By day six, I felt confident enough to give a clean-girl beauty look my all. I combined all of the above tests and trials to execute what I think is a pretty good clean-girl look. Is it easy and low-maintenance? No. As you can tell, this took me six days to get right, with a lot of mistakes made along the way. And yes, while this looks wonderful for a quick snap or video, the truth is, the makeup has zero staying power. A dewy base really does require some sort of holding primer or setting spray (which does risk dulling the finish).
By the end of day six, I looked nothing like the fresh-faced woman I was first thing. What I have learned about clean-girl beauty is that it likely takes a village. The celebs we see sporting it day in and day out have makeup teams on hand to fix their melting formulas, hair stylings to secure flyaways and emergency nail kits for if they break a nail or their polish chips. Clean-girl beauty is no doubt a great look, but it is also, I have learned, setting a ridiculously unattainable beauty standard.
Perhaps the secret to clean-girl beauty isn’t in makeup application, hairstyle or nail colour, but instead to do with the naturally clear, blemish-free skin, deep, healthy nail beds and general wealth and access of its adopters. I’m feeling somewhat bitter about the whole thing, but the truth is, I’ll probably keep trying to make it work. (And no doubt feel desperately let down and worse about myself as a result.)
Next up, weddings will triumph this year—these are the 6 makeup ‘rules’ to know.
Tagged: makeup