Natural Beauty

Ever wonder how much makeup you slather on in a year? Two Dutch artists–Lernert and Sander–set out to answer that question by directing a short film entitled, “Natural Beauty,” starring Belgian supermodel Hannelore Knuts. They applied 365 layers of Ellis Faas makeup in one day. It took seven bottles of foundation, two bottles of cream shadow, three lip glosses, and two bottles of liquid blush, and NINE HOURS of non-stop work to get the job done. (Knuts–with her head fixed between two panels–drank her yogurt lunch through a straw all in the name of beauty and art).

As I watched the layers of foundation melting off her face I wondered–do I really use this much makeup over the course of the year? How much do I actually pile on every morning in an attempt to look like I’m not wearing any at all? If only I had kept a tally of how many bottles of tinted moisturizer I’d gone through in 2010. (I’m just about at the bottom of my first bottle for 2011). What are we really trying to cover up? Why do we feel the need to mask our natural beauty on a daily basis?

What about you? Where do you stand after watching this? And what makes you feel beautiful?