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I enjoyed reading an article in the Independent about the so-called scam wedding make-up industry. The gripe of brides seems to be the extortionate fees these artists charge for a woman’s big day.

But I would say there’s a bigger scam going on: the all-consuming pressure which convinces people who are naturally quite beautiful that they need an artist to make them look their best at all.

I am reminded of an amusing anecdote from my Istanbul wedding twenty years ago. There, a woman approached me, greeting me enthusiastically, congratulating my wife and me at length. After she walked away, I turned to my beloved and asked her, “Who on earth was that?”

With a shrug and a shake of her head, my wife replied, “I have no idea!”

It would be a few hours before we both realised that she was in fact her sister-in-law, her oldest brother’s wife, with whom she had grown up. A woman who has natural beauty, but who was wearing so much makeup that she was literally unrecognisable.

This actually happens a lot. It’s very rare that anyone looks better after applying paint to their face, however talented the one wielding the brush. This isn’t an ideological point of view; it’s just my personal perspective. There’s not an artist on earth who can improve on natural beauty.

I have seen that with my own eyes.