self” through their work.
Brazilian-born, New York-based artist and filmmaker Ares Maia, meanwhile, is using her work and her photography zine Beauty & Immigration to take an intimate, personal look at the role that beauty played in her experience of moving to the U.S. While growing up, she shared Brazilian beauty practices, like waxing and hair dyeing, at home with her mother, which resulted in the two having a very close relationship. But living in Connecticut, where these types of domestic beauty rituals were rare, wasn’t always easy. “I was really embarrassed about my at-home beauty practices, especially because at the time they weren’t in style,” Maia told Allure.
That complicated relationship with mainstream beauty is all too common. In her 2019 book Beauty in a Box: Detangling the Roots of Canada’s Black Beauty Culture, author Cheryl Thompson explores the history of Canada’s Black beauty culture, calling for institutional support from cosmetology schools to include training for textured hair. When it comes to personal care, inclusivity can make a world of difference.
Moving to a new country can involve a lot of difficulties and real trauma, and it’s clear that beauty rituals are a valuable part of healing, building and connecting with community. They can offer a sense of ownership, agency and empowerment that can otherwise be difficult to achieve. It’s a spirit that Nguyen captures in Sunshine Nails when patriarch Phil is reflecting on everything he built at his family’s nail salon: “He loved that damn salon. He loved being the person people unleashed all of their problems on. They walked in with overgrown cuticles and walked out with a good mood. This made him feel important, like he had given these people a level of peace they couldn’t get anywhere else. The salon represented the first time in his life that he got to call the shots.”
Dani Binnington, founder of the holistic menopausesupport platform Healthy Whole Me, shares what she’s learned about breast cancer and menopause.
“We often arrive at mid-life having forgotten to listen to ourselves and consider how we’re actually doing. We’re so on autopilot—go, go go, achieve, work, kids, family, elderly parents—that we forget to just take a moment and check in with ourselves.”
beauty industry play in the immigrantexperience?
“He loved being the person people unleashed all of their problems on. They walked in with overgrown cuticles and walked out with a good mood. This made him feel important, like he had given these people a level of peace they couldn’t get anywhere else.”
A few weeks ago, I was hanging out in my childhood bedroom with my niece— a just bat mitzvahed preteen on the precipice of having a downright obsession with beauty. Time-frozen because of my parents’ belief in the age-old promise of “I’ll throw it out next time,” the room holds many treasures, including overdramatic diary entries, magazine cut-out collages and a time capsule I made in 1998, when I was the same age as my niece is now. As we were rummaging through the vestiges of my youth, we came across a cardboard box I’d covered with sequins and a printout of Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe portrait. Inside were the lyrics to “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,”
smoky eye mattered. My niece was enthralled and would have gladly plastered every single glitter stick onto her face had I not explained the concept of product expiry.
Nostalgia, that ephemeral yet universal longing for the past, really gets you in your kishkes (Yiddish for “insides”). It’s magical, mental time travel that has the power to transport you back to when things felt simpler, warmer and completely carefree. It’s a rose-coloured view that obliterates the past of details that might remind you that things were not, in fact, perfect—but that’s beside the point. It’s a warm hug that leaves you feeling elated and wistful at the same time. Core memories are permanent, and while none of us realized that hearing Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” would forever take us back to the powdery scent of Teen Spirit deodorant filling the locker room before gym class, the two are now inextricably linked.
expression. (The first time I used her bottle of Oxy10 to “oxycute” my first pimple taught me that maybe I should be a little more protective of my skin, but that’s a tale for another time.) That sense of selfexpression has been at the core of my beauty routine ever since, and while today it’s less green eyeshadow and more no-makeup look paired with over-the-top fashion, it’s the same sense of idiosyncrasy but in a different, more adult form. Nostalgia is something that one can experience only after accumulating a few battle scars. The youths are still experiencing moments that will become the core memories they’ll later travel back to—and while that might be walking by someone with lip fillers in the year 2040 and remembering the time they tried to emulate Kylie Jenner’s pout
for prom photos, for our generation it means voraciously reclaiming Barbie pink as an eternal symbol of feminism. As we move through the highs and lows of modern life, nostalgia is armour that protects us from becoming completely cynical. Because
even with all the turmoil and change happening in the world, when I close my eyes, all I see is 12-year-old me with butterfly clips in my hair, cotton-candyflavoured Lip Smackers on my lips and a smile full of braces. And for a moment, everything is just right.
