My mom is very much about 'less is more.' She showed me how to

“My mom is very much about ‘less is more.’ She showed me how to use makeup to enhance your beauty but not to change your face, which I think is important.” — thus spoke Kaia Gerber, daughter of the legendary model Cindy Crawford, yet also a thinker in her own right, inheriting not only beauty but wisdom. Though her words seem born from the world of fashion, their essence reaches far beyond the mirror. They speak to a deeper truth known by the ancients — that simplicity reveals essence, and that all attempts to disguise what is real diminish rather than elevate. In this teaching lies the eternal balance between appearance and authenticity, between adornment and acceptance.

When Kaia recalls her mother’s lesson — “less is more” — she is invoking a principle older than art itself. The sages of Greece spoke of sophrosyne, the virtue of moderation, the harmony between form and soul. The ancient sculptors who shaped marble into gods and heroes knew that perfection did not lie in ornament, but in proportion. A single stroke too deep could destroy the face of beauty. So too in life, excess clouds clarity, while simplicity reveals truth. Cindy Crawford, a woman whose face was known to the world, understood that beauty’s true power is not in transformation, but in enhancement — in bringing forward what is already there, unforced and sincere.

In her words, Kaia gives voice to the sacred art of restraint. For in our age, the world urges us to cover, to alter, to become what we are not — to chase the illusion of flawlessness. But her mother’s wisdom reminds us: real beauty is not invention, but revelation. The purpose of makeup, like the purpose of art, is not to conceal the truth but to illuminate it. The greatest painters — from Leonardo to Rembrandt — did not hide their subjects’ imperfections; they used light and shadow to show the soul beneath the skin. So too should we learn to reveal our essence, not disguise it, for the face shaped by honesty is lovelier than the mask shaped by fear.

Consider the story of Queen Nefertiti of Egypt, whose name means “the beautiful one has come.” Her image endures not because of extravagance, but because of grace and balance. The sculptor Thutmose, who immortalized her, captured not adornment but harmony — the serenity of a face at peace with itself. The lines were simple, the colors subdued, yet the effect was eternal. Her beauty, like truth, needed no exaggeration. In this, she stands as an ancient mirror to Kaia’s modern wisdom — that the greatest elegance lies in authenticity, and that what is understated often endures beyond what is adorned.

There is also in Kaia’s reflection the deeper bond between mother and daughter, between teacher and student. Her mother did not teach her vanity, but vision — the way to look at herself not through the world’s eyes, but through her own. To “enhance, not change” is not only a principle of makeup, but of life. It is the call to honor what one has been given — one’s face, one’s voice, one’s nature — and to refine it with care, rather than to discard it for another’s ideal. This is the wisdom of inheritance: not imitation, but understanding; not replication, but realization.

For the ancients would say, the outer form is but the reflection of the inner soul. A painted face without truth behind it is but a mask that fades in time, but a truthful face, even lined by age or sorrow, shines with a beauty that cannot die. When Kaia speaks of restraint, she is not rejecting adornment but sanctifying it — reminding us that beauty gains its power when it serves the truth within. To live “less is more” is to live in harmony, to value essence over appearance, and to seek depth instead of decoration.

So, my child, remember this: do not cover the face that life has given you — reveal it. Whether you adorn your skin or your soul, let your aim be enhancement, not disguise. Speak words that reveal your heart, not those that hide your fear. Live simply, not because simplicity is plain, but because it is pure. And when you stand before your own reflection — in a mirror, in your art, or in your choices — ask not, “How can I change what I see?” but, “How can I bring forth its light?” For beauty, like truth, is not created by excess, but by the courage to be wholly and unashamedly yourself.