A first in 94 years. At 20, Melisa Raouf has just been selected for the final of the “Miss England” contest to be held on October 17. And in the process, she announced that she would parade alongside the other 40 contenders without makeup, natural, just as she is.
Since 2019, the competition has included a test without makeup, but never since its creation, so 94 years ago, a participant has appeared natural in front of the judges. Hence the impact of the announcement of Melisa Raouf who is no longer talked about on social networks and in the British press.
“What I want to doexplains the student to the BBC, it’s just proving that you have a choice, that you don’t have to wear makeup if you don’t want to and that you can embrace your flaws and imperfections. The real beauty is simplicity.” Yet, before she could say that, she, too, wore a lot of makeup.
As a teenager, like her friends, she diligently followed the instructions of the tutorials on Youtube and Instagram. But that didn’t help her to find herself, to be more comfortable with herself. On the contrary, she explains that she fell into a spiral of ill-being by comparing herself to the unreal standards of beauty promoted by social networks. So she stopped. And at the beginning of the year, she decided to take part in the famous miss contest, to go where beauty is noted, precisely to convey this message: makeup does not define us.
She does not call for abandoning all make-up, she says that we must be able not to wear it if we wish, that what counts is our decision and not this or that injunction.
Moreover, when there are no more injunctions, there is no longer much makeup. The anti-Covid confinements have proven this, relegating mascara, blush and lipstick to the closet, because we are no longer in representation, we save time and money, and that basically only the quality of the work reported. Proof that Melisa Raouf is tackling a real social issue, she has received hundreds of messages from teenagers and seniors who thank her and agree on the idea that, in 2022, we must be able to wear makeup for the art, for itself, and not to correspond to expectations.