Where’s Natural Beauty Gone?

Where’s Natural Beauty Gone?

These days, seeing thin/slim models on billboards, adverts in shop windows, and on TV adverting clothes, you cant escape the bombardment of thin is beautiful and “being thin is better and it makes you happy” message that it portrays.

But recently this hasn’t just been the only thing that I have feel, bombards us women, and men to some extend. I have been watching a lot of TV recently, and the amount of adverts for beauty products to make ourselves better and more appealing I would have said is more bombarding than seeing thin ‘role models’ every day.

The Ads-

Make up ads that include voluming of eyelashes such as the "Max Factor" advert, hair products that includes hair dye, hair volume shampoo, hair spray that reduces frizz, and of course all the waxing adverts, such as "Veet" , "Garnier" , "L'Oreal" , and "Maybelline", I find makes me less inclined to buy them, even with Cheryl Cole or Kate Moss saying they work wonders.  

 All these types of ads I am fed up of seeing. I know most people would just tell me to not watch it if I hate it that much, or just change the channel, but looking more closely, I realised what all this beauty advertising was doing.

By adverting to maximise the thickness of your eyelashes, dying your hair for more bright and healthy look, making it look like you have more head hair, getting rid of curls or frizz, and of course having no hairs on any hairy part of your body, is basically what they are trying to make one do by advertising these types of products.

Not just this is an issue, but all these things is making us change ourselves just to be within the category of beautiful, or how I see it, as everyone else.

That massive point of time when hair straighteners banged out onto the high street, and every teenager wanted them for Christmas. Is that meaning that retailers and hair companies want every woman to have straight and thin hair? 

 The stupid thing is, that you have so many hair products that say to maximise your hair, and yet others totally contradict that and say to minimise it. Hair straighteners and so many hair shampoos and hair sprays after washing your hair, reduces volume and frizz of the hair. And somehow the only way to have volume is by using a crap load of hairspray, products like matt clay or wax, or backcombing your hair.  What is wrong with leaving your hair to go it’s own natural way?

As for hair dying, well, I do realise that hair dying is a way of expressing one’s self, for instance people who have purple or blue hair, but dying one’s hair a natural colour like a lighter shade of brunette, when you already have brown hair is silly. Just wait for the summer, you will get natural highlights sitting in the sun for free. The same with dying hair blonde, lets face it, dyed blonde will never look as natural and good as natural blonde hair. But again, what is wrong with your natural hair colour?

 Making your face more noticeable with the entire make up is also silly. I do realise the reason we wear lipstick and lipglosses, is to make our lips redder. From this, more appealing towards men as it appears we are in heat (if you want to go back into human history). That makes sense to me.

As for the eyelashes and eyebrows, well…. First the eyelashes. Piling on the mascara to thicken, lengthen and maximise eyelash length, width and other things, I feel is just silly too. Yes a bit of mascara especially for pale lashed women to brighten up the eyes agreed, but all the lashes everywhere, some look like dragqueen lashes, bigger than the actual eye itself. As for fake eyelashes, well that’s worse. Having bigger lashes, more lashes and thicker lashes aren’t going to get you noticed, or if it does, it’ll be in the wrong way. What’s wrong with the eyelashes you have anyway? 

 Same with eyebrows, the ‘in’ eyebrows are either thin or thick and bushy. I agree keep them neat, but drawing on your own eyebrows every morning in pencil… that looks weird and again, fake. What’s wrong with the natural curvature of your eyebrows anyway? 

I have nothing wrong with keeping yourself looking neat, tidy, pretty and wanting to look more attractive, but in my eyes, buying all this product to make one’s self look more attractive, and what is seen as ‘better’, I feel is totally the opposite. Is the plain palette on one’s face not enough? Is the natural colour of your hair, skin and lips not attractive enough, or how the hair on your brow, eyelids and head not growing in the correct way?

Beauty products, hair, skin whatever else you name it, is to enhance yourself and supposedly make yourselves look better than you already are. In doing so, making you feel that what you start off with before slapping on all the stuff, is not attractive. This results in one needing to use these products.

All I can say is, as long as one’s hair is clean and not greesy, combed and tidy, with no split ends, surely that’s all that matters? Same for the appearance, as long as someone’s face is well presented, clean and fresh looking, there is no need for covering the face up with make up surely?

What happened to natural beauty?

For example, whenever I see a woman with really curly hair, I think “good on her” because she hasn’t gone out of her way to purposely get straight hair and look like everyone else. This is the same if I see someone with no make up, which is rare I must admit.

