How We’re Telling The World We’ve Arrived Through Makeup

Remember those days you’ve left the house with a full face of makeup, feeling absolutely great about yourself, ready for an eventful night with friends and drinks and laughter, casually getting a “Wow, I love your eyeliner!” and “OMG this lipstick is everything!” from this other girl in the bathroom? Remember those? Yeah, us neither. 

If the past months have taught us anything, then it’s that absolutely nothing is certain.  Lockdowns come and go and reasons to dress up and go have a blast have become close to extinct. But you know what? They don’t have to be. Together with essence and catrice we’re on a mission to #MakeUpForLostTime and you can join it too. We’re calling an end to basic, bland zoom call looks, because honestly: we owe it to our dusty little makeup bags and, lastly: ourselves.

We’ve sat down with fellow makeup enthusiasts Alisha and Isi to create some bright, bold, out there looks that will tell the world that we and our brushes are back for good. Going all in has brought us on a little road down makeup memory lane, reminding us of the beautiful things that happen inside of us when a liquid liner touches our lids, a foundation blends smoothly into our skin and a little brush combs up our brows.

We’ve all gone through different phases in our lives and makeup has been by our side through all of them (s/o to you, makeup!) There was a time back in the days we felt like hiding being layers and layers, using concealer and compact powder as a protective shield of some sort, hiding our insecurities, figuring out who we actually are. Signature lipstick shades were tested out, smoky eyes experimented with and not everything looked that great, let’s face it. But that’s the thing with journeys. Eventually, we came out of our shells, metaphorically and literally, and makeup became more of a way of expressing ourselves, of making the inside visible on the outside, artfully. A sharp cat eye if we’re feeling feisty, a pastel lip for playful days.

And then, along came the pandemic and lockdowns and our makeup journey came to a sudden, unexpected hold. No festivals starring futuristic looks, no social gatherings to get ready for appropriately. On the upside, many of us have fallen in love – or at least gotten comfortable with – our bare faces again, which is absolutely beautiful. We’ve let our skin breathe like never before and we liked what we saw in the mirror. Weeks went by where not a single beauty blender has touched our under eye area. Because who and what should we get ready for if we’ve got nowhere to go? 

The answer is simple: for nobody but ourselves. And we believe this should stay the case for the future, too. Not dressing up to impress others, but to give ourselves the uplift we need. With the lack of occasions to wear makeup for comes a new, brilliant kind of freedom: the realisation that occasions never mattered in the first place, because expressing and celebrating ourselves right on our beautiful little faces is all the occasion we need. With essence and Catrice, we want to #MakeUpForLostTime for us and no one else.

Alisha for instance finds: “For me, bold makeup is like a work of art that I create on my face, which I find truly empowering. Especially when I haven't dolled myself up for a while, I like to put on a full face and suddenly look completely different. That changes so much. I'm still myself, but more confident, somehow elevated. It's fun and makes me feel good.” Isi, who nonetheless enjoys her bare face when at home, has to agree: “Makeup emphasises the beauty that’s already there. When I wear it, I just feel flawless.”

So truly, it’s not a matter of places to go but an act of self care. For Alisha, creating showstopping looks has become even more: “During lockdowns and all the time at home, makeup became kind of a hobby, a real thing to do on days when I was looking for creative stimulation. When I was in quarantine with my roommate, we gave each other full drag makeovers and played around with so many colours. It really went to extremes: full face or basically nothing.”