Makeup has become deeply embedded in our society’s culture as a normality for women. We never really question why women wear make-up, it’s just the way life is. Society has constructed the ideology that make-up is an activity that women do as it is a product of being female. Women may not think about putting make-up as it has become part of a daily routine, but ironically, make-up and its unnaturalness has become a natural phenomenon. I personally have no problem with make-up and do occasionally use it if I’m attending an event or going out. Make-up can be used as form of expression, it’s fun to use, and can help people with self-confidence. My issue with make-up is that as it has become a normality within our society for women to wear make-up, that those who don’t are judged for not conforming to a society standard. Women who choose not to wear make-up are criticised and pressured to look ‘normal’ within work environments, sports, film and television, and other aspects of life. Make-up has become a mark for power and competence for women and somehow managed to turn make-up into a necessity that all women should have and wear.

If you have been using Instagram, Twitter, or any other social media platform in the past year, you would have noticed a rising trend of ‘Beauty Gurus’ and influencers featuring video clips of make-up tutorials and other beauty trends. The beauty industry in the recent three years has grown tremendously and most trends don’t just happen; they have a purpose and speak loudly about a generation and its habits. As a result of forward thinking and the innovative mind-sets of our generation, we have witnessed advances in technology, and, furthermore, social media. Social media in my opinion is the biggest influencer of the beauty industry’s success. Beauty influencers like Youtubers and bloggers who have large followings have the power to tell their audiences what products to buy or inspire them to wear their favourite looks. As time progresses, we start to see young women following these beauty trends, which are then passed on to other women and all of a sudden, everybody knows about contouring and ‘strobing’.

As Beauty Influencers have such a large following, they are often approached by brands to promote their products to their audiences in order for them to maximise sells and be at the top of the brand tower! And one thing that I’ve really noticed is that, so many young women will instantly click the links within the description in order to buy that product, not even looking at the costs of them. High quality make-up brands are not cheap! I recently bought my first ever bottle of foundation from MAC and I was extremely shocked at the price of it; 35ml for £32. I then went to ask about how much the foundation brush the make-up technician had used on my face while sampling shades to only find out that the brush was more expensive than the actual bottle of foundation! I’m not make-up obsessed but I cannot imagine how much money so many girls spend monthly buying make-up! Here is a list of make-up products according to Allure magazine that we should all have before entering the new year! Looking at the products on the list, I can already tell, the total price of everything would be equal to two months’ worth of rent all due to the luxury make-up brands.

I understand that women have their own reasons for wearing make-up, but personally, I don’t think any of us really need it, we have completely normalised make-up, something so unnatural but we have made it natural and we have become so dependent on it that we now think, ‘if I don’t have any make-up on, I look horrendous, or ill or something ridiculous’, when that isn’t the case at all.

 

 

I decided to have a casual conversation about Beauty Standards and why women are confirming to more unrealistic standards. I decided to talk to Doris Porter as she is an extremely beautiful girl who will not leave the house without putting make-up on, whether it be minimal or full face, you’ll never see bare faced and strolling down the streets of Bournemouth. While recording, we were interrupted by other housemate Sarah who decided to join in  with the conversation and also give her opinions on the topic of conversation.

Here are a few images of Doris Natural Vs Make-up.

Hope you enjoyed listening to our conversation!

An extremely strange phenomenon Is happening amongst us young women. Many women are looking way older than a Real Housewife, but surprisingly, you’ll never a see a wrinkle on their faces. Skin as smooth as a baby’s’, cheeks as plump as a toddlers and a pout to make an entire ocean jealous.  I understand the intention is to look sexy or flawless, but the caricature-like proportions just look strange, and I’m sure some of you would agree too with this one!

And what is this phenomenon that’s hitting us women today? Dermal Fillers! Bit of science here, Dermal Fillers, or well known as cosmetic fillers, are injectable fillers injected into the skin to help fill in facial wrinkles, restoring a smoother appearance, plumping thin lips and smoothing out vertical lines around the edges of the lips, or even filling out ‘depressions’ (hollows) under the eye area. They are temporary fix solutions as eventually; the body absorbs them. Dermal fillers differ from Botox as they are only used to plump up an area to a point, while Botox stops muscle movements that result in the formation of wrinkles. Fillers have been available and used by women over 40 since the 1980s, but now, fillers have attracted a fan club to those who really don’t need them… women in their 20s.

