Content created in partnership with Look Good Feel Better

We’ve all heard of the ‘lipstick index’, the theory that affordable luxuries like beauty products are purchased at an increasing rate during tough economic times. If you’ve been considering a new lipstick, July is the time to buy. Farmers is offering to match participating brand donations of $1 for each beauty product sold to the charity Look Good Feel Better as part of its major fundraiser, Feel Better Month.

I attended a Look Good Feel Better (LGFB) workshop in 2003. I was 27, bald and terrified. I hated being around sick people; rolling up for chemo and other numerous hospital visits where I was made to sit amongst the infirm was something I found traumatic and distasteful. Also, I was really freaking sick of cancer. It consumed my life in a way my peers couldn’t fathom. So I was on the fence. Also I was a young woman working in fashion with the M.A.C PR on speed dial. What could I possibly get out of it? Then a (cancer) friend mentioned she knew someone who received a Chanel foundation and YSL Touche Éclat concealer in their gift bag. I registered immediately.

LGFB’s origin story is that the daughter of one of the world’s leading cosmetic companies was suffering the physical effects of cancer and realised how much better she felt when she was ‘made up’. Hair loss (including brows and lashes) and skin issues are just some of the physical side effects of treatment. Inspired by the notion of people ‘feeling better’, LGFB was born - a uniquely bipartisan charity where all the major beauty companies join together and donate significant amounts of product for workshops where people are gifted makeup and skincare, and shown how to use it by professional makeup artists.

“To learn how to draw eyebrows to frame your face, or learn how to manage the change in nails and skin - it can be the most powerful thing for somebody to have that sense of normality,” explains Clare O’Higgins, general manager of Look Good Feel Better. As she sees it. “The looking good element is easy to understand, but feeling better is what participants talk about for a long time after.” 

In recent years LGFB has expanded to hold workshops for men and teens, and with programs now including mindfulness and yoga the focus is extending even further  into the importance of nurturing overall wellbeing after a cancer diagnosis. This 360 approach to feeling better is a result of the charity evolving alongside society. 

Another example of this is the online beauty workshops they now hold for those who may be too sick or immune deprived to appear in public. This, of course, is  a result of the Covid pandemic that saw classes pivot to online only, and the realisation this was an easier option for some, even after restrictions lifted.

My experience of LGFB was overwhelmingly positive and it’s subsequently an organisation I have endless aroha for. The thing that struck me, after I excitedly unpacked my drool-worthy gift bag of cosmetics, was that while some variation of the same disease was what had brought us together, this was absolutely not about cancer. In a life dominated by gruelling medical appointments this was a space for us to come together and let it go. Give in to the concept of looking good, and feeling even better.

Clare O’Higgins agrees. “They [participants] feel part of a community who understands what they are going through”. She says that “they have a sense of normality and more confidence to face treatment, face returning to work, or face turning up at the school gate. Those are the things that make them feel better.”

The charity has now been in Aotearoa for 32 years and while it’s been 20 years since my experience with them, they are still an essential support network for people around the motu. 

“There's a lot more that comes with cancer that's underneath the surface,” explains recent participant Trista. “If you think you look good, if you feel somewhat normalised, it does make you feel better. It just empowers you to help yourself look a bit better on the days that you don't”.

Visit Farmers in July, make a purchase from any of more than 20 participating beauty brands - they will donate $1 and Farmers will match it.