Hi, I'm Lale Arakoglu, and welcome to another episode of Women Who Travel, a podcast from Condénaz Traveler.

Today we're talking about a time-honored beauty product, eyeliner, and how its use is both similar and different all over the world.

And yes, we do get to talk about Amy Winehouse.

But before we begin, we're asking for your feedback on our show.

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What are you actually striving for when you're lining your eyes? For a lot of people,

it's aesthetic, it's about looking better, it's about some form of transformation. But really,

I would say for most people, especially minority communities, it's about transformation in a way that goes far deeper.

It's transforming the message that you're delivering to the world. It really is to convey something

that has to do with your sense of self. In Zara Hankir's book, Eyeliner, a Cultural History,

she goes to six countries and explores our

personal relationship to the ancient product, as well as its use of stage makeup, its medicinal

properties, and how it can be a signifier of rebellion and identity. What I try to do is to deflect

from the Western gaze to say, these are the contributions of these

communities to the beauty industry. There's a passage at the end of your book, which is actually a

wonderful entry point into this discussion. Would you mind sharing a little bit before we start

talking? Absolutely. So this is from the acknowledgement section actually,

and I write, on my birthday in October 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was

stuck between continents, having packed up my flat in London to relocate to New York City, while in

limbo I stayed with my parents in Lebanon. Though I tied with the idea

of this book, I felt in particular in the aftermath of the Beirut's blast in August that year,

...