inexplicably written out, alongside a museum-worthy haul of Y2K-era makeup that included everything from first-generation Beautyblenders to a shimmery-blue Urban Decay eyeshadow to pastel Stila palettes in their original illustration-covered packaging. Some products I barely recalled using, but others hit with an instant zing of nostalgia for a time when nothing other than mastering the perfect
After I turned my aforementioned time capsule into a viral Instagram account, a podcast, a website and a clothing collection called Capsule 98, nostalgia kind of became my own personal brand. What I can tell you from spending countless hours mining the ’90s and 2000s for content is that nothing will ever compare to the feelings associated with our firsts. When it comes to beauty, this is even more poignant, because, for better or worse, those firsts were what helped shape our lifelong perceptions of self.
The first time my older sister offered to paint my face using her well-worn ’80s sea-green Bourjois eyeshadow and pink blush taught me that my face could be a canvas for self-
Good or bad, our first beauty encounters are something that we’ll always remember. We asked some of our professional partners from across the country to share their most formative beauty memories, and they’re incredibly relatable.
“It’s a rose-coloured view that obliterates the past of details that might remind you that things were not, in fact, perfect— but that’s beside the point.”
Beauty is all about the experience; it comes as no surprise, then, that some of the industry’s biggest names are taking their turn as hoteliers. Here are four hotels born out of the beauty world, all of which offer an unforgettable stay.
The Maker Hudson, New York
Christian Louboutin made a name for himself with his iconic red-soled heels before branching into cosmetics with the most luxurious nail polishes in 2014. Earlier this year, he put his magic touch on hospitality when he opened Vermelho, a hotel located in the quiet village of Melides, just over 100 kilometres south of Lisbon. Each of the 13 rooms is unique, with features like private balconies, original frescoes on the walls and luxurious soaker tubs. The maximalist decor pays homage to Louboutin’s Egyptian and French background through an eclectic mix of elements like parquet flooring, hand-painted tiles and artworks hand-selected by the designer. A naturally heated outdoor pool is surrounded by colourful gardens created by landscape architect Louis Benech, whose green thumb has also tended to Versailles, while the spa offers a mix of facials, massage and body treatments as well Ayurvedic rituals.
library. Each of the 31 rooms has its own distinct look and feel that infuses modern style into the inn’s historic bones. To complete the experience, Brown hand-picked items from a selection of partner brands to outfit the hotel, including appliances from Smeg, hair tools from Dyson and mattresses and bedding from Casper.
Nestled among the leafy vineyards of the 600-year-old Château Smith Haut Lafitte, this five-star hotel and spa is all about reconnecting with the terroir. With Les Sources de Caudalie, brand founders Mathilde and Bertrand Thomas realized their dream of opening the world’s first vinotherapy spa, where hot-spring water is used alongside Caudalie’s signature resveratrol-rich vineyard extracts. Built in 1999, the hotel boasts whimsical rooms that bring your Frenchcountryside fantasies to life, as well as two Michelin-starred dining rooms, where chefs serve vegetables grown on the property’s small farm.
Caitlin Agnew has been covering the beauty and lifestyle beat in Canada for over 10 years and has written for everyone from to The New York Times. behind the our debut in 2020.
As a freelance writer, she gets to travel around the world and try out one-of-a-kind spa treatments, like a Hammam at the famous La Mamounia Marrakech or the Biologique Recherche Bespoke Experience—a customized face-andbody treatment that incorporates elements of traditional Thai massage—at Bangkok’s Capella Hotel.
