Parisian Beauty Secrets | French Women Style Seen By Expats

Tutorial Transcript

Salut Youtube! Today I've got Dominique with me hello coming from the UK we wanted to do a video today because there's a topic that we're passionate about that we're really interested in together which are the codes of Parisian woman's Beauty what do Parisian women like to do with the hair the nails their skin care then we're really gonna be doing the 360-degree review I guess and I think it'd be fair to say that we both come from cultures that are pretty different on the whole from the Parisian idea of beauty so we thought it'd be interesting to give our perspective on what we think of your classic the first point we wanted to talk about is Parisian woman and their hair oh yeah that's a big one I moved here just over two years ago now and I immediately saw fresh off the early start the difference between the hair styles of particular men as opposed to where I came from which was which was London I would say best - you got your two main channels of hairstyle but they're all sort of fixated about this this one idea which is very natural back to what God gave you the natural color your natural texture that sort of thing and it really centers around the cut and a better quality of yet I think they have you have your two options which is super long super natural kind of mm gives the impression of being a stylist or just like subtly styled yeah or you have something else which I've noticed quite a bit which I personally really like it's a very sharp quite likes to verb in a good sense either a bob or like a crop with a bit of a fringe like quite androgynous yeah there's a stereotype that French women don't care about their hair and I would say the contrary they do care a lot about their hair but they make it look as though they don't. So as Dominique said the cut is really key that you have to have a beautiful cut they don't damage the hair through heat styling through straighteners so it's about cut and it's about quality you very rarely see that severe parting for example or there is structured styles with braids and you know think about when you're not overdone not overdone what they do is pretty much this like like you know just keep it messy, loads of volume about yeah exactly and kind of like that bed-head look you know. In London literally anything goes the the crazier the more like mermaid hair more bleached up, graduated dye the better certainly won't raise any eyebrows. Here, something as simple as yeah going blonder or something pretty like pedestrian is pretty envelope pushing, quite shocking. Shall we move onto the skin care? There's a lot of talk about the fact that French women don't wear much makeup and I think it's because they put all of that effort that we would put into priming and foundation and everything into the actual skincare routine yeah makes sense like it's a marathon not a sprint in France yeah you're really working on I think that emphasis is definitely on the base similarly to the hair it's all about the quality of the materials that you're working with so yeah they will invest their money time energy into yeah skincare routine something that they maintain for quite a lot of years you know I think that's something that is adopted um when you're going through your teenage years you'll you'll play around with products you'll discover them from your mom often I think favorite much-loved brands handed down through generations um and I think that the Parisian woman is often very loyal to these brands that's not to say she can't change but I think you know they'll have a top four top five products that will live with them for ten maybe fifteen years and they were only if the results from a new product are really really proven culturally on a scale from not doing much to you know Japanese or Korean woman for example obviously the French women aren't that extreme with their skincare yeah that's just a few quality products work but still they keep it simple and on that note actually coming into the makeup so one of my favorite facts about France is that versus the UK is that in the UK the number one makeup product that gets sold is foundation and then the number one selling makeup item in France is lipstick and there's a big difference in this foundation is like covering something up and then hiding those flaws and lipstick is making something pop I think it definitely comes back to the French philosophy that runs through whether its hair makeup clothing nails the objective is not to hide something okay I might have a bit of a spot there but whatever we went draw attention to that what we will draw attention to is this great lip color I love this cherry it looks great on me let's just do it let's rock it and bring that out I don't know why we have this ritual and more anglo-saxon countries but we love makeup and playing with me and it's not contrary to popular belief it's not for boys it's not for it's like a really girl tribe thing, it is definitely a girl centric thing, like we get more dressed up for our girls than we would for any date with a guy - primer foundation eyebrows eyeshadow eyeliner mascara highlighter like your the whole suite you just want the radiation to beam out of you. Here it's like keep it very neutral like a little bit of eye makeup do the lips or whatever you want to pop maybe you want your eyes to pop but the point is is that they were a lot less makeup and something that I've not touched since I moved to France four years ago is fake tan hey the girls here don't fake tan I can't say that I put on a little layer I'll be like I have to be super super careful that's really discreet no streaks can't mention it someone will be like 'oh tu as bonne mine' (you look fresh) and you just have to be like yeah you know sat in the park a bit this weekend. This kind of takes us onto the next point which is about fashion in general I mean we won't go into too much detail because I think you've heard all of the stereotypes which are more or les true about Paris which is black navy or gray classic simple they don't really have outrageous fashion but it always looks good but what we're saying about that philosophy is that sometimes it's a little bit of a shame