• Home

Makeover drive for unemployed women

With a touch of blush and some judiciously applied eye make-up, France’s main unemployment agency is trying to lure jobless women back into the workforce by offering them a taxpayer-funded day of pampering.

The makeover drive, launched this week by the Pole Emploi agency, aims to boost the confidence of women who have been out of work for years and too busy — or simply too discouraged — to worry about their appearance, its organisers told Reuters.

“This is about giving them back their pluck. Makeup changes your life simply and quickly,” said Regine Ferrere, a makeup artist who supervised the makeover studio. “Touching people and talking to them is far better than giving them a pill or sending them to the psychologist’s office.”

At the first makeover day, ten women gave themselves over to the care of professional makeup artists and stylists. The advice they received was equal parts beauty tips, pep talk, and motivational slogans for job seekers.

“The skin needs to be perfectly clear. With the eyes, you express your sparkle, and with the mouth you express pleasure,” one makeup artist told a tired-looking unemployed lady, who listened intently from a sofa.

Nearby, an unemployed photographer dressed in black tried on colourful scarves while a giant portrait of Marilyn Monroe looked on. “The mallard blue looks great on you,” Cynthia Cohen an image advisor in charge of the experiment, told her.

Some of the women chosen to take part in the experiment spoke of the challenge of raising children, looking for work and maintaining a “chic” look, all at the same time.