We’re thrilled to announce that Manucurist is finally available in Canada through a new partnership with Living Beauty Inc.! The French brand is a manicure game-changer, elevating the standards of clean beauty while maintaining performance with its star product, Green Flash LED Nail Polish. With its entirely plant-based formula, Green Flash stands up to regular no-chip gel polish; it lasts for up to 10 days and comes off easily with a gentle acetonefree remover. Manucurist takes a 360-degree approach to nail and hand care, offering conventional polish in highly pigmented colours and incredible finishes with dreamy inspiration like Saint-Tropez and the coral reefs, as well as everything you need to beautify your hands, including nourishing serums and lotions. Stay tuned for more details on where you can find your new favourite nail polish this fall.
MANTA HEALTHY HAIR BRUSH, $45
Manta Healthy Hair Brush
“It’s an unpopular opinion, but I love the freezing cold, probably because I spent the first five years of my life in Northern Manitoba, where winter lasts a full eight months. My CryoSticks recreate that invigorating feeling no matter what’s going on with the weather.”
VMV Hypoallergenics
Ooh-la-lash!
Volumizing Mascara
“I had the great good fortune to work with the super talented stylist Stacy Troke for a story a few years ago. She transformed the way I dress and ever so gently reminded me of the importance of wearing a light amount of makeup on most days. I haven’t left the house without mascara since (except for dog walks).”
“I’ve been getting some coaching on setting my hair’s natural texture free, part of which involves me giving up my hairbrush. Unfortunately for my curls, I can’t resist running the Manta through them. It just feels too good!”
Olverum Bath Oil
BIOLOGIQUE RECHERCHE CRYO-STICKS, $175
Tan Drops Face
BIOLOGIQUE RECHERCHE LAIT VIP O2 CLEANSING MILK (250 ML), $120
Biologique Recherche
Lait VIP O2
“One of my earliest beauty memories is of being dragged by my mother to our nearest Shoppers Drug Mart to get help dealing with my preteen acne. All I can say is bless the beauty advisor who sent me home with a gentle cleanser and a lightweight moisturizer, sparking my lifelong dedication to a daily skincare routine.”
“I tried out James Read's legendary tan drops when I was experimenting with a post-breakup glow-up a few years ago. I have fair skin that’s resistant to tanning, and this was the first time I found myself with a subtle bronze that still looked natural.”
“A good night’s rest is critical to me being able to show up in the world, and that starts well before bedtime. No caffeine after noon, no screens in the bedroom and plenty of fresh air early in the day. Soaking in Olverum’s signature blend of sleep-promoting essential oils is the best way to wind down.”
Magicstripes Hyaluronic Intensive
Treatment Mask
JAMES READ TAN
GRADUAL TAN H2O
TAN DROPS FACE (30 ML), $49
Manucurist Green Flash Nail Polish Remover
“Glitz and glamour aside, work travel can be incredibly disruptive to all aspects of regular life. When scheduling permits, I like to apply a face mask; it forces me to slow down and care for my skin when it’s dehydrated from being on the plane. I always pack a few in my suitcase.”
Hollyhock Armeria
Manucurist Green Flash 24W Foldable Lamp
Manucurist Green Natural Nail Polish in Poppy Red
Manucurist Green Flash LED Nail Polish in Ultramarine
We asked Caitlin to share a few of her favourite wellness essentials and musthave skincare products, many of which have been informed by her earliest beauty memories.
It’s orientation week, and you’ve been invited to meet the newest Biologique Recherche products that have just enrolled at Living Beauty. With a major focus on cleansing—the first step in your skincare routine—each of these launches brings its own unique benefits to this year’s freshman class. One thing they have in common? They’ve all been voted Most Likely to Succeed.
MASQUE CAVIAR VERT (SINGLE), $54
The key ingredient in this new biocellulose mask, which has an instant tightening effect on skin, is green caviar, a seaweed rich in minerals like magnesium, calcium and copper. It’s also popular on Japan's Okinawa Island, a Blue Zone where life expectancy is among the highest in the world.
