Get The Look

Last week, I wrote about my views on “Get The Look” emails, whereby a PR repping a fast fashion brand will try to persuade me that item X is a dead ringer for some expensive designer dress / priceless piece of couture worn by a celebrity. I explained that I was not a fan, because the vast majority of items that are suggested bear little resemblance to the original. After reading this, a beauty PR got in touch to ask whether I felt that “Get The Look” emails were equally pointless where they pertained to hair and makeup. It’s a really good question, to which the short answer is “no”.

My background is in fashion, not beauty, although the two are inextricably linked. Fashion doesn’t exist without beauty: whether on the catwalk or on the red carpet, every outfit has hair and makeup painstakingly chosen to complement it. But even the most gimlet-eyed person would be hard pressed to distinguish between a gold eyeshadow worn by Little Miss Famous at the Emmys and a gold eyeshadow being pitched as a “Get The Look” by a PR. From mascara to mattifying powder, texturizing spray to tongs, it’s far easier to argue that your hair or beauty product will replicate the look of a celebrity’s. If you can include practical tips in your pitch – how to use the tongs, how to apply the eyeshadow – so much the better.