I'm not a TV person. I'm too prone to dozing off on the couch, and too easily distracted by my phone, to keep the necessary focus. (Otherwise, I ask my boyfriend for a recap every five minutes.) For both our sanity, I mostly avoid television, but a few shows have broken through my attention-span barrier. I'm still coping with the loss of my beloved Mad Men, and now, with you, I'm mourning the end of Downton Abbey.

From a beauty editor perspective, these two shows have something in common — they're all about my subject matter. Of course, hair and makeup always play a major role in period dramas. Who would Marie Antoinette be without her powdered wigs? Or Scarlett O'Hara without her crimson lips? But Downton Abbey takes this relationship even further.

Warning: Spoilers of tonight's series finale ahead.

Beauty is not simply a timely aesthetic that draws in the viewer and helps set the scene, but something that adds dimension to the plot. And tonight's series finale (tear) couldn't be a stronger example of this point. As all the beloved (and even the not-so-beloved) cast members finally embark on their happily-ever-afters (not tragic deaths, for once), newfangled beauty gadgets and products dance along the storyline beckoning the characters along.

In the last episode, we saw the first hairdryer enter Downton, a bottle of nail polish makes an unexpected debut at the Dowager's home, and we're even witness to a discussion on the merits of using shampoo. ("There was shampoo in India hundreds of years before us. Then again, I'm not sure I see the point of it," muses Molesley.) As Crawley and Co. shift their focus from their haughty and harrowing past to the progressive path ahead of them (new job opportunities! marriages! babies!), these beauty innovations act as stamps on their passports to the future.