Wearing Too Much Makeup It’s Not Pretty or Healthy

Recently my professional peers and I, have been standing on the side lines, aghast, while witnessing the latest trends in makeup application.  I think you all know the look I am referring to… it is the mask like, heavily contoured, caked on look, (thank you Kardashians) and it the very reason why I feel the need to write this article – Wearing Too Much Makeup It’s Not Pretty or Healthy .

As a mum to an impressionable, 10 year old girl,  I am seriously worried about the impact that this, “conceal every inch of your face so you are completely unrecognizable trend”, will have on her and all other young girls self esteem.

Just recently I came across Instagram and YouTube videos of little girls as young as 3, pouting and fluttering their eyes provocatively for the camera, as their proud mums recorded their little baby girls applying layer upon layer, of highly synthetic, cosmetic products onto their naturally beautiful, fragile, young skins.

These innocent little girls, barely out of diapers, are being instilled with a mindset that, they are not pretty, or good enough, just as they naturally are.

These young girls, who look adoringly at and up to, their heavily, enhanced mothers, view this as normal and what a woman is meant to look like.  They are receiving a message that it is not okay to have freckles, normal length lashes and naturally fuller, rounder faces. They are learning that thinner lips and pale skin are bad news, and that your eyebrows should never look natural, but rather like they have been stenciled on with a Sharpie!

This message is damaging not only mentally, but physically also, as the products they use are anything but natural based and healthy for their skins! Remember that our skin is our biggest organ and it needs to be able to breathe. Also as our biggest organ, many of the toxic ingredients, found in mainstream, cosmetic brands are absorbed internally. See my article Mineral Makeup Facts  and The Harmful Effects of Lipstick

If you clog your skin with synthetic makeup it will only lead to more congestion and breakouts.  If you do need to cover your skin due to blemishes and pigmentation problems, then cover only what you need, using natural, mineral based products that let the skin breathe and actually heal rather than harm. Have a look at some of my cosmetic product reviews here.

The Problems with Self-Tutorial Makeovers

While social media is a wonderful tool, which I use in my own hair and makeup work,  it can also be extremely harmful, as is the case with the latest surge of self makeup tutorials.

Young girls and women are captivated, watching as other young girls/women film themselves in front of a strategically placed beauty light, doing these incredibly heavy, self-tutorial makeovers. Even the Kardashians don’t normally wear this much makeup!

If you take away the glam factor and watch a few of these “self” makeup tutorials, you will notice the trend is often to start with the girl facing the lens, free of all makeup, looking and gesturing that she doesn’t like how her devoid of makeup face looks. You then continue to watch as she drips and slathers, product after product over her face, until she is utterly unrecognizable as the fresh-faced girl from the start of the video.

What most young girls/women fail to remember is that the girls making these videos, are hoping to gain heaps of “followers” to boost their social status. In doing this they hope to get endorsements, become famous, and get loads of free products from cosmetics companies.

*You will notice that these girls often display prominently, each and every product against their hand to the camera. This is exactly what cosmetic companies are relying on, as it is a very cheap way to advertise and reach millions of their target market.  These companies don’t care about these girls self-worth, they actually encourage them to believe that they absolutely “need” these products to look good. It is all about the $$$$$$!

When watching these heavy makeup tutorials most young girls and women fail to see it for what it actually is, a plea for recognition and validation, from insecure girls and woman, who sadly, but honestly, are of the belief that they look better with caked on masks of makeup.

Less Is More When It Comes To Makeup

A truly professional makeup artists understands that makeup is not to be used as a mask, (unless for the purpose of stage, drag, special effects or artistic face painting). What makeup is for is… to ENHANCE our features and to cover and correct only when and where needed!

We need to reeducate our girls that less is more when it comes to wearing makeup and that they are every bit as perfect and beautiful without it too!

Leave the heavy stuff for the Kardashians …. who by the way have it applied very skillfully by expert makeup artists. In other words don’t try this at home girls.

I will finish off by giving you, what I hope is some inspiration for you. Here are the links to my professional work, which I have created, using a lighter hand and natural, cruelty-free, safer, mineral based cosmetics – my portfolio and my insta account.

For more information on using safer and cruelty free accredited cosmetics read of the various articles such as, The Importance Of Choosing Cruelty Free Cosmetics, under my Natural Makeup category.

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Some other personal care articles you may find interesting are;

Mineral Makeup Benefits vs Conventional Makeup

Health Risks Of Using Cosmetic Testers, Old Makeup & Sharing Your Makeup. What You Can Catch!

Animal Testing Of Cosmetics Do Your Part To Stop It