Alice Catherine

I Recently I had the opportunity to watch the new campaign video by skincare brand SK-II, a brand that I had heard lots about but didn’t have much first hand experience with. As an avid skincare lover, I was immediately intrigued by the video and opened it up straight away to see what it was all about. In just a few short minutes, the film manages to capture a feeling that so many women will be familiar with – this idea that as women, we are born with an expiry date. Or in short, societal expectations which we seem to constantly have to battle in order to be happy and content…

The film really resonated with me as a newly turned twenty five year old – it’s that middle of the way feeling that can often fill a lot of people my age with dread. Am I meant to have my career figured out? Be in a stable relationship? Be thinking about a nice house full of children in the next five years? It’s often overwhelming, and the truth is things come to people at all different times. Comparison is the reason for a lot of unhappiness, and something we should try to avoid as much as possible. It’s human nature to compare yourself, especially people the same age who seem to have everything figured out and wrapped up in a neat little bow. What we have to remind ourselves, and what the film portrays so brilliantly, is that we are in charge of ourselves completely, and we as women must come together to dissolve the expectations that naturally accompany our gender. A gender we didn’t get to choose, but one that we should work hard to be proud of everyday.

The film focuses it’s narrative around three different women and the different ways they feel the strain of getting older. I think this is something that we experience from a young age – being the last to get our adult teeth, to start our periods, to lose our virginity, pass our driving tests, go to university, the list goes on. At some point every single one of us have felt like we are being left behind in some way, and this is the chord the film struck in me whilst I watched it. In just a few short minutes it manages to take you back to those times in your life where you may have felt this way, before ultimately ending with a positive message. As someone who has struggled relentlessly with finding my calling in life, I have definitely been guilty of feeling I have an expiry date. There’s also this weird stigma attached to women turning thirty – as if people automatically start feeling sorry for us, that life really doesn’t get much better than being in your twenties. At twenty five, I’ve only just dipped my toes into the blogging world, there’s still so much that I want to explore, and who knows, one day it might be that blogging isn’t my chosen career path after all. We as women feel so much pressure to have things figured out – can I honestly see myself being ready to get married and have children in the next five years? The answer is no, but are people around me doing so all the time? Of course, but that’s the thing to remind ourselves – we are all different, we all have different journeys, we all experience life at different times.

The thing I really loved about the film is that it wasn’t product lead – it would seem in bad taste to create a beautiful film encouraging women to be free and accept themselves, before swiftly mentioning a new anti ageing cream at the end. This is what drew me to the brand – they are creating honest campaigns that are authentic and encourage important conversations amongst women and the rest of the world. Society has a bad habit of romanticising youth – in particular young women. We are considered more radiant, more beautiful, more powerful because we somehow have the world at our fingertips. This often makes us anxious to become the amazing women that we are meant to be, women that own their age and aren’t defined by it. We must remind ourselves that we don’t have a pre determined fate – that we as women, are entitled to exciting experiences at any age. Life is as fulfilling as we dare to make it…

I hope you enjoyed this blog post as it’s a topic I’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing about – would love to hear your thoughts on the film in the comments below!

Alice x

Photography by Adriana

T-shirt – Ganni (sold out) | Cami – And Other Stories | Jeans – Vintage Levi | Shoes – Vintage | Bag – Etsy

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This post is sponsored by SK-II

All views discussed entirely my own!