The Make-over

Prof. Viyatprajna Acharya
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The picture that is in red and white saree looking in the mirror was taken by a professional photographer for the purpose of making an intro video for participating in the Mrs. India-My Identity-2018 purpose.

Like most of the gorgeous ladies sans make-up here, I too had no idea, what actually make-up was. Either we took heavy make-up for dance performances, that took hardly 5 minutes for the Chitralaya man (the local make-up artist for dance and drama etc). They will smear quite heavy layer of foundation by a piece of sponge on our faces- 1 minute. Thick kajal with their brush- half-a-minute, dab the face with a pouch of zinc…dab dab dab….and however much dark you are, you’ll look dazzling white on stage. Another artist will do the Tika on forehead (Chita for Odissi) and with each other’s help we wear the ornaments, Taahiya and all done within 10 minutes.

And what I do for regular make-up is cream-powder-lipstick routine and thought that is also too much. Later replaced powder with compact and poofffff….I am ready.

In this picture also the same routine but a base of 9-5 Lakme foundation probably and a line of Kajal.
Now looking back, I give a pat on my back that actually I did make the video with this minimalistic make-up…ha ha ha and I got good adulations.

My intention of joining the pageant was quite queer. I needed a larger audience to tell that prolonged plastic use in food and water may lead to breast cancer in female, which was based on my recent research.
My assets were my intention and confidence probably.

Now I saw in news that in some international pageants few contestants go without make-up. Actually, that is how things should be. But No….everything is being engineered now, nose, lips, dimple, breasts, tummy and what not!
The youth mass is falling prey to gaudy make-up which was quite a far cry in our young days. The cosmetics market is in a boom. Prices are sky-rocketing claiming to be paraben free, lead free, aluminum free, alcohol-free ..blah blah….but the general mass falls prey to cheap cosmetics, which is actually not essential. And let me mention that even certain chemicals in these cosmetics behave as xenoestrogen like BPA and leading to hormone-dependent cancer.

Beauty is from within….the more empowered you are, the more it reflects on your face.

A nice #saree with matching accessories is a better option I feel.

Love you all