According to statistics from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the usage of fillers amongst people in their 20s have spiked by one third since 2009 to more than 64,000 procedures in 2014. Though Dermal fillers aren’t technically surgery, they can be painful, have risks if not done correctly, and they are extremely expensive. When majority of clients were asked what the appeal was to Dermal fillers, the response was, Celebrities.  ‘Girls in my office have repeatedly said, ‘I want lips like Kylie Jenner’s.’” Norman Rowe, M.D., a New York City Plastic Surgeon.

But why are needles no longer a big deal for young women? Well as surgeons have experienced firsthand the real reason young women are pursing dermal fillers are because of celebrities and with the help of the media painting famous people out as ‘flawless’, many women are wanting to aspire to look like they do as they see them and they’re features as ‘perfection’. Many women see the super glossy hair celebrities have, their body figures, hyper-smooth and sexualized features as aspirational, and now with advances in web and mobile communications, it’s become so simple for women to find locations where these procedures are performed and get ‘plumped up’. One of the biggest reasons as to why fillers have become popular is all due to social media celebrities. These celebrities are found on two media platforms, Instagram and Twitter. Young women are coming across these social media celebrities and envying their appearances. The impact these celebrities have is beyond unbelievable as young women will do anything that they think looks good or when they see a body feature being massively complimented, they’re consider altering their own bodies in hope of looking like they do and getting complimented. An example of what lengths young women will go to; to look like a social celebrity is ‘The Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge’.

Kylie Jenner has been followed through the media eye as she grew up on a TV show watched by many of us, Keeping Up with The Kardashians. She posts regularly on Instagram and three years ago (2014), many people realized that she had had work done on her lips as previous to what her lips currently look like, she had thin lips and then all of a sudden she had full lips. She eventually admitted to having cosmetic fillers and the internet went crazy! Many beauty gurus or life-hack YouTube channels found an inexpensive way of getting the Kylie Jenner lip, but the method was taken out of hand by many young people and also caused a few injuries. The ‘Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge’ consisted of getting a shot glass and put your lips in and sucking for a few minutes and when you take the glasses off, you’d have swollen big lips.

The risks of Dermal Fillers depend on whether the procedure was done correctly and the type of filler used. Permanent fillers have the highest risks of problems which practitioners feel should be best avoided due to the risks. These are the general risks of Dermal Fillers to give you heads up in case you are considering it!

• Rashes, Swelling, Itching, and Bruising
• Infection from the filler
• Fillers are known to move away from the intended treatment area meaning you could end up with a plump cheek instead of lip!

Hope you enjoyed reading this post on Dermal Fillers!

 

Links

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/cosmetic-treatments-guide/Pages/dermal-fillers.aspx

http://cosmeticscop.com/2016/08/22/how-dermal-fillers-work/

Weight-loss is the biggest struggle many of us women face when we decide to embark on the journey of health and fitness! Having to lower our calorie intake, exercising, reading all nutrition labels making sure we’re not having too much salt, or too much sugar, and again, exercising! So naturally of course, when we hear about a product or method that is bound to make the journey easier or has a 100% guarantee of amazing results, we are all hoping abroad the train and taking our money out ready to spend.

Well, this new product that’s been circulating around is of course the ‘Waist-Trainer’. Waist-trainers are very similar to corsets worn by many women during the 1500 and are meant to ‘mold’ your waist into a slimmer figure. The idea is for you to wear it for 8 hours a day (recommended) and eventually, your body will start to mold itself into the shape of the waist-trainer. The waist-trainer has become a popular product amongst celebrities as many have also jumped onto the trend and some are even endorsing it; from the likes of Kim Kardashian and co, to Jessica Alba who compliments the waist-trainer for her incredible quick loss of baby weight. Celebrity endorsements of a product which I believe isn’t safe for all to use, encourages many women to want to try them or even give them an ideology or expectation to look like those they are following on social media platforms.

