Beauty Baddies

Beauty Baddies

At Mookychick we never get tired of reminding you to keep a level head when surrounded by impossibly airbrushed magazine beauty. And one mustn’t forget that all the major makeup companies are run by men…

I once dedicated a year of my life to finding the perfect foundation. The one that would make my skin look poreless, dewy and airbrushed. It took me a long time to realize that this was impossible. Not because there wasn’t a foundation that claimed it could give me that look, but because there’s no such thing as airbrushed. Not in real life anyway. The kind of airbrushed effect I was trying to achieve only exited in magazines. Where people’s skin had been photoshopped into looking smooth, flawless, even and in general, inhumanely perfect. They key word here being inhuman.

So why on Earth did I believe that I really could look like this? Because of big nasty makeup companies and their confidence eroding advertising campaigns, that’s why! In this story, these guys are the baddies.

According to reports by the Daily Mail, the average woman will spend up to $13000 on makeup in her lifetime. All for the sake of conforming to a certain standard, a certain level that must be maintained. A certain beauty that it is essential to possess. But where exactly did this airbrushed, size zero, 6 ft shaped perception of beauty come from? The big nasty makeup companies, that’s who.

Think about it. How many times have you looked at a poster in a shop window or an ad on the television or in a magazine claiming that the contents of the bottle will make you beautiful. Have you ever found yourself subsequently bought said bottle, even though you know you’re someone who ‘doesn’t believe the hype’? It’s a lot like genie lamps. Inside the bottle there is a magical genie waiting to make all your wishes come true.

These companies aren’t just selling a product, they’re selling a state of mind. They want you to buy their bottled beauty. What people don’t realize is that in giving in to them, they are seriously harming their minds.

While this all sounds bit melodramatic, it’s all very true, unfortunately. I know very few people who can look in the mirror and like what they see. Instead, all they can see is their freckles (notice that very few foundation advertisements feature women with freckles), their glasses (again, very few women in eyeshadow advertisements wear glasses) and their spots (I have never, in my entire life seen anyone advertise makeup on a woman with spots).

Makeup companies thrive on people’s insecurities, using them to their advantage to market their products, making them believe that if they buy their product they can look just like the model in the advertisement. Pushing them constantly to live up to their inhuman standards. It’s cruel and disgusting.

I think it’s also worth mentioning that these standards are set for women, not by women. All the worlds major cosmetic companies are run by men.

It is also worth mentioning that almost all the major cosmetics companies test on animals, from the drugstore brands like CoverGirl, Mabelline, Revlon and L’Oreal right up to the high end ones like Mac and Estee Lauder.

And did you know that makeup brands like Benefit include mineral oil among the other toxic chemicals poured by the litre into their products? And for those of you who don’t already know what mineral oil is, it’s derived from crude oil. Any of you environmentally conscious Mooks are most likely not on the best of terms with BP and their counterparts after that little uh-oh of theirs in the gulf stream. To discover that the odd touch of concealer might be helping them and their friends like them to line their pockets is not a happy thought.

While I’m not saying you should set fire to your foundations, blow up your eyeshadows in a massive fiery explosion, (God knows we all need a little kohl around the eyes now and then) I’m just saying you should be conscious of the products you buy. Check the ingredients, find out whether the brand tests their products on animals. Not just because many of them have truly horrific effects on the environment and your skin, whitening creams anyone? But also because of the harmful effects that these products can have on your mind. These companies couldn’t care less if you dropped dead tomorrow – as long as they’ve got your money they’ll exploit you and your body to the very last.

It’s a dangerous and scary world we live in. Huge issues are swept under the carpet on a daily basis because they upset the status quo. It’s a place where people truly believe (in spite of themselves) that only companies like Revlon, Lancome and Chanel and all the other brainwashing brands can save them from eternal damnation.

Beauty cannot be bottled. It cannot be bought or sold. You’re beautiful because you’re one of a kind and you can never ever be reproduced. That’s real beauty. Don’t let the ‘baddies’ tell you otherwise.


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