My esteemed co-authors and I have written about many different aspects of the beauty industry in this column. An industry that places utmost focus on sustainability, clean beauty, less ingredients, environmentally safe and healthy or health enhancing solutions. These are all aspects that seem to be much cherished and sought after by consumers of all ages.
But then again, these very same consumers, or at least some of them, will not shy away from following trends that can only be described as everything but healthy or sustainable – why are we facing such an obvious contradiction between these two worlds that both aim for the same: to look beautiful?
When watching TikTok or Instagram or any of the other social media platforms that display the different facets of beauty, I sometimes would like to add a disclaimer ‘no human was harmed in the making of this reel’, but weren’t they?
"Unhealthy beauty trends?"
Some of the current trends are definitely alarming. Given all the aforementioned focus on healthy and sustainable beauty solutions, I wonder why at the same time, people inject themselves with all kinds of age defying, plumping, boosting, smoothing, lifting, enhancing and otherwise ‘beautifying’ ingredients in light of which the good old nip and tuck bows its head in shame for its degree of underperformance.
Big, and I mean really big, lips have become en vogue ever since influencers started to create a new beauty ideal. Noses seem to come off the conveyor belt and it is often hard to differentiate between individuals. Cheeks up and down are lifted and enlarged. Lashes have taken on an odd resemblance of bear caterpillars, and I wonder whether the owners can actually see anything or whether this is a kind of ‘withdrawal from the world’ mechanism. Granted beauty has always been about trends – and odd ones for that matter. With a very white complexion being all the rave during Elizabethan times, one had to take the good with the bad and what’s a bit of hair loss, rotting teeth or other minor ailments, when one can have a nice application of lead infused face powder for the lovely, albeit fleeting, complexion. Who wouldn’t have wanted that special radiant look that only a good dosage of pure radium could provide, whether infused in toothpaste or skin cream. Any kind of side effects were supposed to be negligeable. Sometimes beauty is short lived, in the real sense of the word. Maybe it’s worth not following every trend and rather accept that each of us has its own unique look.
That we can be grateful if we are healthy and enjoy the blessings that the beauty industry keeps offering us to further enhance our looks without turning us into ‘more of the same’ lookalikes.