Art-

Looking at portrait photographers, who take pictures of people in their natural state, show how beautiful people are naturally without photoshopping, airbrushing and more importantly no products used.

An article in the daily mail the other week showed a series of pictures of a woman with different stages of make up on. Despite the article being about how much make up a women’s husband found attractive on her, it was very inspiring to see the differences between how much make up she wore and differences between them all.

I think everyone can agree with me that on everyone there is a limit when make up just gets slutty, trashy and just darn right ridiculous. Her husband preferred the forth picture, dolled up, however I feel that she looks a lot better in the first (no make up), and third image (a night out make up).

Personal Experience-

One of my family members uses so many products on herself its unreal! Fake eyelashes, thick eyeliner, bright red cheek blusher, slightly oranged foundation, with at least three layers of it on her skin. The whole of her dresser at home is full of products for hair, skin and all the rest. It’s mental, its ridiculous.

The funniest thing is that all her friends have seen her like this- piled up with lots of products. It was only at uni when there was a fire alarm going off in her halls in the middle of the night that everyone had to wait outside. With it being night-time, she obviously had taken all the make up off. None of her friends recognised her at first, because she looked like a completely different person without make up.

Personally if that happens, it should be a wake up call that you are wearing too much make up. That story just proves to me how different make up and products can make you look, as well as how “fake” it can make you appear.

In total opposite to my family member, I personally have never worn a lot of make up, or used hair products and the like. When I have worn make up, its light mascara, and a bit of powder foundation on my face. As for hair products, I wash my hair with bog standard shampoo (that is no shampoo that enhances brightness, shine or strength of hair etc), then rinse and blow dry. As for dealing with body hair, its all natural apart from under the arms.

I have no reason to slap on make up, wax my legs or hair spray my hair into position, apart from maybe covering up a few spots when I go for an interview or a family gathering such as a wedding. Even at Christmas I didn’t wear any. Skin products I too don’t use many, I wash my face with scrub and moisturise after, and drink lots of water for a clear complexion.

In my experience, putting on make up just makes me feel like I am wearing a mask on my skin, and I got my current partner of 3 years without making myself up.

I was teased for not wearing make up in school, and I even get jip from that family member still just because I am not like everyone else. Maybe that’s the reason why I don’t wear make up and stuff, is that because I didn’t, I have accepted what I have naturally. Plus piling it on doesn’t suit me, believe me, a school experience went wrong once is enough proof. What is the funny thing, is that by actually wearing make up despite taking it off for bed, one is damaging the skin, blocking up pours and aging one’s self. So somewhere down the line, from no wearing make up for years, I will look better than my family member.

It is not seen yet what our generation of product wearers will look like somewhere down the line after decades of piling it all on. And don’t even get me started in the fake department about using sun beds, fake tan and all that side of it. But I would have thought that by letting one’s skin breath and giving it natural sunlight, air and cleansing, that it would look better later on in life?

In conclusion-

I have rambled, complained and wouldn’t be surprised if I have annoyed some people who have read about how bad it is to product yourself up. All I am saying is that there is no point in making yourself look picture perfect in the bathroom mirror or shop window before entering the world outside, because as soon as you turn your head, start walking, the wind blows or the sun comes out, your perfect look is going to be ruined anyway.

All I am also saying is, what is wrong with natural beauty/wearing no make up? Have we all turned against ourselves and not liked what we see in the mirror? Is it that bad that we have to cover our faces up and half lie to whoever we chat up? We all may not have the perfect model look, or what we all see as ‘good-looking’ in others, but we do all have something, that someone else doesn’t have. We all have something that is attractive to someone out there, its just that someone seeing it in you.

We can clearly see what adverts do to try and make us buy their product, and make us feel left out, and make us all look a certain way and like each other. We know also that its not ‘cool’ to not wear make up, but for me, if you have to cover yourself up just to feel pretty then you aren’t comfortable with how you look naturally (in my opinion).

Pamper yourself, jazz yourself up, enhance your features, just don’t drown them. By all means get bath products and soak yourself in bubbles, and put cucumbers on your eyes, but using something to modify your look, that’s suppose to make you look better, I have longed asked myself- does it make you look better? 

So next time you are sticking on your fake eye lashes, brushing on the layers of foundation, even spraying tan on your arms, maybe getting the razors out to shave your legs, or putting cream in your hand to put in your hair, think- do you really need this to make yourself look good? Because if most of us answered “yes” to this, then we are all in some massive big trouble as a human race somewhere down the line, and is proof that we all have serious issues with ourselves.