How's this for small-faced envy?
Conduct this little experiment at your next family fete: Plonk your sullen teenage cousin next to wise ol’ Grandma, then pore over the differences in their facial features.
Barring one too many mysterious lunch-time disappearances by Granny, you ought to notice some degree of droopiness along her jawline and jowls; contrast that with the sharp chin and sharper cheekbones of her 16-year-old granddaughter. Essentially, the pleasingly inverted “triangle” of youth becomes the “pyramid” of age (see, primary school geometry is useful).
Need pictorial proof? Here’s a roll call of the smallest faced celebs vaunting their enviably V-shaped visages on Instagram:
Good grief, G-Dragon. No one ought to be able to obscure more than half their face with just one palm!
Open memo to Dara of 2NE1: Girl, you’re making all of us regular fast food-eating folks feel self-conscious with this twee little Moschino ensemble. Judging from your pocket-sized profile, I’m pretty sure you don’t partake of actual pie and fries yourself!
Ooh, look. Pixie-faced princess on the loose! (You'll always be Mia from The Princess Diaries, Anne Hathaway.)
Remember her in her slender salad days? Old Father Time must have held his breath for Elva Hsiao, because the Mandopop maven’s impossibly small mien more than holds its own against those of the nubile young things moving along today’s conveyer belt of fame.
Lupita Nyong'o is working the hell out of the camera in this selfie. There’s the posh hat, the pop of purple on the peepers and her most astounding asset yet – that incredibly incandescent skin on her petite face.
Oh yeah, my imaginary best friend’s also breaking beauty boundaries like no other; in a telling sign of the times, she’s also Lancôme’s fresh new face for this year. Hurrah for diversity!
Oppa alert! Choi Si-won’s tweed pullover is beyond covetable, but the fact that his fabulous flower brooch is just about the same size as his face makes me feel all kinds of inadequate.
See? Size does matter. Happily for us, there’s a big bag of off-the-counter tricks for fending off saggy signs of age, starting with the latest superheroine salve from everyone’s favourite French beauty brand (well, mine, at least).
Lancôme’s Rénergie French Lift is redolent with wrinkle-busting actives like hyaluronic acid and resveratrol, the latter being a heavy-duty antioxidant found in yummy stuff like blueberries, blackberries … and red wine!
(Side bar: I asked the lads over at Lancôme Singapore if they would consider waltzing me off to a vineyard in Bordeaux on account of said wine-derived ingredient; no such luck. Bummer.)
In any case, this near-miraculous tightening night cream is said to do it all: It shields skin from toxic office air; sops up fiendish free radicals; and amps up collagen production for fish ball-bouncy complexion.
Also thrown into the mix is a really cool silicone-cast, double-sided massage disk that, when used after application of the cream, is said to boost the potency of the potion by up to three times. Ask your friendly cabin staff to show you how to use the tool, and you’re well on your way to molding your mien into Photoshop-free, Instagram-ready fabulousness. V for victory!
Lancôme Rénergie French Lift, $170, is available at all Lancôme counters. For more information, visit www.lancome.com.sg and follow Lancôme Singapore on Facebook and Instagram.