The ingredient of the week – Alpha Tocopherol (Vitamin E)

I’m not going to go into great depth about what alpha tocopherol is (I’ll be calling it vitamin E), I just want to mention the skincare benefits, especially now when we are having a mini heat-wave and are prone to overdoing it in the sun.

Alpha tocopherol is the most biologically active form of vitamin E, a natural fat soluble antioxidant that stimulates the immune system. It’s present in many foods, mostly vegetables and oils. So it’s really good for you and you should eat more of it, ok? Now we can move on to the all important skin stuff.

So what can the alpha tocopherol do for our skin? Quite a lot actually. It’s one of the anti-ageing free radical fighters (antioxidant), but it’s very commonly used for treating sunburn, general skin dryness, skin irritation and scars. Instead of buying shedloads of creams that contain questionable amounts of vitamin E in it, go and buy the supplement from the health food store or pharmacy and use it neat. And it’s cheap.

Vitamin E supplements normally come in little oil capsules, you pierce the capsule and apply it on the affected area. It’s very greasy, so it’s not for showing off, but it will soothe the skin quickly. You can also add it to a cream if you wish. It’s also great on cuticles so no need to splash out on a specialist cuticle potion.

The added advantage of buying a supplement is that it won’t go to waste. The capsules are easily portable, won’t spill and you can eat them. Can’t eat the cream, can you?

A quick note though: some people can develop an allergic reaction to a synthetic form of vitamin E, so please check the source.

TOWIE, Kardashians, Tranny, Reality TV Make Up Trend

"I don’t think it’s enough, think you need another layer"

"Of foundation?"

"Yes. I can still see your freckles"

"Yes you’re right. Oh my god, how much make up are you using?"

"Loads."

"These girls must spend so much money on make up!"

This was the conversation between my friend Mimi and I when I was doing her make up. Mimi kindly agreed to be my guinea pig in this experiment. We wanted to recreate the very much widespread make up trend of slapping it on with layers of foundation, fake tan, drawn on eyebrows and fake eyelashes. The less you see of your features, the better the look.

Even a make-under show has sprung up as a reaction to this trend, the hilarious Snog, Marry, Avoid.

Transvestites and drag queens have always used to do make up like this for the stage. Exaggerated eyebrows, exaggerated shading and highlighter, etc. But that was men trying to look like women, not women trying to look like trannies trying to look like women.

So we are putting so much make up on that our features are almost all lost so we can paint some new ones. Do we really hate ourselves that much?

Who actually decided that a very thick foundation is a good look?

I remember having a celebrity client a few years ago who was naturally very pretty, but a few years down the line she demanded more and more foundation than I deemed was necessary. The excuse was that this kind of make up looked better in photos when "papped". We sadly stopped working together which is a shame as I really liked her as a person, but that look really wasn’t my style. I was probably too much of a fashion make up artist. And I still am.

I find this look very old fashioned, "old school" make up artists trend, reserved for "old school" celebrities. So guess that’s it, these days with reality television celebrities are made every second so this "celeb look" got adopted and now you see it around you wherever you go, be it Essex, Liverpool or Chelsea. It has nothing to do with class or money, but everything to do with how famous do you think you deserve to be. And what’s your interpretation on how the famous people should look. 

The difference in how cheap you end up looking is only in how good are you in putting three pairs of false eyelashes (are they crooked or not) on or do you have to pay someone to do it for you. Paying someone to do it does not guarantee you won't end up looking like Katie Price. She has a make up artist by the way.

The problem is, when that look was “invented” it was mainly done for TV, stage and photos. TV has since gone high definition, digital photography is picking up so much detail that photoshop is a must just to look normal. We were not supposed to see those old school celebs in real life. But we sadly do see the "desperate scousewifes" and the likes in real life. And the look is not pretty. I can see men freaking out and not recognizing the girls without their make up on. Bring on the jokes we left in the 50s please..... Oh no, men are joining in with the fakery. Trannylicious.

So let me go back to my friend Mimi. In real life she looked so much older, but in photos she actually looked ok, but very different to what she normally looks like. This was not a high definition camera though and no photoshop. We took some photos on my iphone and posted them on Facebook. The comments were interesting. Gay men were first to congratulate her on her newly found tranny look, straight men were appalled and could not recognize her, while women were strangely drawn and most liked it.

What does it say about us? Are we women so conditioned to think that looking like someone else is the only acceptable way of looking? I’ll let you draw your own conclusion. Hopefully you'll join the debate and give us your opinion. 

This is Mimi before the makeover. She had some make up on when she came to visit.

 

This is Mimi post makeover.