Earlier this summer we saw our lovely colleague and beauty editor Anita take part in a beauty brilliant panel at the Primadonna Literary Festival. It wasn’t the usual take on ‘beauty’. Having authored a book – Ugly: Giving Us Back Our Beauty Standards (BLINK Publishing/£18.99 for hardback), Anita spoke movingly about the standards that we’re expected to live up to in terms of how we look – and the grief that we can actually give ourselves about not matching the ‘expectations’ (of the mainstream media and social media, in particular).

Having always worked to help women feel comfortable in their skin – while advising you how to take the very best care of that skin (and hair and body) – her views chime with our own. And now she’s started a Substack – the online publishing platform for long-form articles – called ‘The Powder Room’, referencing this place ‘where our secrets and souls are laid bare, in front of mirrors and in front of strangers.’ Continues Anita, ‘It’s where we share beauty confessions, truths and hardships.’

Ultimately, she wants us to feel… ‘uplifted by new ways to look at beauty culture and beauty standards.’ And it’s a really important conversation.

There are different tiers for Substack, with some content usually free, and extra content paid for, from £5 a month, which – as Anita reminds us – is the price of a couple of coffees, ‘or maybe a really shit lipstick that was marketed at you with the promise of plumper lips, but gave you a rash instead.’ (We’ve all been THERE!)

Find Anita on Substack here…

Prize Draws