Passionate about all things beauty, feminism and film, Molly Sheridan is an active feminist with a particular interest in how women and race is represented within the beauty and fashion industry. Working across the UK in film, TV and fashion as both a make up artist and art director, Molly started perfume brand REEK with her mother in 2016. Launching with the first perfume, Damn Rebel Bitches, the brand celebrates women through scent. With an insight into the industry Molly aims to change the ideals of beauty with her team showcasing real women and real beauty, in whatever shape, size or colour. It has been said Molly can be a total bitch, something she is very proud of.
When the brief came in it was immediately interesting. “Only 15% of statues in the UK are raised to women and of those, most are to either royalty or fictional female characters. Which sparks the question, how can we challenge that? Feeling outraged yet?” it asked. I was.
Damn Rebel Bitches is the first in a new perfume range called REEK. Even that name is a challenge. The idea is to celebrate our heroines – women who have led the way but who, perhaps, are hidden or lost to history, languishing less memorialised. REEK seeks to remember these heroines in a way that makes sense to women in their day to day lives. Through scent. It’s a very female response – the patriarchy build things in memoriam. Perfume is ephemeral, But it’s also experiential. How many scents take you back instantly to a particular place and time? A mother’s face cream or the smell of your childhood home when you walked through the door? Women choose perfume. Women wear perfume. Why shouldn’t they say something meaningful in doing so?
The scent itself, Damn Rebel Bitches, is in memory of the Jacobite women. They were legendary. Hiding retreating troops up their skirts, raising armies and breaking men out of the Tower of London dressed in drag. Like many women their formidable tales and courageous acts fall second to the men of the time. They were berated in popular culture in their day and called ‘those damned rebel bitches’ by the Duke of Cumberland who sent troops to subdue them with orders to rape at will. Maggie Craig wrote a book about their stories which are extraordinary. We feel these stories should not be forgotten, much like the protagonist bitches involved in making them.
So in fulfilling the brief, it felt like rebellion was called for. I wanted to do something that challenged the way the beauty industry normally markets to women. As a professional make up artist, I am often behind the scenes of campaigns and photo shoots. Not many people realise the sheer fakery, smoke and mirrors used to create the most basic of shots. Most imagery we see on a day-to-day basis has gone through this process, with a huge team there to perfect every aspect for the final image, especially in beauty advertisement. In the UK cosmetics are worth roughly 8 billion pounds a year to the economy and the main customers are of course women. Women of all ages, races, shapes and sizes. Yet there are only a few companies who showcase products that feature real women in all their diversity – in the UK we can count these brands on one hand. It’s hard to even find companies that use models over 30; apart from those key celebrity endorsers. With photographer, Bethany Grace, I wanted to create a campaign shot that would stand out from the norm. For us, the ethical aspect of this product shouldn’t stop with the fact it was cruelty free and vegan – there was a larger issue.
After discussion, we decided there would be no one face for this campaign. It wasn’t a reminder of the girl who wants you to smell like her. The celebrity who promises you men turning up in lifts or outside a 27th story building window to win your love. It would be a reminder of the women of then and now. The bitches we shouldn’t forget and the reason we are able to keep pushing the boundaries. The image was to be beautiful, but not manicured. Well shot but about real life.
We researched the lives of 18th century women – which, mostly, were rural. The perfume’s ingredients were scents used at the time – hints of blood orange (which women of the day used as a deodorant), clary sage (an ingredient in female medicine), hazelnuts (part of the Highland diet) and malt (Scottish women were brewers). We wanted to create a classic image, like a still life, that could be over 250 years old. Like the ladies who inspired us. And using the perfume’s real ingredients. It’s odd that perfume ads rarely feature the scents used – apart from a bunch of flowers here and there. We didn’t want manicured, clean hands – we wanted hands that had been working – short nailed and dirty. We liked the idea that our model was essentially over 250 years old – a shot in the eye to the normal nubile imagery.
Our next campaign was for the brand REEK. We knew we wanted to use real women for our campaign. What clients mean by ‘real women’, being frank, often isn’t real women. It’s generally a byword for plus size models who are still glamorous. Dove’s famous campaign of non-retouched images fell on its feet when it turned out the images were retouched – just not to make the models smaller. So I went back. ‘Are you sure – no retouching?’ I asked. ‘Certain. Not because it’s shocking. Not because it’s trending. Because our bitches don’t need it.’ Fair enough.
We chose models from size 8 to 22. The youngest was in her 20s. The oldest, almost 80. They had underarm hair, wrinkles, curves and creases, they were heterosexual, bisexual, lesbian and trans. We did not retouch the images. To me, it seems obvious that one size does not fit all – why should we pretend that it does? Interestingly, the models found the experience interesting. Some were professionals, used to having their tiny imperfections airbrushed out. They said, afterwards, they felt liberated by the experience. Professional models live in a world where however great they look, it’s never quite perfect enough.
Last month, unveiling the images publicly, I hadn’t realised how shocking they would be. While some women found the images fantastic, others were offended. People are accustomed to a very sanitized version of beauty. ‘This looks like a pig,’ one woman said of a size 10 model, aged 24. For hours it felt the REEK office was sieged by a body-shaming army. It was particularly telling that some of those criticizing the pictures seemed to feel guilty. ‘It seems a little real,’ one woman posted with what I took as a twinge of regret. Which, of course, had been the point.
On the upside, many women warmed to the concept. At one point the REEK website actually crashed. It proved to me there is an appetite out there for reality. For memorialisation. Change is a long process and isn’t only political – it’s cultural too. I’m proud of the job we’ve done so far. This perfume and the REEK range shifts what you think of beauty and of womanhood. It’s more powerful than a statue by far. It’s a silent way to take a stand and not be forgotten, to be a Damn Rebel Bitch.