because when you go out and you really want to celebrate something there's something that I miss about yet putting on badass heels a cute miniskirt a nice top you know and getting dressed up again like just for you yeah and you said you know it's a shame you can't yet they're celebrating but I think even we have nothing to celebrate it's just a Saturday night I'm a big week at work let's cut loose and have a fun time I think it's a shame to always feel that we'll just play it down or play it super casual that's cool in certain situations and obviously it's nice to not feel the pressure to be like super dolled up all the time there's something it's a little bit of a shame when you go out to a nightclub and stuff and you just see people in jeans and t-shirts like this really like whenever I've made an effort I feel overdressed and people will people also comment on it and this exactly yeah she was invited to a girl friend's birthday party it was sort of a birthday weekend it was in her shed a little country house in the north of Paris and I thought you know it's her 30th or something like, had a big week at work, it was Saturday night and I thought hmm do I go for the trainers, jeans, slobby jumper look and I thought no you know like this is a big night I'm gonna have a laugh have a drink with friends I'm gonna wear a dress it's a birthday right so it's not they were very boyish talents they were very conservative heels not like falling over breaking ankles I turned up everyone looked at me and the birthday girl went wiring that didn't you realize it was like in a country house and she didn't say in like a really bitchy way she just was quite surprised and yeah and for a moment I was in Paris but I was like you know what I'm gonna own this you know it's the weekend it's your birthday like why wouldn't like that a bit dressed up oh the nails yeah but now it's a quite a big one um I mean I think I've definitely seen a difference in in sort of nail styles compared to Anglophone cultures because in France I said a lot of their style and attitude is beauty their margin of what's acceptable that's what people do is vastly reduced so I'd say in France you have three options you have nude or to feel really bold a dark so that would be a navy a maroon like a very dark Ruby that kind of thing a bit vampy or totally nude that's saying like nothing just a very clean buff to natural nails um and what I think is really fun is uh is where did this thing come from French nails so this is something but from what I've seen nobody in France no one has a French manicure like this does not have anything so the other day on the Metro like I saw this hands like like felled around the pole you know this difficulty fullfilled around and I was obviously crushed in like because I just saw these nails and I thought cop it's a French manicure I haven't seen that in about 15 years I bet it's not on a French bus and I looked up and was like you're definitely not gonna see like gel tips sparkles like really long nails like Rihanna style no no no like this I mean this differently as Dominique said like a reduced a limit of what's okay I think we can tackle the topics of Parisian fashion without mentioning the skinny vibe okay so you guys know I did a video on my French people don't get fat and I mentioned the "je fais juste attention" this approach to like eating everything but smaller portions and that French woman are quite often thinking about you know keeping things small and maintaining their weight but I had a lot of feedback on that video saying yeah the range of what's acceptable in Paris especially is a lot smaller like not really acceptable to be bigger and very much for my health perspective actually not from a we don't like the way that looks that's from a like that's not healthy you're not taking care of yourself you're not respecting yourself so what I'm trying to say is that from our culture we have a variety of body shapes and those tastes are all very much accepted yeah they're accepted so the curvy girls fine and the athletic girls have their own market and guys will you know be encouraged to admit that their thing is athletic, curves, boobs man I think in France your margin of what is 'in' yeah it's vastly reduced I think they approach it from a much more health centric perspective and I would say that perhaps that goes some way to explain why people are much more forthcoming with their comments they're quite I mean quite rude sometimes but they're direct they will address something if they think that you've put on a couple of pounds like in the UK whether it's your friends your boyfriend your mum they would definitely verge on the side of avoiding that topic in France there would be more forthcoming with this and I think people on the flip side are way more receptive to this I think people are less likely to take it really personally know negatively is an attack on them whether behind closed doors it hurts a bit I don't know but maybe that's maybe the more negative side of things is that the limit like the range of what's okay is so much smaller in it I like restrictive it is prescriptive and I I feel that everyone's aiming towards a similar look and then of a shame and sorry shame because you're all you're all fighting for the same beauty ideals and you know okay that's one option but there's so many different things that make people attractive beautiful have their own personality you know and and rock their own look and one thing I do miss is that attitude that you can go out there and express yourself and if you want to buy some crazy heels and pair it with some sequin jumpsuit then go for it yes it makes you feel good I miss that. Anyway guys I hope that you've enjoyed this kind of expat review of the French beauty codes and specifically Parisian beauty codes and I mean it is really interesting for us because these Beauty rituals are so representative of the culture absolutely and it's it's a really interesting that it's not superficial at all Beauty is really an interesting way of understanding how people think and yeah what about you guys what do you think about the French beauty standards? Do let us know down below and until the next video we'll see you next time! A bientôt!