An employee of the "Need help" foundation Katya Grishunina about risk and favorite cosmetics
Under the heading "Cosmetic" we study the contents of beauty cases, dressing tables and cosmetic bags of interesting characters to us - and we show all this to you.
Interview: Margarita Virova
Photo: Ekaterina Starostina
Katya Grishunina
Head of the volunteer fundraising fund of the “Need help” fund, platform “Taking the opportunity”
We were told too much about perfection, and too little about reality.
About acne and objectification
Every evening and morning I wash my face, rub my face with tonic and moisturize with cream. I do not use makeup basics and foundation creams: I simply don’t have enough time, and moreover, recently I stopped hiding acne — I began to treat my face differently, although I was very ashamed of inflammations before.
I was born and studied not in Moscow, so I simply did not have access to the necessary information. At school and at the institute, I had a severe staphylococcal infection, and I was undergoing treatment, because of which I slept on pairs and suffered from a severe headache. At the same time, I spent a lot of time alone, since at the age of sixteen I lived separately from my parents. Through dialogue with myself, I realized that I didn’t want to hide my face and hide something. I started listening to Bikini Kill, Le Tigre and other music from this wave, and thanks to the members of the groups I felt like a real rayot girl. There was a desire to send far away the culture of objectification and standards that make us believe that acne is terrible, and a round full face will never look at us from the cover of Cosmopolitan.
About sports and recreation
Taking care of myself, in my opinion, is a complex thing - I don’t follow one clear set of rules and rely only on my psychological state. If I understand that I feel bad, then I try to stop, take a pause, sit down and think about where the failure occurred. At school, I danced hip-hop and learned to break, so I got used to playing sports, it invigorates and tones me. But it seems that I have a violation of the regime at the genetic level, so sometimes I do it regularly, and sometimes I just want to go out at night with the player and run around the courtyards under the brisk Mouzon. Very often, while running, cool ideas and lyrics come to mind - I write everything down and try to embody it. It is much more fun to listen to what the body asks for us - sometimes these are very unexpected requests pushing for experiments.
It does not bother me to walk on a cycl where you do not just sit and pedal, but also you dance and shout in the dark - yes, this also happens. When it's warm, I get from work to my house on a bike, covering twenty kilometers one way, the ride is very distracting and relaxing. I think that it is very important to keep the balance between processing and relaxation, because rest at the right time can give more benefits and inspiration than endless deadlines and the flow of tasks. I like to systematize everything, but here I also need to know the measure: an organism that is not ready for the robot regime can rebel. I also like to go to karaoke and sing poorly - in general, I realized that by doing things that are not perfect, you can learn to accept yourself. We were all told too much about perfection, and too little about reality.
About risk and self-expression
When I feel good and do not lose heart, I experiment a lot with makeup: I like to paint my eyebrows in different colors with liquid shadows, wear glitter on my cheeks and highlighter under the eyes, I am already getting to the rhinestones. I started experimenting with unusual colors when I sang in a group - I made up images for performances. Now I have a new project, and it will be in a good sense very provocative.
Recently, I realized that I didn’t just make glitter on my face on weekdays. Back in school I read about the theory of broken windows, and it seems to me that nowadays we need to take more risks in at least trifles: if I do this, then someone will think that it can too. The more varied we are, the easier it will be for us to accept each other. This can occur not only in make-up, of course. Each person is unique, and this uniqueness is found in different things: in words, creativity, music, the ability to do something, the courage to express oneself. In Russia, courage is often condemned and everything ends with bulling, but bright make-up or flashy clothes are not an invitation to rape or harassment. Therefore, I am always very happy to see people on the street who immediately catch the eye with their views - Moscow lacks relaxation, for example, Berlin.
