Perfumery critic Bogdan Zyryanov about feminism and favorite cosmetics
FOR RUBRIC "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.
About Scandinavian noire and feminism
My meaningful immersion in the theory of feminism began two years ago. As a graduate student at Moscow State University, I spent a whole semester, from February to June, I spent at the Danish School of Media and Journalism, where I polished corporate communication skills in a group of international students. Frankly, I chose not the best time: then one euro cost about ninety rubles, which affected the rate of the Danish krone; in addition, the first three months in Copenhagen reigned a brutal cold. But it didn’t matter, because I wandered around the city of Sarah Lund, Louise Rick and Smilla Jaspersen - the heroines of Scandinavian noir, which in the past few years has gained international love and popularity.
Bright female characters who do not fit into patriarchal gender roles have always attracted me. In general, I specialize in PR and social media, but, delving into the topic, I was so impressed with her that I literally overnight sketched a program of a training course in foreign literature, which combined the works of Scandinavian noir, program texts of the theory of feminism and gender studies. A year later, I stood at the projector and asked the students what makes Lisbeth Salander related to a virgin maiden from Old Norse sagas.
The course started in February 2017, when the Russian authorities decriminalized family beatings. In the classroom, the teacher has no right to conduct political agitation, so I simply expounded the facts about Scandinavian equality. I also quoted from Engels, who, recalling the philosopher Charles Fourier (he coined the term "feminism"), wrote: "He was the first to think that in every given society the degree of emancipation of a woman is the natural measure of general emancipation." Students made all the necessary conclusions themselves. I think that not sharing the ideas of feminism in 2018 means living in the suffering Middle Ages.
About care
My skin is of mixed type, but more prone to fat, especially in the T-zone. This complicates the selection of tools: they should not dry out the skin and clog pores. For this reason, for example, I use the night concentrates with great caution, which today are presented to most brands in the form of pharmaceutical vials with a pipette - if I put a drop of this product on my forehead, acne appears. In general, oil-based skin care products are contraindicated for me.
Why did I make a mistake and buy such a concentrate that now collects dust on the shelf? What I considered to be a naturally dry skin turned out to be a sign of severe dehydration. Therefore, the main thing that I look for in caring means is hydration. For this purpose, glycerin serum is well suited, which fills irregularities and retains moisture throughout the day. Over it I apply a cream with a low-fat texture, which additionally nourishes the epidermis.
Slightly more attention I pay hair. Since last year I have grown them, and the length requires more diligent care than usual. Every day I use argan oil, a couple of times a month I make henna masks.
About make-up and remedies
I don’t use makeup as such unless it’s about Halloween or a themed photo shoot. Rimmel once sent a concealer to the test, I liked him - I put it on if a huge pimple jumped up in the middle of his forehead on the eve of an important event. But in general, this is not my story: I prefer episodic inflammation to heal rather than mask. I was repeatedly saved by Bulgarian ointment with mother liquor of Pomorie Lake. It removes redness and literally overnight eliminates any damage, including abrasions and infected wounds. Honestly, I have not met analogues, and I did not find this ointment in European pharmacies.
About smells and "aromastilistah"
I do not know if this is due to the fact that I have had poor eyesight since childhood. I do not remember what the dining room looked like in my elementary school, but I remember how it smelled there: slightly moist curd, boiled milk and braised buckwheat porridge. Also, in the form of smells, I keep in mind my first trip to the sea (salt, creaking rubber mattress, Amber Sréler sunscreen, sticky honey baklava) and a trip-trip across the USA to the Grand Canyon (diesel, hot breath of dogs , ice tea "Lipton" and the dusty wind of the Arizona deserts).
My first bright olfactory impression is Bois des Îles Chanel, "the dark-haired brother No. 5", as the famous critic Luca Turin called it. I remember getting out of GUM with a blotter, breathing in the spring and could not find the right words. Then he began to document his impressions on a blog that few people read, and a couple of years later he discovered the ideal format for a telegram channel. He recently turned a year.
For me, fragrances are a kind of applied art, a means of artistic expression and a language of communication, but the main thing is a mood modulator, almost like an instagram filter. Make your day a little warmer or colder, bring sharpness or blur the picture - all this allows you to make a well-chosen "perfume wardrobe." Unfortunately, this phrase was vulgarized by the self-proclaimed “aromakouchi”, which select perfume for customers according to the sign of the zodiac and hair color (“for blondes - flowers, for brunettes - East” - what could be more boring?). Contrary to advertising, there is actually no place for magic and esoteric in the perfume industry. The contents of any bottle - the result of the hard work of a chemist, and all the "magic" occurs in a person in the head. There are no universal solutions, such as the “sexiest scent”: different people are attracted to completely different things. I know a woman who is excited by the smell of a hot iron. Fortunately, there are plenty of flavors on the market today that recreate this effect.
Individual associations are generally difficult to predict, especially if we are dealing with a “anchoring” situation. This is not about NLP, but about the notorious effect of Proust, which the French prose writer described in 1913. This situation is well known to everyone: certain smells and tastes serve as triggers and cause a “collapse of memories,” as the philosopher Gilles Deleuze called this. Memories are based on personal experiences that only the subject owns, therefore, training in “Aromastilista” in its current form is rather meaningless and is a jumble of para-scientific delusions and imposed associations.
At the same time, skillfully collected perfume compositions cause associations of one circle even among uninitiated people: for example, the legendary Opium will be read as languid, lazy, pampered when blindly tested, and the nineteenth Chanel - as cold, strict, prim. So, general recommendations have the right to exist, you simply should not tie them to certain types, eye color and the location of stars in the sky: a diversified personality may well love and wear both one and the other, depending on the situation and mood. Just as you can equally love the work of Chopin and the group "Leningrad".