BIOLOGIQUE RECHERCHE
LAIT DERMO-S
CLEANSING MILK (250 ML), $80
Fragile skin can be triggered by many skincare products, including makeup removers, resulting in itching, tingling or burning. Lait Dermo-S is a major innovation that effectively removes makeup and impurities while soothing any discomfort and hydrating skin. As an added bonus, it improves the quality of the skin barrier, reducing sensitivity and reactivity to external stressors.
BIOLOGIQUE RECHERCHE
LAIT E.V.
CLEANSING MILK (250 ML), $88
The newly reformulated Lait E.V. cleanses the skin and removes makeup while restoring lipids to the driest areas of the face, eliminating any feelings of tightness. Its rich texture leaves skin moisturized and more supple and comfortable; it’s especially effective on mature skin.
BIOLOGIQUE RECHERCHE
LAIT S.R.
CLEANSING MILK (250 ML), $72
Fans of Lait U will be the first in line to try the new Lait S.R., a rebalancing cleanser that eliminates excess sebum for a healthy matte complexion. To combat oiliness in the T-zone (forehead, nose and chin), Lait S.R. removes makeup, impurities and sebum in addition to providing an astringent action, unclogging pores and leaving a fresh, light feel.
BIOLOGIQUE RECHERCHE
LAIT VIP O2
CLEANSING MILK (250 ML), $120
The many risks of environmental pollution include deregulation of the skin’s essential functions, which results in increased sebum secretion, transepidermal water loss, oxidative stress, skin sensitivity and overall dullness. The newly reformulated Lait VIP O2 cleanses the skin of these tiny pollutant particles while also oxygenating it and protecting it from future pollution.
BIOLOGIQUE RECHERCHE
EYE CARE CONCEALER (5 ML), $90
Available in three shades, this new two-in-one concealer combines the best of colour cosmetics with Biologique Recherche’s incomparable skincare savvy. With its tinted, lightweight texture, it treats the delicate area around the eye, evening and brightening in a natural finish, and helps to eliminate dark circles, reduce puffiness and smooth and plump the skin.
In the 1946 movie Gilda, Rita Hayworth makes an unforgettable entrance as the title character. She flips her head back flirtatiously, making her gorgeous hair tumble down in waves, reveals her beautiful face and smiles coyly, speaking just one word: “Me?” Even if you’ve never seen the film itself, you’ve most likely seen the moment, which lives on in pop culture memory.
(It also shows up in the 1994 movie The Shawshank Redemption.) It’s a scene that made an impression on film and TV makeup artist Linda Dowds, who cites it as a favourite. “It’s the head flip,” she says. “It’s the confidence. It’s the striking beauty. I mean, she is just stunning. Another word wouldn’t need to be spoken there. It tells you a story.”
And that’s the power of beauty in movies. While you might immediately think of all the hairstyles from films that we consider iconic, from Mia Farrow’s pixie in Rosemary’s Baby to Gwyneth Paltrow's pin-straight bob in The Royal Tenenbaums to Audrey Hepburn’s towering chignon and baby bangs in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, beauty contributes to movie storytelling in several ways both big and small. While the main objective is to facilitate the actor disappearing into their role—“I’m there to help pull out that character in the story,” says Dowds, who did Jessica Chastain’s makeup in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, which required an accurate portrayal of a real person during a particular period of time—it’s also used in far subtler ways. It can imply personality traits (bold, shy, selfimportant) or what the character is going through in that scene (having a breakdown, drunk, exhausted). “It doesn’t even have to be something that people really see consciously,” says Dowds, offering bare skin and the appearance of broken blood vessels as an example. “There are all kinds of things you can
LIVING BEAUTY
Mariam White Founder and CEO Caitlin Agnew Editor
For your next movie night, check out one of these mustsee films, each with its own unforgettable beauty moments from celluloid history.
John Travolta’s Tony Manero is the king of the dance floor at his local disco, and before a night out, he works “a long time” on his hair, as he tells his dad at the dinner table. How does the viewer know? There’s a montage of him blow-drying it to bouffant perfection in his bedroom while listening to the Bee Gees.
