BRUTALLY HONEST

Brutally honest.
The world has a very unreasonable standard of beauty and there is so much pressure on people, both men and women and now even children to keep up. This standard is basically about physical appearance and most of the time it boils down to weight and colour of skin. Of course there are other dimensions like, cheek bone, height, x-factor which can also be referred to as swagger for our male counterparts.

I committed self esteem suicide yesterday when I agreed to meet with some visiting new Yorkers. 4 real life models, 6 ft 5, long legged, toned, tanned, size 4 beauties. I stood out from amongst them like awilos ‘red shoes’. Every lady there must have felt a bit green, this is not self degradation oh before some people will rise to judgement it is me being brutally honest. Obviously curious I asked them how they manage to maintain such a size and always look so effortlessly beautiful and Erica (who was a delight to listen to as she was usually so animated when she talked) told me that she finds it saddening that people are always quick to dismiss them as anorexic airheads but there is so much discipline required in their profession. constant exercise, eating right, the right posture and constant travel for photo shoots and a lot more to stand out in a world of modelling where unlike here, where she lives there are dozens of girls in the business ready to push you aside. Well they each have their backup plan, cos as they grow older in the industry, younger, fresher faces sprout up every day making them irrelevant and forgotten.

But somehow I believe that more and more older women are looking hotter and hotter. They have stopped letting go after a few children and have started spending more resources which they have a lot of disposable income available to them. Decades ago, using make up and taking time dressing up was frowned on when u reached a certain age (read ‘road to bar beach’), usually you just start aging from 30 onwards when you have had your fifth child. You wear unsightly, unflattering bubus and bubas and just generally look unattractive. But you don’t need ovation magazine to tell you that things have changed. 50 is the new 30 or maybe even 20. Nigerian women are aging gracefully. Let’s leave more extreme enhancements like surgery and focus on safer, cheaper and easier ones like make up/makeover.

You may believe that you have always been the ugly duckling in your family or the less attractive among your group of friends, but I assure you, hiding your love handles under that unflattering tunic will not help you or your confidence. It’s about time you take matters into your hands. if u you are not one for makeup, I’m sure there are colours and brands that will suit you, if your weight makes you shy, get on a program(but do it for yourself and not for anybody else). I say all these because I believe that a lot can be achieved when a woman believes she has attained beauty especially by her own standards. Good luck!

P.S - A Beauty studio CYREENE is opening, July 2009 in OMEGA PLAZA Wuse 2. Finally! A place where women can go have professional make up treatment, makeovers to suit their new lifestyle and status, buy quality makeup products that you have seen only in magazines and sip tea or wine while chatting with fellow girlfriends. I look forward to it.