INTUITION...[:]
Hello darlings,
I don’t know why, but I’m kind of bothered by writing this post because of the personal aspect involved. Let’s start at the beginning. A few months ago,EstéeLauder contacted me to make a clip on intuition, one of the brand’s values. I had no idea that before becoming a brand and a cosmetic group that makes miracle creams and my mother’s perfume, it was a woman, a true visionary... Estée Lauder, (what a beautiful name) was responsible for stores giving out samples, brands choosing muses, the first cosmetic line for men and the Serum. Speaking of the Serum, Madame Lauder, during the 80s when the entire cosmetic world was coming out with little jars of pastel pink, ecru ou blue cream, she decided to think out of the box and make a serum in a brown bottle with a pharmacy dropper. All her investors and collaborators threw a fit, expecting a commercial failure, but she went with it anyways. And well, her brown bottle is still on bus shelters, the famous Advanced Night Repair has an unparalleled success. She’s an exemplary model of a visionary woman who wasn’t afraid to follow her intuition.
Anyways, that’s how I interpreted their brief: “we’d like you to illustrate intuition, showing it through a video”. I blushed. I love the video but I’m not really a director. While working on it, I found out that friendship is also one of the brand’s values. I thought that the best person to help me on the project was Mai Hua, of course, my director friend that can make me laugh while crying.
So here we are, both of us writing the short film, pingponging ideas off each other like we do best, analysing the subject, and having a good time because in the end, that’s what’s best: having fun while working!
For me, intuition is what everyone has deep down, you just have to open your eyes or listen closely. It’s the super power everyone has deep down, the joker card that we often forget to use. What intuition often whispers in our ears is scary, it doesn’t make us happy. Intuition is full of pitfalls, following it is not an easy path because it often tells us to go against what reason tells us to do.
But you can use it every day, it’s easy. For example, you can change your clothes until you’re happy with your outfit; rolling up your jeans, putting a belt with your jacket, playing with it until you’re happy with your reflection in the mirror and you feel good about yourself. That’s intuition talking, it helps you feel good about yourself.
It’s often difficult to follow your intuition, like when Estée was facing major economic issues. I’ve had to give up contracts where a lot of money was at risk because I didn’t believe in the project, because I felt like I was corrupting myself, distancing myself from what I wanted to be in order to meet such requests. Since I’m my own boss, following these guidelines is important. But as for any job, an interview that leaves you with a funny feeling, but an amazing salary makes you forget all your doubts, in the end may make you unhappy... I think that if you’re lucky enough to have the choice, good things come to those who wait.
And then, we can be stubborn. Intuition is the little voice that we’d like to keep quiet. Because when we’ve worked hard on a job and it’s finished, and the result isn’t what we expected, intuition says you should start over. That’s the price to pay for being proud of your work.
Ohhh and then there’s love... I think that this is one of the times where intuition is the loudest but magically, we tune it out. You may be crazy about a person but deep down you know that it won’t last, you know the person will make you suffer, but you continue anyways... and naively, you think that you’ll be able to change the other person to fit your own expectations. No, no, no, we’ve tried it out for you, once again, it doesn’t work! It’s good to make your own mistakes and learn from them... Like in my case, sometimes you meet someone and you ‘marry them’ right away because you have a feeling they’re the one and intuition gives you another magical power: self confidence!
I challenge you to think back to a painful memory and analyze the situation, to remember the moment where you thought, “deep down, I knew it wouldn’t end well but I went ahead with it anyways”. This isn’t pessimism talking, it’s your intuition that you didn’t listen to. According to Spinoza, intuition is the highest form of knowledge! But as it is for anything, you have to practice using it. For me, intuition is your first reaction to a situation, an overwhelming feeling, the first impression that someone makes on you.
Of course, I sometimes make mistakes. Fear is a factor sometimes, but even if I find myself in a tough spot, I learn from the situation so that I won’t go down the same path twice. But looking back, I knew deep down that I was making an error before anything happened. You just have to keep listening to that little voice.
Thank you so much to theEstée Lauder team, to Annie Claire and Aurélie for their kindness, to Mai for her talent, to Julie for her perfectionism, and to the Lemonade team, the first test subjects of my intuition, for their prizeworthy patience. By the way, for this special occasion the brand is having a neat contest on their Facebook page, go ahead and take a look this afternoon. Hugs and kisses.