A leading global figure in the beauty industry has claimed natural beauty is in, and botox is going out of fashion right across Europe and the USA.
Natural Beauty is on the way back.
“Men want natural women” Bastien Gonzalez explains sitting in a Sydney cafe, having just flown in from Dubaii. “Women are becoming far more natural everywhere I go now. If they are using injectables, they’re using less, and using them to make themselves look more natural. The frozen look is on the way out.”
Gonzalez travels the globe almost continually as a highly sought after manicurist and pedicurist to the rich and famous, so he’s well positioned to have a view on international beauty trends. He’s made himself a name for glamourising foot treatments.
“It is the men who are ultimately driving this trend,” he says. “Men are attracted to natural beauty, that is the truth. A man wants to look at a woman’s face and really see her, see the naturalness of the way her face moves when she laughs, when she talks, and to how and who she truly is. Expressions are sexy. Everyone the world over is searching for natural solutions to health and wellness, and women are going much, much more natural.”
Based in Dubai, Gonzalez has 67 pedicure and manicure clinics in the best hotels around the globe including Hotel Costes Paris, Claridges London, The Palms Dubai, six of the prestigious One & Only properties and so on.
He personally commands $1500 for a pedicure – but plenty of celebrities swear it is the best money can buy. Some of his celebrity clients include Naomi Campbell, Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert de Niro.
“In nails – both hands and feet, it is the same,” he says. “Putting colour on the nails is like leaving make-up on without washing it off – it deprives the nails bed of air and exposure to the environment, it is unhealthy. Nails turn yellow and go dry and brittle.”
He says the key to natural beauty is simply the right care and preparation of the body – whether it be the skin or the nails. “The body needs the right nutrients and the right care to be strong enough to go natural and look good.”