As we are an ever growing digital society, we mainly rely on web and mobile communications to inspire, direct, and help us when dealing with a problem whether it be health, fashion, food, or beauty related. More and more young people are gaining access to the digital media world and are mirroring what they see in order to keep up with the fads and trends without questioning whether what they’re doing is safe or age appropriate. Waist-trainers have been around for an extremely long period of time but we never really knew much about them or knew they existed or really had an interest in using them till they were brought into the media circulation via the likes of The Kardashians and friends and since then, it has just kind of escalated into its own workout equipment. The Kardashian-Jenner family have a total and growing following of 358 million followers on Instagram, an extremely popular social media platform. The ‘power’ social media family have gained the ability to set trends and fads as well as beauty standards all with a singular post on Instagram endorsing a product or simply wearing a certain item which either compliments their figures or highlights their hair and cosmetics. With such a large following and majority being young impressionable teenagers, anything they endorse, many followers are quick to buy the product in order to have similar results to them, especially if the product is meant to help you with your weight loss, it attracts an even bigger audience. This then creates a repetitive effect were women see what they do and other established celebrities and think that’s what they have to do, or act, or look like in order to be ‘beautiful’.

I’ve looked into waist training and researched what it actually does to your body and I think these are a few things you might want to keep in mind if you’re thinking about jumping onto the band wagon.

• Waist training does in fact make you look slim at the waist as soon as putting the corset on but there’s an undeniable psychological effect that comes with it which might actually benefit you. Dr. Galyna Selezneva, an aesthetic medical doctor said, “Waist training can serve as a constant reminder of your present shape, aiding a sense of restriction which can motivate individuals to diet”.
• Waist training might lead to temporary weight loss as those that workout while wearing a corset can lead to an increase within body temperature, causing you to sweat more leading to a temporarily weight loss but within the long run, you don’t actually lose any fat. While wearing it, you appear slimmer but once you take it off, your body reverts back to its normal shape. Wearing a corset actually has no effect on the amount of body fat that you have. For you to have long-term results you would have to wear the corset at all times, which is not medically recommended
• Waist-training could potentially cause your organs to shift resulting in dangerous consequences. “A shift in pressure on your internal organs means you’ll be less tolerant of certain foods, including gas-producing and fatty foods, some individuals might find that normal portion sizes are too much”, “With waist training, the upper organs move upwards, and lower organs shift downwards… this can then put a similar pressure on the abdomen-which has been known to cause constipation”, Dr. Galyna, 2015.

• Other effects of waist training are that it can cause dehydration, affect your back muscles as you aren’t relying on your back and abdominal muscles for posture while waist training, and it can also have an effect on your breathing due to tightness and repeated use of the waist trainer.

Hopefully this post will encourage women to look at more safe forms of exercising and not be inspired to conform to a standard set by people who choose what parts of their lives we see and exploit us all in the same of looking ‘beautiful’ for the digital world!

So as this is my first blog post, I thought it would be fitting to give a bit of basic information about my blog topic and why I’ve chosen to do it!

So a little about me… I was born in Zambia and raised there till I was 8 when my family moved from there to Britain. Moving countries at such a young age and having to adjust to a new way of living and experiencing a new culture at such a young age has had such a large impact on me. When I was living in Zambia, the main beauty standard that I understood at the time and many women conformed to was being ‘light skinned’. Though I believe that there is nothing wrong, ugly, or bad about having dark skin, back then (and now) there was an ideology that if you were dark skinned you either came from poverty or were unattractive. This caused women and still does to invest in skin lighting products that essentially bleach your skin so you appear to be lighter than you actually are.

But since moving to Britain and becoming westernized to an extent, growing up here has introduced me and educated me to so many methods and ways that men and women think will make them become more attractive or socially attractive. Now fast forward to a time period where we are influenced by majority of the content we see online and being exposed to the likes of The Kardashians’, The Rock, or even Instagram celebrities encourage many of us to be like them, act like them, and look like them in order to feel more empowered or famous.

 

This has led to an uncontrollable spiral of Beauty Standards within today’s society to an extent where women are now having their lips filled in order to have big ‘pouty’ lips, wearing corsets to shrink their waists in order to have the perfect body and men have become hyper active with their health and fitness to a point where drug enhancements are being used in order to maintain and grow the perfect body.

Overall, this creates unrealistic standards that many of us are now conforming to and I want to find out along my blogging journey just how far some individuals are willing to go in order to conform to unrealistic beauty standards.