Let’s rewind two and a half years. I am a fresher embarking on my first night out in Leeds. As I walk past hundreds of girls queuing for clubs I almost trip over my stilettos seeing more fake tan, false eyelashes and foundation in 2 minutes than I have in 19 years. Coming from near London, where it’s mortifying if a friend merely tells you that you’ve gone a tad heavy on the blusher, it was quite the scene.
The surprise I felt has recently been justified by findings that there is a North/South divide amongst women and their make-up buying habits. This ‘make-up map’ of Britain claims that while Southern women prefer a more natural look, Northerners opt for a ‘more is more’ approach. The only exception in this rule is, you guessed it, Essex, where women have been known to wear three pairs of eyelashes at once (anyone who is familiar with the characters of TOWIE will not be surprised by this).
A study conducted by Debenhams has found that women in the South prioritize the appearance of perfect skin, and are prepared to spend up to three hours choosing the perfect foundation to achieve this. Tinted moisturiser, concealer and mascara are the top selling items. Their Northern counterparts, meanwhile, place fake tan, bronzer and false eyelashes as their top must-haves, and on average buy a new pair of false eyelashes every fortnight.
So why do these discrepancies between regions exist?
From a Southern perspective, Northern style seems to be all about the living the dream, putting in as much effort in getting ready for a night out in your local town as you would if Brad Pitt invited you to a red carpet event. And I’ve come to love that about Northern cities, you can never feel too ‘overdressed’ or too ‘made up,’ and you don’t need an excuse to get all dolled up. In London, style tends to be much more understated; I’ve seen girls who’ve made too much effort labeled ‘try hard’ by club bouncers and refused entry. In Leeds you can feel safe in the knowledge that however much fake tan you’ve used, the girl in front of you at Mission has probably used the whole bottle.
Shows like Geordie Shore and, more recently, Desperate Scousewives can be credited for making the excessively glamorous Northern style notorious. Significant portions of both programs are dedicated to the hours of hard graft the female cast members put in to get ready for a night out. A scouse friend has told me that it’s perfectly normal to see girls all over Liverpool town centre on a Saturday afternoon with their hair in rollers. I wish I could say I had as much dedication to hair volume.
I have to admit, though, the Northern style has rubbed off on me. It started with a hint of fake tan here, a little more mascara there, but before I knew it, I had my own tanning glove and a family-sized can of hairspray. Now I find myself slapping on the fake bake and persuading one of my housemates to stick on my eyelashes for me, because I still can’t seem to do it. And an eye glued together is, surprisingly, not a sexy look.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still using only half the number of products that many of my northern counterparts are, but I’m enjoying the freedom of experimentation Leeds style has given me. Recently a friend and I (also a southerner and a student at leeds Uni) went out for a night in London with some friends. It was only then that we noticed how our style had changed from 2 years living in Leeds. Both wearing fluorescent miniskirts and our highest heels (in our defence, colour blocking was very much on trend) the girls we were with donned floaty cream tops and black jeans. Cue a sudden realisation of the difference in style expectations between the two cities.
While being concerned at how I am going to cope with reining it in once I move back to London at the end of this year, I am determined to make the most of the over-the-top glamour that characterises the great Northern nightlife. Now someone hand me that St. Tropez!
Top 5 selling products by Region
NORTH AND SCOTLAND
1.Fake tan
2.Bronzer
3.False eyelashes
4.Pink lip gloss
5.Mascara
ESSEX
1.Fake tan
2.False eyelashes
3.Lip gloss
4.Bronzer
5.Mascara
SOUTH
1.Tinted moisturiser
2.Concealer
3.Mascara
4.Powder
5.Pink lip gloss
WALES AND IRELAND
1.Mascara
2.Eyeliner
3.Foundation
4.Pink lip gloss
5.False eyelashes
Sources: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2048668/Make-Britain-Northern-women-slap-Southern-girls-prefer-natural-look.html#ixzz1gdfbSPyQ