John Waters’s original Hairspray from 1988 captures a moment in time when American politics and civil rights were changing. Set in 1960s Baltimore, the film tells the story of a group of young people fighting the old guard that was opposed to racial integration while demonstrating the influence of Black Baltimore on youth culture. When Ricki Lake’s Tracy Turnblad trades in her hairhopper bouffant for a flat mane that she literally ironed straight, she uses her hairstyle to announce her evolving political beliefs to the world and to differentiate herself from the ignorant attitudes of the previous generation.
do when you’re doing the breakdown of a character. They’re subtle, but collectively you start to tell the story with that.”
Unlike with looks for red carpets or magazine shoots, the goal isn’t always to make someone look their camera-ready best; makeup can be used to evoke negative emotions about a character. Dowds refers to an Australian movie from the early ’80s called Careful, He Might HearYou. In it, a young boy is sent to live with his unpleasant aunt; to convey how he feels around her, the camera is always zeroing in on her red lips, which are pinched and severe looking. “You feel so much more for this little boy,” says Dowds. “Like, I started to dislike this woman.”
Of course, if we were to pinpoint the most memorable beauty scenes in movies, it would be the ones that involve a makeover. There’s no shortage of them, from Grease to My Big Fat Greek Wedding to Clueless to She’s All That. And though they can verge on cliché, there’s a reason why they’re popular. “It’s those moments where you have a transformation,” says Emmy-winning film-makeup artist Donald Mowat, who personally finds them sexist. “And people love it, especially on women.” For her part, Dowds agrees with Mowat and has a theory as to why they resonate. “When people don’t have the same confidence in themselves—maybe they relate to the character who gets bullied at school or is the ugly duckling—they look at that and think ‘Isn't that amazing?’” she says. “And when those characters later become heroes in the story? I think people are always looking for some kind of hero.” Think of how Tess’s life changes in Working Girl when she loses the big ’80s hair and makeup. She’s suddenly got the corner office and Harrison Ford as her boyfriend.
Ultimately, films are an escape from our daily lives. We want to be taken out of our current world and enter another one. But when something we’ve seen onscreen sticks with us, whether it’s an entire makeover or a lipstick shade or a hairstyle we are desperate to emulate, it brings us back to reality. “I think that as much as we’re looking for escapism, sometimes there’s something that pulls us back into how it translates in our own life,” says Dowds. “I think it touches us each of us personally in a different way. And so we hang on to that.”
Back in 1990, Paris Is Burning introduced New York City’s ballroom culture to the mainstream. Focusing on members of the Black and Latino queer communities, the documentary shares their compelling stories and creative ingenuity while depicting them with the humanity they deserved; it illustrates the fact that the desire to be accepted for who you are is universal. Many of the people in the film were faced with adverse circumstances, but performing allowed them to share their dreams and aspirations with others. Paris Is Burning shows that the drag queen’s legendary balls, makeup and dresses were a means to finding authentic identity.
Peg Boggs (played by Dianne Wiest) is the kind Avon lady who brings Johnny Depp’s Edward home. He has scars all over his face from the blades on his hands, and she attempts to cover them with makeup in order to help him conform, going so far as to call the company HQ to track down the perfect shade to use on Edward’s ultra-pale skin. It’s a tender moment that reveals her caring nature—a trait she shares with so many beauty pros IRL.
In a character-revealing scene, we’re given the entire skincare routine— which includes ice packs, pore cleansers, a gel body wash and honey-almond body scrub and peel-off facial masks—of white-privileged yuppie Patrick Bateman, Christian Bale’s Wall Street finance bro, and we realize just how obsessed the murderer is with his appearance.
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presses “play” on the movie beauty moments we love to rewatch and finds out why makeup and hair in film is such an important part of the story.
“I think that as much as we’re looking for escapism, sometimes there’s something that pulls us back into how it translates in our own life,” says Dowds. “I think it touches us each of us personally in a different way. And so we hang on to that.”