Defining Beauty....Giveaway!!

Beauty is a hard thing to define.

It's such a personal, subjective thing....ten people can all look at the same object or person and all feel quite differently about it, interpret it in a different way, find it stunningly beautiful or not connect or relate to it at all.

I started thinking about beauty, wondering what it is that makes a person beautiful?

I asked a selection of my friends, male and female...we nearly all chose different people.

Can you be beautiful at the tender age of 20....or is it age and experience that contributes to your beauty? Is beauty something that only comes with age?

Adored at 25 for your screen beauty, are you forever beautiful or does just it fade?

Is true beauty both internal and external? We all judge by appearances, whether we admit it or not.

Interestingly, when I asked a cross section of people who for them epitomised beauty....I don't think they actually came up with anyone under the age of 40....and those I asked did think that beauty wasn't just external - although all the people they picked were physically beautiful - there had to be more to them - some thing to admire, some depth, some character.

So what makes someone beautiful?

If you have been reading my blog for any amount of time, you will know my style, what I like.....I'm a pretty classic - and predictable - kind of a girl.

But I do try to not always choose just what I personally like....I hope that I can appreciate the beauty of a person, a model, an actress - or an object - even if it is not always my cup of tea.

When I looked at my list of people who I consider to be beautiful.... strength of character, depth and a real sense of self were all there too....people who know that they are much more than just a beautiful face.....they all have a quality , they have "it"....

I don't know if I've always thought that....I grew up watching old Hollywood movies with my mother, week after week....I know that's where my love of glamour comes from...and some of those stars are still the people who I regard as beautiful....they have "something" that you can sense even via a cinema screen.

We live in a world consumed with and obsessed by image....supermodels, cosmetic surgery, pressure to be prettier, younger, thinner....

So many actresses and stars these days are pretty, attractive....they appear on magazine covers where -thanks to modern technology and the wonders of photoshop - they can look stunning - as could all of us in the same position probably.

I guess what I am saying is that "pretty" can be made to look "beautiful" nowadays.

And of course with so much "help" and cosmetic surgery everywhere, it is difficult to know what is real and what isn't.

Anne Hathaway, Scarlett Johansson, Catherine Zeta Jones and Penelope Cruz are beautiful - to me, maybe not to everyone.

You all know I love Penelope! There is no denying that she is stunning....but I love too that she always seems relaxed, she is never concerned with always looking perfect and she seems to know that there is more to life than just movies...she has a sense of perspective, she's interesting - and interested in the world around her.

I don't think true beauty fades....traces of it are always there....Elizabeth Taylor will always be beautiful, always. Plagued by illness for some years now, when I look at her, those amazing violet eyes still sparkle and you can see the girl that she was.

Lauren Bacall and Sophia Loren, eternally beautiful....and probably were more beautiful in their 30s and 40's than in their 20's.

What does beauty mean to you? What I do know is that it means something different to everyone.

My giveaway today is some fabulous skincare.

I have mentioned before that I am a big fan of Boots No 7 Protect & Perfect range, it came out last year and has been praised by everyone.

I am giving away today Protect & Perfect No 7 new Intense Night Cream and Intense Beauty Serum (voted product of the year 2010)

To win, just be a follower of my blog and leave me a comment.....you can enter every day this week for the different giveaways and even if you've won before, you can still enter!

I will pick a winner each day.

Good luck!

Right....off now for possibly the most bizarre beauty treatment I have ever had, I will report back later :)