Beauty Story

“The eyes are blind. One must look with the heart”: one of my favorite quotes from the book “The Little Prince”, by Antoine de Saint Exupéry

When I was a little girl, I wanted to look like Snow White: black hair, white skin and red lips. Today my favorite lipstick is red, I color my hair black and my DNA has given me a tanned skin.

Let me share with you this true story of my first steps into the fascinating world of Beauty and the lesson I learnt from it years later.

The island tradition of my birth country, a little tropical island called Mauritius, meant that I was not allowed to cut my hair until the age of 15, and by then my wavy hair was down to my waist. On my very Birthday (my family had since moved to London), my older sister treated me to the said hair appointment at a local Beauty Salon. I can still remember the moment my ponytail was cut, my head feeling lighter and my heart heavier: with one snip or two, it all fell away…

I looked at the floor and asked: “please can I keep it?” I hung on to that ponytail for years until donating it seemed like a better fate. I left the hairdressing salon dizzy, with a pang in my heart.

I put on a very brave face moving forward. I could not allow my parents to be right, or be unappreciative of my sister’s gift, so I struggled with the short curls, which would never lie flat. I turned to wearing berets – fortunately they were “in”. Serendipitously, my older sister chose to go to Hairdressing school, and I became her model for experimentations. Each visit was an adventure, and we even won competitions together.

Still I did not feel pretty- breakouts seemed to sprout up everywhere and my eyebrows seemed to be joining up together. I tried the beauty counters in the big department stores, but I could not pluck up the courage to ask for advice: they all looked too beautiful to want to deal with me and my “spotty face”, and the products probably cost too much.

When it came time to choose a career, guess what I opted for: Beauty. That way, I could learn how to fix myself up, plus I saw an ad that showed that makeup people got to travel! My father told me that if Beauty was to become my career, I should study everything about it. I still remember Ms. Rosa who helped me clear up my skin and made her students repeat each facial massage movement over and over again until it was perfect. And with my sister now a hair expert, I always had the latest look!

Fast forward:

I have worked in the Beauty business my whole life. I got to travel around the world, appeared on TV as the “Beauty Expert”, designed makeup lines, worked for the largest cosmetics companies as an instructor, owned my own Beauty Studio in Beverly Hills – in other words, Beauty has been my passion and provided me with a great career. My father had been right about studying all aspects of the Business…

Still I will never forget the beginning: looking in the mirror without “heart”.

Lesson:

Recently, I joined a website that helped me reconnect with school friends from London, back in the days of the ponytail, when I had been the new girl who spoke French. I received a contact from someone I remembered, the popular, pretty girl, with the following message to me: “Were you the pretty girl with the long pony tail?” If only I had known I was thought of as pretty: what a shock, what a lesson!

We all look different from one another. Look with the heart, and try this: do you know the true color of your eyes?

Take a mirror, go outside and look into your eyes. Notice the different specks of color: brown eyes, look at the rim of the brown and you will often see a glimpse of purple, aubergine, or even navy; blue eyes, what about that hint of periwinkle (lavender), gold, or turquoise? If you cannot see them, ask a friend to help you discover your true colors.

You are all Angel Beauties.

I look forward to bringing you tips and advice for your Angel Face.