Total Beauty For Life - Beauty Makeup Tips & Advice

Beauty is like a magnet - it attracts others to it. Yet while elements of beauty are easy to spot, what truly defines it remains intangible. This ia because in today's post modern world, beauty is about individuality - there are no norms, and no given ideals to aspire to. Of course, this makes beauty a more democratic commodity than ever before, but it also creates a dichotomy - today's beauty must possess two types of allure: the internal and the external. While external beauty is largely reliant on other people's judgement (an accepted beauty is lent her standing by those around her), internal beauty is something we all possess, something that makes us stand out from the crowd, and that by proxy affects our physical appearance as well as our mental outlook. Rather like the chicken and the egg, if you feel your best, you usually look it, and vice versa.

The power of beauty is immeasurable. Delve back into your deepest memories- why was the prettiest girl at school always popular? And why was the man with the scarred face always stereotyped as the movie's baddie? As far back as ancient civilizations, physical perfection was revered as a gift from the gods, while physical deformity, the 'outer display of inner corruption', was castigated. Although society has moved on a long way since then, make-up as a way of attaining beauty is still a powerful tool. Even the most exquisite face is improved with make-up - hence the late Diana, Princess of Wales, came to Vogue for a restyle; many a supermodel will only agree to be photographed if she can have her favourite make-up artist in tow; celebrities demand final approval of pictures before publication; and politician after politician improves his look to try to increase his votes. Hardly an American president in living memory has resisted the odd nip or tuck, or at least a set of pearly-white improvements to his winning smile.

Of course, beautifying yourself has a superficial aspect, but it has a deeper psychological one, too. I firmly believe that if you look and feel your best you approach day-to-day life in a totally different manner - quite literally with your head up. Indeed, it is a scientifically proven fact that those who are happy with their appearance perform better, and those who perform achieve. So any way in which we can cosmetically enhance the canvas nature gave us is a bonus, and bit by bit, decade by decade, make-up has contributed to our idea of ourselves. In the twentieth century alone, the 1920Svamp dabbled with beauty spots, the 1950Sstarlet wore glossy lips and glamorous lashes and the 1970Sdiscoqueenlit upa party as much as a disco ball. By the 1990S, of course, technology had orbited beyond the realms of the familiar, and a plethora of textures, tones and colours became readily available right through from one end of the market to the other. Hence the beauty business, once a basic cold-cream/pan stick/coral-or-red-lipstick business, is now a billion-dollar global industry.

This infinite choice, combined with changing demographics (the growing numbers of interracial partnerships is quite literally changing the face of humanity), are to be thanked for the twenty-first century's increasing freedom. Our accepted ideas of beauty are being forced to change, as it becomes physically impossible to conform to anyone type. We now stand poised on the threshold of a whole new era - one in which everybody can be beautiful, and the ideal is simply an individual's potential fulfilled.

In an age when we can remove unwanted hair permanently and painlessly, prevent premature skin ageing and thus turn back the clock, achieve year-round colour without exposing ourselves to a single harmful ray of sun, make our short hair long overnight, enjoy the permanent arched eyebrows nature never gave us, and contour our faces and bodies with relative ease, we really can be exactly who we want to be. Throwing off the shackles of conformity does not mean we need to care less, however; it means we must care more. 

Firstly, we havea responsibility to enjoy looking good: make-up is meant to be fun, after all. If you put aside the time to dabble with glossy compacts, shimmery powders and creamy potions, you actually allow yourself to take time out of a hectic schedule, and concentrate on yourself alone. A few such minutes of relaxation, stolen like this on a daily basis, are healthier for mind and body than a full hour's massage taken only once a month. And as we all know, a healthy mind (the start of'inner beauty') means a healthy body (the start of ' outer beauty').

To attain the 'inner' half of the beauty package, we must face the new century with a new attitude to lifestyle - one that incorporates healthy living, healthy eating and a sensible commitment to exercise. Time is one of the most valuable commodities in the modern world - if you invest your time wisely now, you will reap the benefits of mental health and physical strength in the future. With a healthy outlook assured, the gloss and the glamour are there for the taking. The difficulty that the millennium woman faces is the confusion of choice - exactly which option should I take? Remember that glossy magazines are there to suggest, no longer to dictate, and whether you leaf through Vogue to lift a look entirely, or to borrow some ideas and expand on others, is up to you. A beautiful woman in today's world is one who is happy with her own identity - not one who looks asthough she has been tortured and squeezed into somebody else's.

Above all else, 'We have freedom of style now,' says make-up guru Vincent Longo. 'There are so many timeless beauty looks and so many beauty icons. It doesn't really matter which you choose. Modern beauty is about enhancing your own features and looking pretty and approachable.' The point of democratic beauty is to enjoy it, and that holds for twenty-first-century man. With women's choices now infinite, men are pushing the boundaries, too. While anything more than a shave or a haircut was once a statement of sexual preference, today's men are free to explore. No longer obliged to dabble secretly in the girlfriend's bathroom cupboard, millennium man indulges in facials, body masks, manicures (with polish), and even waxing and cosmetic surgery. And why should men not enjoy it? In ancient times any bloke with an ounce of self-esteem took regular saunas, pushed back his cuticles, made sure his hair was perfect and applied cosmetics to enhance his features. What seems 'right' is simply what we are used to, after all: think of the (traditional) Englishman who scoffs at wearing fragrance, when no Frenchman worth his onions would be smelt without it. So a couple of canny cosmetics companies have already started lines of 'make-up for men', and it will not be long before all the major players follow suit.

The rapidly expanding consumer market owes a debt of gratitude to technology. With the Internet revolution and arrival of e-commerce, we are now able to buy everything from Brylcreem to body paint from the comfort of home. Thanks to virtual technology, we can already download our image at our workstation, try out different hair colours and make-up on screen, and decide exactly which products to use for real. Before long we will also be able to download 3-D images, and even smell and touch, making drastic haircuts, unfortunate scent and make-up choices, and even surgical faux pas things of the past

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