Eye makeup has been taking a larger proportion of prestige cosmetics sales during and after lockdown, according to retail analysts NPD. With lips now often hidden behind face masks or coverings, makeup sales in that area are taking a lesser share of the spending.
“As consumers are required to wear a face mask or covering in shops, on public transport and other public spaces, the lip segment has declined in market share, driven largely by a decline in demand of lip colour as the lip area is no longer visible when wearing a mask” NPD said.
It’s pretty obvious when you think about it. The eyes have it. Now more than ever. I remember as a young boy my dad saying that you could tell a lot about a person by their shoes*, but as an eyewear enthusiast I’ve always considered that a little strange. When you first meet someone, you look at their face and their eyes in particular. You don’t look down at their feet. It’s all about eye contact and eyewear. And wearing the right eyewear can say a lot about you without you even saying a word through a muffling face mask! I’ve always thought this, and it’s one of the main reasons we get so many referrals and recommendations. Friends and relatives notice your amazing new eyewear and say “Ooohh, I really like your glasses” and so follows a short conversation about your eyewear and you mention that you got them from a wonderful place in Market Harborough called Clarke & Roskrow and so on.
Many of us do care about how we look. Some would call that vanity, but I think caring about your appearance and wanting to make a good impression on others is a positive thing. We don’t want to look like we made zero effort or don’t care. Unfortunately, though, some people have yet to figure out just how important good eyewear really is. Henrik Lindberg, owner of our favourite eyewear collection that bears his name, summed it up perfectly in an interview that appeared in Wallpaper magazine a few years ago:
“I really don’t grasp when someone puts so much effort into their overall look, and then just grab their glasses without any thought-they don’t clean them, polish them, they probably have mushrooms growing on the nose pads-and out the door they go.”
I’ve commented before in these pages that the vast majority of the spectacle-wearing population in the UK are wearing mass-produced, bland, boring, and poorly designed and made glasses, which are often ill-fitting with shapes and colouring that clashes with rather than complements the wearer. Why would you put something like that on your nose, right in the middle of your face for all to see? People are going to have to look through them to see your eyes. They’re going to notice! Thankfully, you are here, one of the enlightened ones. You know that face mask or no face mask, you’ll be looking amazing in your eyewear!
*My dad is a former policeman and I have to say he was always the smartest officer in uniform. He’d spend hours “bulling” his boots on the dining table, until the leather shone like a mirror; sadly, his passion for glistening shiny leather boots has skipped a generation!
