Beauty: Huddersfield schoolgirls to be offered free make-up lessons

Feb 18 2010 by Hilarie Stelfox, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Most high schools have a minimal make-up ruling but don’t hold lessons on how to apply it. Now one Huddersfield school has invited its Year 10 and 11 girls to take advice from the beauty experts.

Hilarie Stelfox reports

WE’VE ALL seen them – teenage girls caked in orange make-up and with thick black eye-liner.

But beauty experts say they are often getting it wrong even though the youngsters are convinced it looks fine.

Hayley Higgins, beauty team manager for Boots in Huddersfield said: “The problem is they think they know what they’re doing. But they’re applying the wrong foundation – usually the colour they want to be rather than the colour they are – and far too much eye make-up.’’

While secondary schools generally tolerate a certain ‘made-up’ look among students, they draw the line at teenagers who go too far.

And the problem of too much make-up is set to spread to younger and younger pupils.

Janette Button, Head of Year 10 and 11 at King James’ High School in Almondbury, has noticed that girls are starting to wear make-up earlier than they once did.

“It’s not an issue in Year 7 but from Year 9 onwards – age 13 and 14 – we start to see quite a number wearing make-up for school,’’ she said.

“We buy in make-up remover and nail varnish remover and every tutor is provided with this. If the girls have too much on they’re asked to remove it.’’

This year, however, instead of just supplying remover, Janette has taken a proactive approach.

When buying the supplies of remover from Boots she was asked if the school would be interested in taking part in a dedicated beauty evening in the store for students in Years 10 and 11.

“I thought it sounded like a good idea,’’ said Janette. “It’s not something that I would have done within school hours. I thought of it as more of a treat for the girls – a nice break from course work.

“It’s the first time we’ve done anything like this.’’

And so the first teenage beauty evening was staged last week with consultants from the store giving demonstrations to 40 students.

The consultants were divided up so they could take small groups through ‘tutorials’ on skincare, foundation make-up, eyes and cheeks and lips. The aim was to show them suitable make-up looks for school and out-of-school.

“The evening was really successful,” said Hayley. “The girls were really receptive and interested in what we had to say. They asked a lot of questions and took on board what we were telling them.

“The teachers were also really interested. This is something we’ll definitely do again.’’

Following the event, Hayley plans to approach all secondary schools in Huddersfield to offer a similar service.

“We’ve already got a group of girls from Almondbury High School booked in for an afternoon make-up and skincare lesson in our beauty room,’’ she said.

“Word got out that we were doing the event for St James’ and they asked if they could have something similar.

“It worked really well. The girls were quite surprised when they saw how grown-up they could look with much more natural and understated make-up.’’

SKINCARE is all important during the teenage years when skin can be difficult to manage and prone to blemishes.

According to Catie McLoughlin, Boots skincare brands consultant, too many young people rely on quick and easy cleansing wipes to cleanse their skin and/or remove make-up and don’t follow up with a moisturiser.