Lifestyle
To all of you.
This article was to be called "The day I learned to love myself". For this post, I went fishing for testimonials from my colleagues. Only one was able to answer me. Some of them tried, then told me, sorry and embarrassed, that they didn't know what to write because that day hadn't arrived yet. Because they still had trouble loving themselves. At least you'll know that at Oh My Cream, we don't like fake testimonials 😉
I was very annoyed. Then all of a sudden, I was reminded of... you. Before I took over the editorial part of the site, I answered all your emails for about 5 years. I loved this job. I loved reading you. You may not have realized it, but many of your stories touched me. You talked to me about your skin, of course, but you also talked to me about yourself, about why you had acne all of a sudden. And you were often so hard on your image! You were also very apologetic. For all the pictures I received from you, I had the right, like before a violent movie, to a warning message. You apologized for the mess behind you. You apologized for being surrounded, for being wrinkled, for having pimples... You were all apologizing for sending me a picture of yourself au naturel. You were even afraid that I would get scared, because you had no hair.
But if you knew how beautiful I thought you all were! Apologizing for the mess behind you because you have kids, apologizing for having pimples because your exams are coming up and you're stressing yourself to death, apologizing for being wrinkled just because - unbelievably - you're getting older. Apologize for being sick and struggling.
But where does this insecurity about our appearance come from? What are we afraid to send back, even to people we will probably never (re)see?
What strikes me in all this is that in the age of social networks, no one posts a selfie with an apology. Certainly because we have the feeling of being in control: we try a series of photos at the right time, we find the right filter... then we post. And then, the control leaves our hands to go in those of the others, quietly scrolling on their news feed. We wait feverishly for the likes to fall. In short, we come back to the others and their validation.
As you can imagine, I dedicated this article to a female audience because, let's be honest, I must have received hardly more than 15 emails from men (even if I am aware that men also have their share of insecurities). But, let me try to make a generalization that won't surprise many people: if we are so often uncomfortable with our image, it's probably because, insidiously, we are asked to be EVERYTHING at the same time, while remaining beautiful and smiling (and without taking up too much space at the same time).
But if we too (we are a 100% female team at the headquarters), we grew up reading magazines sometimes filled with guilt-tripping speeches, we want to change the lines. To make beauty a theme where expertise is king... but where benevolence, transparency and naturalness are always above all. It must also be said that, since the beginning at Oh My Cream, we have a holy horror of false promises: we will never tell you that this anti-wrinkle cream will give you back your 20 years (and anyway, who would want to go back to their 20 years and their past insecurities?). Nor will this anti-blemish treatment eradicate yours forever. Finally, we never hide from you via our posts that we are just like you: girls who live at 1,000 miles an hour and who don't have exactly 1 hour to devote to the mirror every morning. So, breaking news, the Oh My Cream team doesn't have perfect hair and complexion every day. Yes, sometimes appearance takes a back seat!
BUT... If a pretty red mouth is able to boost your confidence for that interview, if putting on a mask allows you to take 5 minutes for yourself, if an anti-blemish treatment helps you have a good day at work then there, beauty becomes a very serious matter. And in that case, we are the happiest in the world to teach you lots of (in)useful things.🙂
